Developers: Milestone
Publisher: Milestone
Platforms: PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: PS4
MotoGP 2015 – Review
Another year has passed, another iteration of the MotoGP game has been released. The features from the previous games have been polished and new features have been added. The game is still cross generation consoles, so anyone who hasn’t upgraded to current generation consoles can still enjoy the title.
Story
You can’t find narrative defects in a game that has no narrative. Either you choose a famous racer from a roster and you race on a track, or you start out your own career. As you win you’ll get more reputation and sponsors will notice you. There is not personal or emotional plot, but this is a realistic Grand Prix Motor racing game, so an emotional or personal subplot would feel out of place.
Graphics
MotoGP 2015 is available for Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. The graphics of MotoGP 2015 don’t really stand out further than its predecessor did, but that doesn’t mean that they are bad. The previous game had beautiful tracks and the graphics were really well done. If anything this version lacks the ragdoll effect the previous game had but this is made up by the fact that your racer is a lot more reactive to what happens when you are about to lose control over the vehicle, either by steering with his legs or jumping out of his seat as your bike is leaning too much forward.
The sense of speed the last game lacked has been worked on and the blur on the screen makes it feel like you are actually driving the speed your indicator says you are.
Sound
In the previous game there was a lack of a soundtrack during the races, this is still in place. So nothing has changed and that’s for the better. The sounds as your tires skid over gravel or the markings on the side of the road are crisp, and the voices which brief you about your racing objectives and your career sound just like a commentator would do on television. It adds to the immersion and it’s as if you are really part of the racing world.
Gameplay
When it comes to gameplay, MotoGP 2015 has some varying modes to keep you interested. The gameplay modes are divided by tabs. In the ‘Singleplayer’ tab you’ll find instant race, where you’ll be able to start racing immediately. Grand Prix and Championship are modes where you have to qualify before you start racing to see what position you start in, there’s time attack, where you try and complete a course in the lowest amount of time possible. Alongside these is the ‘MotoGP Career’, here you’ll be able to clothe your own character, gear him up and choose how your bike is modified alongside which sponsor has the honour of backing you. As you win races, you’ll become more famous, and you can check your status on the social media part of your truck. Winning also gives you experience to level up your career and this unlocks things for your bike, pictures and different sets of clothing.
There are a couple of things that make racing interesting. There’s the TCS, which stands for: Traction Control System, which comes in 5 modes. Full, high, medium, low and off. The higher it is the more stable your bike is and the easier it is to maintain control over your bike. Easier, but not necessarily easy. Knowing when to brake and what brake to use, for there are two. The front brake is for the front weel and slows you down faster, and X is for the back wheel and helps you steer through corners more easily. The traction control is in place so when you use the back brake, the bike isn’t as difficult to control.
During the Grand Prix and Championship, you can talk to your engineer in the pits to change your bikes behaviour.
When -in Singleplayer- you find you lose control over the vehicle you can always press R1 and see a bar appear. Here you can press either L2 to go back in time and R2 to go forward, here you can correct the mistake you just made and pick up before it happened and thus still have the upper hand. So one little mistake which has thrown you off your bike, doesn’t mean an immediate loss.
MotoGP 2015 has a tab called special events which has some competitions. The first one is ‘Beat the time’, where you are given a track and a time and it’s up to you to beat the time. There is ‘Real events 2014’ which are the events that were the most exciting in the GP of 2014 and you can relive them, by playing them yourself. The last event is ‘2 Stroke’ events allow you to experience fictional or non fictional events and like the previous mode, finishing a set amount of races will unlock more events.
The tab for multiplayer has two modes: Online and split screen. It’s cool that the developers opted for a split screen mode, when most current games are all about online play. In neither mode is it possible to rewind time as it is in the single player modes. The last two tabs are My Gp and Options. The former is all about your MotoGP career, where you can see your statistics, costumisation of your racer and what you’ve unlocked. It’s also possible to reset your career and start from scratch. On this tab you’ll also find the tutorial, should you have skipped it when you started the game. The latter tab is all about video and audio options.
Conclusion
When you are looking for a racing game that’s all about realism, then this is just up your ally. The learning curve is steep and when you get too cocky you’ll be thrown off your bike. So it’s certainly no easy racing game to master, but when you finally do, and you perfect taking every corner, it is a thrilling experience. A racing game that rewards skill instead of speed.
MotoGP 2015 - Review,
No Comments