Developer: Kilotonn Games
Publisher: BigBen Interactive
Platforms: PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Tested on: PS4
Motorcycle Club – Review
Kylotonn Games have developed several games and are a jack of all trades when it comes to games. If you think that you’ll have ample things to customise about your club, then don’t hold your breath. This game is all about racing and barely about customisation, so gun the engine and pay attention to the roads or you might not make it across the finish line first.
Story
The story is quite simple. You are in control of a club, and it’s up to you to expand it by finishing races and buying new bikes. You can customise your rider’s outfit with your logo and your team’s colours. Your team is in it to win it.
Graphics
This is where the game is lacking. Though the game is boasting about how you can customise your club, there is little to customise. The only thing you can do is change the colour of your riders. You can’t even change the colours of your bikes, so it feels a little lacklustre. The tracks speed by so fast you’ll barely have time to take them in, but they are quite nice. The scenery is rarely the same and you’ll race through roads still under construction, as well as through the roads across the countryside.
Sound
When you think about creating your own club, then a soundtrack should be in order, as a way for your members to express themselves. This is where the game also lacks costumisation. When you are racing, the only sounds are from the bikes themselves. When you crash into a wall you’ll hear an almost comical crashing sound. Locating a racer that’s hot on your tail isn’t even hard and doesn’t force you to look at the mini map. You’ll hear them closing in on you. It adds tension and keeps you focused, which makes up for the lack of music.
Gameplay
When you are in the club, you’ll see that it’s more of a garage. Immediately the thought of fine tuning your bike springs to mind. That’s one thing the game won’t let you do. Another thing the game won’t do is teach you the ropes. There is no tutorial. There is a small text about the controls in the extra menu, but that’s it. A little bit of explaining about what does what and what the controls are would be in order.
There are 3 kinds of bikes you’ll use in the races. There’s the Roadster, the Superbike and the Custom bike. Custom makes you believe you can do as you please with this vehicle, but that’s sadly not the case. Every class has their bikes and you can switch these to your liking. That is after you’ve unlocked them. You can unlock them by doing the Constructor’s Challenges. These are challenges that make you finish a lap on a track within a certain amount of time on the bike you are trying to earn. You have to buy these challenges with points you accumulate from winning races and completing certain challenges. The bikes you earn are necessary to unlock further championships. So it all is a nice whole, and this way the game doesn’t add superfluous things. You need one thing to unlock the other. You have to play all of the game to unlock the rest.
“What are the 3 bikes for?” you might ask. When you are doing races, you can change between them. All of them have their perks and using these will give you an edge over the competition. The Roadster is a very agile bike, good for getting around corners and overall maneuvering. The Superbike is great for speed and the Custom bike is great for the parts of the road that are broken and have cracked asphalt, but doesn’t quite have the speed of the other two bikes. At the press of a button you change between 1 of the three bikes, and you can do so without any cooldown. So you can jump onto a Custom bike to overcome bad asphalt, then jump onto the Roadster to take a sharp turn and finally finish fast by taking the seat on a Superbike. So racing isn’t all about gunning it, it’s about changing your bike at the right time.
Apart from Championships, there are also Time Trials in which you have to set the best time for a track. All the tracks have been unlocked and you are free to choose whichever one you want to tackle first, which is a great way to master the tracks. Quick races are for when you are in the mood for a race but don’t want to unlock the tracks in the championship mode. Multiplayer isn’t an optional thing anymore in this day and age and of course Motorcycle Club has this going on. Just when you think you’ve overcome every challenge the game was capable of throwing at you, other players step up to challenge you.
Conclusion
Motorcycle Club is a fun racing game that has a neat mechanic. Changing your bike midrace to get the edge on the competition is something that really works. The bikes are responsive. If you are in this for a myriad of customisation options on your bikes and being able to fine tune everything about your vehicles and the club itself, then this isn’t a game for you. If you are in it for a great racing game with a twist, then you’ll love it.
Motorcycle Club - Review,
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