MX Unleashed Review

Developer	Rainbow Studios
Publisher	THQ
Genre	Racing

No one seems to know offroading physics better than Rainbow Studios, the developer behind the successful ATV Offroad Fury and Offroad Fury 2, which is a variation of Motocross Madness, which was also made by Rainbow. In fact, all three games look remarkably similar to Rainbow’s new effort, MX Unleashed. Truth be told, Unleashed pretty much is Offroad Fury with motocross bikes, which the team started with in Motocross Madness. So really, the team has come full circle, and has harkened back to their motocross roots, and makes a surprisingly addictive -- if not slightly repetitive --experience out of it.

Gameplay – If you’ve played the Offroad Fury games before, you know what to expect here in Unleashed. The meat of the game is in Career mode, where you can choose a rider from an assortment of real-life MX heroes, or use your own custom rider if you prefer. You can then choose your bike (which are also licensed, real-life stuff) and gear that your rider will wear. From there, you start your career by competing in various multi-race competitions (each class of championship consists of at least four races). There are lots of tournaments to choose from, ranging from supercross competitions to outdoor races, as well as freestyle racing tournaments. The better you place, the more cash you can win, where you can then buy all sorts of cool stuff, ranging from tracks and different classes of bikes (like the 50cc and the monstrous 500cc) to new machines (more on that in a bit) to drive in Freestyle mode.

And since we’re on the subject, it’s the Freestyle mode that has gotten the biggest overhaul. Rainbow has included a free ride-type mode with the Offroad Fury games, offering a handful of enormous environments to ride around in, enjoy the scenery, and pull off some stunts. Other than that though, there never was much to them. Unleashed changes this by giving players lots of different things to do, which all go toward unlocking some seriously cool things to play around with, most notably, new vehicles. Whether it’s a monster truck, biplane, helicopter, trophy truck, or dune buggy, Unleashed allows you to commandeer one of these vehicles should you beat them in a race across open terrain (called Machine Races). While you can’t do anything in particular with them other than drive around in Freestyle, it’s a rather neat addition. The enjoyment will be fairly short-lived though.

Also, there are several minigames to play, such as Hits, which require the player to land a specific jump within a marked area; Runs, which make players make a series of Hits in succession without even one failing; and Stunts, which is simply achieving a set score of points by pulling off stunts within a time limit. Other bikes are on the road when you are, and participate in games, so there is always that extra level of interactivity so you never feel alone. And that interactivity continues with the traffic that populate the levels, as trucks often pass by on the roads, each sporting a ramp of some sort to mess around with. Unfortunately, you can only permanently unlock machines in a Career in Freestyle, and these competitions are very long, and don’t give you the ability to save your progress until every activity is completed (and there are a lot of them). The Career mode is rather lengthy as well, but because of the sheer amount of competitions. The game consists of tons of tracks in which to race, all sporting a decent amount of environmental variety to keep the scenery fresh.

The physics in Unleashed are as equally brilliant as Rainbow’s previous efforts, and even include some rag doll-like physics for the riders themselves. You’ll see these physics in action a bit more than what you’ve witnessed in the Offroad Fury games because landing bikes from ridiculously high jumps are a bit more difficult than ATV’s are. In addition, dealing with rubber band A.I. can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view. On one hand, almost every race is an exciting one, but no matter how good you are at the game, the A.I. is just as good or better. Like Rainbow’s previous offroad games, Unleashed is all about preloading and keeping a smooth rhythm over jumps of various sizes. With A.I. that always knows the quickest route, it can get irritating when you lose a lead because of the smallest of mistakes.

Despite the fact that Rainbow has made three games now based off this engine, the load times are still quite long between races. In addition, multiplayer is limited to two players, while the Offroad Fury games always allowed four. Strange.

Graphics – Visually, Unleashed looks okay, but there isn’t anything breathtaking to be found here. Odd, because you’d think that Rainbow would’ve advanced their engine quite a bit by now to be capable of handling much more detailed visuals. The game doesn’t look bad at all, and the framerate is always steady. But MX Unleashed limits the multiplayer to two players, and there is more fogging present here than in ATV Offroad Fury 2, which handles four players at once onscreen (which improved on the bad fogging in the original ATV Offroad Fury, by the way. But that game too, supported four players.). Granted, competitions have seven other riders up against you at once in single-player, which helps to increase the tension and atmosphere of racing in a real tournament. But all in all, the graphics -- while good – don’t impress the way that might have in the past.

Sound – The audio doesn’t disappoint (though bikes sound incredibly similar to ATV’s here), featuring some mostly authentic sound effects and a kick ass soundtrack to boot. Most of the bands who perform in Unleashed are fairly small time or very new to the ears of most listeners. For the most part though, the songs contained on the disc are pretty rocking, especially if you’re a fan of punk rock and harder, edgier stuff. There are a few forgettable tunes, but that is a matter of taste.

Bottom Line - MX Unleashed is basically ATV Offroad Fury with bikes instead of four-wheelers, and though the game doesn’t wow, it continues to tweak here and there in areas, and for the most part, it pays off. The Freestyle mode is much more fun and actually contains a bit of substance this time around, and can actually be addictive at times. Playing around with other vehicles is the “twist” of a selling point for Unleashed, but there’s very little you can actually do with them once you’ve unlocked or purchased them. Why aren’t there competitions featuring these new rides?

Unlike ATV Offroad Fury 2, Unleashed isn’t online, and it doesn’t support four-player multiplayer. Furthermore, the visual quality doesn’t increase at all due to these cuts, which is disappointing. Still, the game is a joy to play, and there is lots of content included to last players awhile. If you loved ATV Offroad Fury or Motocross Madness, this is your game. If you hated them, or are tired of them, there’s little incentive to invest in this.

Review by Brendon Hivner