Monster Energy Supercross Preview - The Official Videogame

lyra.roberge (56)in #gaming • 7 years ago (edited)

There are plenty of games on the PlayStation 4, but when it comes to games with two-wheelers in the lead role, the offer is shrinking quickly. Especially when we talk about games that play mainly in the blubber. Last year we got MXGP 3, which was a nice game. The developer of that game, Milestone, has now transferred their knowledge and expertise to a new project and that is Monster Energy Supercross. A game based on the American motocross championship.

They have learned from it!

Last year Milestone brought us MXGP 3, a motocross game aimed at outdoor jobs across Europe. That game was in itself entertaining, but still knew quite some negative aspects that throw a spanner in the works. In addition, this developer has a somewhat changeable reputation, so every new game is again and again a surprise. Monster Energy Supercross is fortunately a game that gets a lot better than MXGP 3, because many points where the developer with that game went wrong, are not or hardly ever seen in this racer.

Important in a game like this is of course that the physics are in order and although it is not perfect, it looked very solid in the preview version. The way in which the engines move, come down, let themselves be driven, as well as the drivers themselves, are true to nature. In addition, you get the opportunity to control the body of the driver as a whole by adjusting the physics settings here and there. If you do not do that, then it goes automatically making it primarily an arcade experience.

However, you can always control the motor with the right analog stick. If you're just driving, throw a wheelie in and if you fly through the air, it's ideal to correct misaligned jumps or just to stunt a little. The game is also very nice to drive, so you will enjoy driving over the courses. As far as those jobs are concerned, the game offers all the official jobs that are almost all located in stadiums and that are especially very varied. No job is the same and with a large amount you will not get bored easily.

A kind of career...

The game, however, has some crazy entry, so we were at the start of the preview version a little into the deep thrown where it was important to level to 'Prestige level' 8. Only when that was achieved, we could participate in a official championship. Perhaps this is arranged so that players get the game a bit under control, but it is somewhat crazy. It may well be that the introduction or tutorial was missing in the version that we played. If that is the case, then it will undoubtedly be more logical in the final game.

Participating in a championship means, as in any other game, that you finish a zipper of races, win in it and collect points to become a champion. In that context, the game offers little for the time being. There is not really a clear career mode, so you just finish a championship and that's it. Not that that is very bad, because career mode is nowadays a primal cliche in which little innovation can be found.

Winning a race gives you points for the championship, but you also get 'Prestige points' based on your position, how you have driven, how nice the jumps were and more. Those points count again for your Prestige level and by leveling you unlock all sorts of little extras, such as new sponsors, liveries and more. A fun unlock system, but it does not seem to have much to do. In that context, the game sounds rather limited and judging by what we have been able to try, the single player is not too extensive. Where the variation is mainly found in, are simply the many tracks that you find in the game and that is fine in itself.

Tinkering

Furthermore, the game obviously has a multiplayer mode, but we could not yet try it out. Whether the game contains other components outside the two primary modes is waiting, but it does not look like it will be much more extensive. What the game may give a long life is a nice extra feature, namely the possibility to make your own jobs. The game features a relatively compact editor that gives you all the tools to make something beautiful yourself. Of course we have tried this and we can say that it is a success.

Within a minute or five we had a nice job pieced together and soon it is possible to share your own creations online. With a solid community, this will undoubtedly yield various jobs, which will considerably extend the life of the game. The editor is very primitive, because you view the space from above and by choosing different route objects you create a job. In no time you can try it out, correct or largely adjust it, it works excellent and very user friendly. In short, this seems to be a great addition.

Finetuning

Earlier we indicated that the developer has learned from MXGP 3. We see that in the physics back, but more important is that the annoying reset system of MXGP 3 is thrown overboard. If you are now next to the job, you have 3 seconds to recover yourself. If, for example, you take a jump wrong, you can adjust it after landing to get back on the track and continue on the road. For the real competitive feeling, that may not be entirely fair because you can cut off some subtle bits here and there, but it is a relief compared to MXGP 3.

However, it can occasionally occur that when you go into a corner, you drive into an opponent and your engine suddenly turns around in an unrealistic way. If you then have the misfortune you come right against a pylon or pylon to stand and then you get away with difficulty. The textures seem to be wider than the objects themselves, so that some objects have invisible walls and that is quite irritating. Especially because the game has no manual reset, at least, not in the version that we played. And if something takes a long time, it is walking backwards, turning and putting your engine right to continue. So some fine-tuning can be done here.

Preliminary conclusion

We have played Monster Energy Supercross for about four hours and although the game does not have to be of innovation, it is very entertaining in terms of what it offers. The races are fun and can make you as challenging as you want. The controls are nice and the game has some margin of error so you will not be reset every time, something that will benefit the gameplay. The variation in jobs is abundant and visually it looks neat. The editor to make his own jobs is very user-friendly so in the long term that can be very interesting. For the rest, it is now waiting for the final version to see if there is more to discover in the game besides a track editor, single and multiplayer.