ATV racing games took a prominent spot in many people’s gaming libraries around the the PS2 days with ATV Offroad Fury. Motorstorm took everything to the next level this generation on the PS3, and now Disney looks to enter the foray with Pure. With some nice controls, cool graphics, and customization options for your ride, Pure provides a good racing game for your Xbox 360.
The graphics in Pure are pretty darn good. Backgrounds looks terrific and the tracks themselves are nice. Characters are okay and the ATV’s are very detailed. I expected a bit more in terms of mud splatters and such, however the track deformation with tire tracks looks good. I also noticed a big of screen tearing during a few races and in cut-scenes. On the sound front, Pure does a pretty good job with ATV effects and a solid soundtrack that matches the game’s style. Character voice-overs are decent, but they get repetitive when you pass people or pull off a good trick.
Pure’s gameplay is actually very good. The ATV controls are done well and changes nicely as you upgrade and change the parts in your ride. Even small changes show their effects while driving around the courses. The game’s Pure World Tour takes you through ten major events, each of which is comprised of four to more separate events. No matter how you finish, you gain points. To get to the next event, you need to pass a certain threshold in your points accumulation. The Pure World Tour is made up of various types of races, sprints, and freestyle events. You’ll need to customize your ATV’s to work with each type.
With over 30 tracks in various worldwide locations, you won’t get bored with where you’re racing. The game also features over 80 tricks you can perform on the jumps. To get big air, you need to preload you jump by pressing down on the left thumbstick and then up as you go off the jump. For tricking it out, you press the A button with any one of the 8 directions on the left thumbstick. As your Thrill Meter increases from performing tricks, you unlock Advanced tricks with the B button and Pro tricks with the Y button. If you’ve got the skills to fill the Thrill Meter, you can rock out a Special trick by holding both bumpers and using one of the 8 directions on the left thumbstick. Most of the tricks are pretty cool and the Special tricks need huge air of you’ll end up crashing.
Online racing with up to 16 people is available and finding a game online was never a problem. The only thing to keep in mind is that you’re going to get beat a lot at first until you play through the World Tour and get some big upgrades. Every time I went online, all other racers were using Class A engines, which provide the highest speeds and acceleration. Going in with anything less will essentially guarantee you won’t be winning. This can be frustrating if you want to race online and haven’t had the time to get through most of the World Tour mode.
I’m very impressed with Pure. The customization options for building up to 10 ATV’s and the tricks make this title stick out from Motorstorm, the current king of ATV racing. It does a great job at bringing the genre to the Xbox 360 and is the best in class on Microsoft’s platform.
Overall: 8.5 out of 10
3 Comments
Write a Comment»Looks like one of the best games to be published by Disney. I never took interest in ATV games probably one, but other than that, no. This one may have a look.
Disney ATV = Good
Who knew?
I played it and liked it, but I just can’t see myself playing this game for hours on end.