MX vs ATV: Alive

Rainbow Studios is back behind the handlebars of the MX vs ATV series, looking to build on the success of last years rough but endearing MX vs ATV: Reflex. That game had its flaws, but more than made up for it by giving us a wealth of race options, an intuitive control system and a fantastic track deformation mechanic which made each race different from the last. MX vs ATV: Alive takes what Reflex delivered and refines the overall experience - better handling, smoother graphics and sleeker presentation. But at the same time, this latest franchise entry has taken a gigantic step backwards, dishing up what is effectively a ‘work in progress’ instead of a full game.

See, THQ has tried something new with this game, an experimental delivery system which means you get a ruthlessly downsized game at a budget bin price and then have to download the extra bits and pieces you need to turn it into a proper game. As a fan of the previous title in the franchise, let me just come out and say: what the hell were they thinking? I really enjoyed MX vs ATV: Reflex. It presented the sport of off-road racing in all its muddy, noisy, garish glory. This time around it’s been pruned down to its bare essentials, and to be honest, the whole thing has left me rather disappointed purely because MX vs ATV: Alive otherwise has the makings of an excellent off-road racer.

The gameplay that is on offer is solid and good fun, make no mistake. Rainbow Studios learned a lot making Reflex, and has taken that even further for Alive - the game not only looks significantly better, with more detailed characters and vehicles, but is more engaging to play thanks to improved bike and rider controls and more realistic physics. Since much of the core gameplay principles have been carried over - albeit in a more balanced form - from last years game, the initial learning curve is negated, making it very easy to get on the winners podium for series veterans. Newcomers will be less successful from the start because the Reflex system, which allows you to lean your rider independently from the bike to give more control through corners, takes some getting used to and is hardly explained at all. Get your head around this essential part of the race though, and you’re on your way to the front of the pack.

As with the last entry in the MX vs ATV series, the track itself also plays an integral part in your race. Road surfaces deform with continued use, eventually leaving deep troughs in the track which have a direct effect on your racing line. It’s always easy to spot the best racing line, because after one or two laps there will be a thick groove carved into the mud; lose balance for a second, causing your bike to slip out of that groove even slightly, and you’ll soon be flick-flacking around in a dirt-caked speed wobble trying to regain control. In practice it sometimes works best to just avoid the assumed racing line altogether, and carve your own path to victory. A constantly degrading track surface adds a level of strategy not usually required in a racing game, and the MX vs ATV franchise is all the better for it.

While the basic gameplay and control system has been left mostly in tact - besides the addition of a new seat-bump ability which allows you to boost your jumps and an aggressive ‘bar bashing’ element added to overtaking - the overall look of MX vs ATV: Alive has seen a number of improvements. The rudimentary menu screens and navigation systems of last years game have been overhauled and are now much cleaner and easier on the eye. There are also a wide variety of customization options, all neatly laid out and easily manageable, which make it a sinch to personalize your bike and rider. New details have been added to the character models too, with racing suit fabric flapping in the wind and better textures and reflections across the board.

The race environments are also more detailed and vibrant, although in some sections the backgrounds seem somewhat sparsely populated. An element of the presentation which has sadly not been reworked is the soundtrack - once again a mud pit of generic hard rock which I turned off before the end of the first race. Without the trashy music to bother you, the engines and ambient noises do well to create a believable atmosphere to go along with the intense racing action. The online options make it even more intense, throwing you into the mud with a few friends to battle it out across the various modes. It’s a relatively effortless experience - no noticeable lag, a straightforward race selection mode - and the XP you earn online is persistent for your offline career too.

All of this must sound like sheer off-road heaven for those who get their kicks trawling through the mud at high speed, but alas, your joy will be short lived. Thanks to THQ’s ‘progressive’ new content delivery system, there really just isn’t enough game here to satisfy even the most easily amused gamer. Unlike MX vs ATV: Reflex, which boasted an impressive array of race modes and vehicle types, Alive offers just three: national races, short track, and open world bits to explore. Within each of these there are really just a handful of tracks to try out too. Worst of all? The unlock system to open up anything beyond the seven or so locations (and that's seven across all race modes) is so prohibitive that most won’t even bother. Rider XP, earned by completing races and various challenges within each race, unlocks new tracks, but to get to the first stage of unlocks means racing those initial tracks over and over again. To put this in perspective, you have only two National tracks to race until you reach Level 10, which takes what feels like forever.

The idea behind all of this - once your soul has died from an eternity of race-grinding - is that you spend actual money to auto-unlock all of the tracks, and then ‘custom build’ your MX vs ATV: Alive experience by downloading new modes and features. What this means is that you are getting an incomplete game and then being forced to go online to pay for the rest of it. On paper this may sound like a good idea, but because the core game is so bereft of content it means that just about everyone will need the downloadable content anyway, just to make it worth playing. So why not just give it to us from the start and charge a standard retail price? The least they could have done was to include some sort of career or championship mode, something to add some life to proceedings. Instead all you get is a short list of unrelated single races which, after a race is done, just drops you back at the title menu screen. One of the reasons for all of this silliness, according to the official MX vs ATV: Alive website, is so that they could release the game sooner, but I don’t think I’m alone when I say I would have waited a bit longer for a properly fleshed out experience.

By going in a new direction for this release, THQ has driven a divide between core audiences. There will be those who are happy for the lower initial price - MX vs ATV: Alive retails for around R300.00 locally - even if it means severely limited content, and then to pay for the modes and other goodies they want as it suits them. For the rest of us though, we’re left with a situation where we have what could have been a rocking off-road racer but which feels unfinished and unpleasant because we know that so much content has been hacked away and kept aside as bait. It should go without saying that those without internet access and an Xbox LIVE account shouldn’t even bother, because you will be left with a mere skeleton of a game. The bottom line is that Rainbow Studios has created a really good racer, fun to play and good looking in action, but so severely lacking in content that it feels like a hollow shell - a faded reminder of what could have been. If you’re happy to suffer with a tiny selection of tracks, or are prepared to make the effort to download more content as it becomes available, there is a great game here; somewhere. Sadly not enough of it is actually on the disc you’re paying for.

Pros: