MX vs ATV Alive isn’t your standard casual friendly off-road racer. With its RPG like progression system and almost old-school focus on straight, no frills, dedicated racing, MX vs ATV Alive is built for the hardcore motocross enthusiast, which is the game’s greatest asset, and biggest fault at the same time.
Game: MX vs. ATV Alive
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Rainbow Studios
Genre: Off Road Racing
Price: $39.99
Verdict: Hardcore slanted Motocross action geared towards straight racing and realism
Cons: Broken unlocking system, no career/grand-prix modes, skimpy on content
Acquired via Publisher
Of all genres, racing games are notoriously the most skill demanding, and for the inexperienced, MX games aren’t your everyday high flying arcadey racers like Motorstorm. Every single little adjustment of the stick for a bump in the road can be the difference between victory and defeat. Take any one of the potential 5 bumps in the road per second wrong, and it can throw your balance off, sending your bike flying. Driving a bike like this in the real world is an art of sheer balance and almost ninja like patience. MX vs. ATV isn’t that different. With all this attention to physics and real world driving comes very nuanced controls. You can control the pitch and lean of your driver in order to balance your bike during these constant bumps in the road. But even with all the control options at your disposal, you’ll often find the littlest crack in your attention will send your bike careening into the bush. The randomness can be frustrating to the driver who likes to feel in total control, but it is true to real life motocross.
Much like other uber-realistic racing simulations, Alive provides assist features that put more and more of the game on auto-pilot in order to make casual play a little more approachable. When turned off, you have to be mindfully aware of not only the track, but also your rider. The right stick will help you control your rider’s posture and weight shifting (the “Rider Reflex System”) to add to your balance during sharp turns. This can help you avoid constant wipe-outs (just one can destroy your race).
The zen-like concentration required is where the game draws a line in the sand between more casual friendly arcadey racers and real world motocross’s mud slinging action. Hardcore players with the necessary Jedi reflexes (not an exaggeration) will adore the level of concentration and skill required. Casual players used to big air, hard landing, and exploding junkers will probably hate it and give up within the first few races. Furthering the attention to realism, tracks have little in the way of marked boundaries. You have a general idea of where the track goes, but this is a video game, not real life. Boundaries are thus inconsistent. Sometimes you can jut out into the grass and skip small portions of track to get ahead, while other times you are penalized and reset to the track for skipping an even smaller section. The lack of clear track markers makes cutting corners an inconsistent act of trial and error.
Alive starts you off with the lowest quality bikes and ATVs in the game and then gradually upgrade to the quality equipment. However the system of unlocking content is ridiculous. You’re provided with only two tracks at the outset, and you have to advance your rider to level 25 to unlock the next track, and that takes a LONG time (hence the lateness of this review). That essentially means you’re going to be stuck playing the first two tracks until long after you’re sick of them. The alternative option? Buy an unlock for the rest of the content. That means you’re either playing a demo’s worth of content for hours on end, or shelling out more money to get content you should already have at the onset. To be frank, that’s total bullshit and completely unforgivable. Assuming you ever get around to unlocking/buying access to them, you’re provided 12 national long form tracks, four short tracks, and two free ride arenas. This isn’t really a lot compared to past Motocross titles, and currently DLC is minimal (one free ride track). THQ’s strategy is to release the game at a budget price, and then stagger DLC as time goes on, but the gamble is that you’re only going to get that content if the game sells.
Assuming you can get past the broken/money grabbing unlock system, and posses ninja reflexes, MX vs. ATV: Alive is a great game if you’re looking for a bare bones off road simulator that just focuses on pure racing. But the lacking content, broken unlock system, and barebones racing options (no grand prix/career mode) is not nearly enough to justify $60. Maybe rent it and see what you think.
GrE Grade: C-
Popularity: 2% [?]
