I'm pretty disappointed with this myself. While flawed, I LOVED the original game. One of the most intense and enjoyable racers I've ever played.
The sequel, though, has a lot of work to do before I'm convinced that they've improved on it.
The track design isn't as interesting to me this time around. Sure, there are lots of paths to take, but it feels too open. I enjoyed the diverse selection of tracks from the original. They may have all shared a similar visual design, but they all FELT very different while racing. The narrow, obstacle filled canyons mixed with wide open bedrock made for some excellent racing. The sequel, based on the first four tracks, hasn't hit any of those notes yet. Hopefully the other tracks pick up the slack, but I'm getting concerned.
Then you have the visuals. On the macro level the tracks look great, but while racing, it just doesn't really impress as much as I had hoped. The more complex designs simply don't work well within this engine. Foliage near the player looks excellent, but all of the distant foliage is pretty ugly and flat. Of course, this doesn't apply to all tracks as the environments do vary heavily. Still, there are so many moments where I found myself thinking just how poor the lighting appeared.
Lastly, and most disappointingly, the MOTION SENSING IS GONE. I know, the majority did not enjoy it, but that was how I played most of the original. First person view + motion sensing = bliss. It was truly incredible. I would switch to 3rd person + sticks for bikes and ATVs but everything else was motion. I finished the game using this scheme so it obviously works. Instead they've seemingly added tilting in order to right yourself should you begin to tip. I'm hopnig that I've simply missed some obscure option somewhere and there really IS motion sensing included (anyone find it?), but right now, I'm really bummed out by the lack of it.
Really, though, it IS a solid racer but it lacks a lot of what made the original special. I wish they had understood just what it was that people loved about Motorstorm and focused on polishing that up.
The sequel, though, has a lot of work to do before I'm convinced that they've improved on it.
The track design isn't as interesting to me this time around. Sure, there are lots of paths to take, but it feels too open. I enjoyed the diverse selection of tracks from the original. They may have all shared a similar visual design, but they all FELT very different while racing. The narrow, obstacle filled canyons mixed with wide open bedrock made for some excellent racing. The sequel, based on the first four tracks, hasn't hit any of those notes yet. Hopefully the other tracks pick up the slack, but I'm getting concerned.
Then you have the visuals. On the macro level the tracks look great, but while racing, it just doesn't really impress as much as I had hoped. The more complex designs simply don't work well within this engine. Foliage near the player looks excellent, but all of the distant foliage is pretty ugly and flat. Of course, this doesn't apply to all tracks as the environments do vary heavily. Still, there are so many moments where I found myself thinking just how poor the lighting appeared.
Lastly, and most disappointingly, the MOTION SENSING IS GONE. I know, the majority did not enjoy it, but that was how I played most of the original. First person view + motion sensing = bliss. It was truly incredible. I would switch to 3rd person + sticks for bikes and ATVs but everything else was motion. I finished the game using this scheme so it obviously works. Instead they've seemingly added tilting in order to right yourself should you begin to tip. I'm hopnig that I've simply missed some obscure option somewhere and there really IS motion sensing included (anyone find it?), but right now, I'm really bummed out by the lack of it.
Really, though, it IS a solid racer but it lacks a lot of what made the original special. I wish they had understood just what it was that people loved about Motorstorm and focused on polishing that up.
