The good news is that online mode is a fun time all around. The unpredictable style of racing Motorstorm uses is a perfect fit for rousing multiplayer matches, and with the ability to have up to 12 players in a race, there's plenty of anarchist fun to be had. The game uses a solid lobby and ranking system (though it only ranks wins, not other placings), and voice chat is supported, as well. Furthermore, the online mode lets you do a few things that you can't in the single-player, like letting you choose from any of the available vehicles at all times. Online matches don't seem to suffer from much, if any, lag. The only real bummer about the game's multiplayer is that you can't play it offline. Online play is excellent to have, for sure, but if you just want to hop into a race with some friends that happen to be sitting next to you, you can't do it.
However, when you consider how fantastic Motorstorm's graphics are, the lack of split-screen multiplayer maybe makes a bit more sense (though it's no less disappointing, all the same). Of the current crop of PS3 games, Motorstorm absolutely takes the prize as the best looking. Sure, there's some ugly textures that crop up now and again, and the frame rate tends to dip during particularly destruction-heavy moments (split-screen would have probably murdered it altogether), but those few issues aside, the game's a real visual achievement. It all starts with the vehicles, which are some of the most beautiful jalopies you'll ever see. Each vehicle is extremely detailed from bumper to bumper. Even the driver models are fully detailed, which is plainly obvious when you're driving a motorcycle or ATV. And the crashes are even better. Your rides break apart in incredibly dynamic ways, creating completely different forms of destruction each time out. And even when you just slam into something and don't completely wreck it, you'll see that damage. Tires will bend or start to come off, bumpers will deform, paint will chip, and every vehicle eventually becomes so caked with dirt and mud that the paint job is practically irrelevant from the get-go.
That the tracks are just as excellent looking is really saying something. Again, there are only eight of them, but each one is a long, drawn-out trek through one form of desertic hell or another, and they're all a treat to look at. Motorstorm has some of the most impressive lighting effects you've seen in a racing game to date, and depending on the time of the day, the sun is either completely washing out a barren wasteland or coloring a beautiful landscape with gorgeous oranges and reds. Even the distant mountains and hills in the background look excellent, though it's the up-close pieces of the track that really impress. Dirt and mud fly everywhere, deforming the track itself in the process, and many of the pieces of junk littered about the track can break or be otherwise moved. The copious dust and dirt is maybe a bit overboard when it drenches the screen, but it's a neat effect all the same. Less impressive is the array of available camera angles. The standard from-behind camera view is fine no matter what vehicle you use, but the first-person camera mode is really only enjoyable when you're on a bike or ATV. The view isn't exactly a hindrance in any of the other rides, and you do get to look at some of the track details much closer this way, but it's just not as enjoyable a way to drive. A real, in-the-cockpit view would have been nice in this case. But cockpit view or no, it's hard to find much fault with the way Motorstorm's visuals are presented.
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Motorstorm's audio is also pretty great. On the track, engines have a ferocious roar to them, and every time you wreck into something, the booming, crunching sounds of the crash really make you feel it. While you race, you get one of several rock or techno songs from major artists like Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Wolfmother, Spiritualized, and Slipknot, among others. It's a diverse soundtrack that always manages to fit the vibe of the overall game, in that every song heightens the intensity of a race in one way or another.
Motorstorm is a good game that also feels like it has a great deal of untapped potential. As an over-the-top, gorgeous-to-look-at racer, Motorstorm is absolutely a success. As a deep and lasting experience, it's far from it. The question, then, is what's more important to you? Is it of greater import to you that a game feature great racing mechanics and incredible graphics, features be damned? Or does a deep array of lasting modes and features make or break a game for you? If you answered yes to the former, then Motorstorm is unequivocally the game for you. If you answered yes to the latter, pay consideration to just how much you're going to get out of a solid online mode and a cheap-feeling single-player mode that you'll probably never go back to once you finish it. Either way, here's to hoping that the next time around, Evolution turns in a more fleshed-out experience to go with its great game design.
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