Motorstorm: Pacific Rift is a breakneck racing tournament, set against a festival of heavy metal globetrotters on a tropical island. The game’s core dynamic, barely changed from its launch-title predecessor, focuses on the hierarchical, king-of-the-jungle tussle between gigantic Monster Trucks and nimble Motocross bikes.
Every track branches off into a number of winding routes, each playing to the strengths of, or presenting a danger to the game’s seven vehicle classes; pits of mud that will devastate a car’s tiny tyres, or miniscule shortcuts that will foil the more hefty rigs.
The basic nature of the game’s racing system regularly topples from excitement and captivation to damn-near controller-tossing frustrating. Motorstorm 2 is a white knuckle videogame, constantly racing on the razors edge that makes every corner a gut-wrenching struggle to keep your acceleration high, economically dole out your boost and not obliterate your truck on an errant rock.
As with its predecessor, every track is divided into numerous routes and lanes, each with a specific class in mind. The demo’s solitary track, Rain God Spires features giant jumps, and minuscule shortcuts through broken vegetation that will shave nanoseconds off your time, as long as your vehicle is small enough. The monster truck is, like the larger vehicles from the first, left with few advantages. Later levels, however, promise to feature small buildings and fragile vegetation that are ripe for the monster truck’s picking.
