Review

Awesome racing! Challenging tracks, fast cars, great music, sexy visuals, brutal AI, and a physics model that fits like a glove. This is my favorite arcade racing game. Heck, this is my favorite racing game, period. Oh sure, it may not have the depth of a GPL, forcing you to devote hours to it before you turn a decent lap, but actually it's the manner in which Motorhead shortens the learning curve without flattening it that gives it much of its appeal. The game will continue to surprise you with its ability to test your skills long after you think you've got it beat.

So, you might be wondering, if I'm gushing over the game so much, why doesn't it have a higher score. That's simple. Motorhead commits several of the cardinal sims of racing games. First, it adheres to the tired and annoying philosophy of locking cars and tracks, forcing the player to achieve success in increasingly difficult leagues in order to gain access. This apparently passes for game design. But then blood-letting with leeches used to pass for medicine (it actually killed George Washington). The second cardinal sin is the inability to include AI-controlled cars in multiplayer races. This continues to defy explanation. I've only ever encountered two racing games that didn't possess this fatal multiplayer flaw, the aforementioned GPL and EA's Superbike series (apparently now abandoned). Racing with a full field is so much more fun, not to mention that it also helps alleviate some of the genre's native intolerance of different skill levels among players. At any rate, Motorhead is hobbled by its own adherence to traditional racing game design.

There are a couple of other negative things worth mentioning. First is that the game offers no in-car camera. You get either a behind-the-car view, or a bumper cam. I can only assume that an in-car view was omitted for performance reasons. The other negative aspect is that when you get the chance to race the uber-champion, or whatever, you don't get any opportunity to practice with the track on which the race is held. Consequently, you can be fairly assured of losing the first few times you get the opportunity, and it's a bit of a hike to get back to that race once you've lost. Very annoying. But then, that assumes you bought into the whole unlocking process in the first place and didn't just use the cheat code below.

Despite all of that, if you just take the act of racing in a given event on a given track, Motorhead provides some of the most exhilarating racing experiences you're likely to find on a PC. That's obviously just my $0.02. I'm no racing grognard. All I know is that I like the way Motorhead plays. I really like the physics, knowing full well that the game isn't trying to be a hard-core sim. Having ultra-high fidelity physics, or attempting to have it, doesn't guarantee a fun racing experience. Motorhead draws its line firmly in the sand and then provides a solid, challenging physics model that rubs me in all the right ways. As I said in my NFS Porsche Unleashed review, racing physics is like flavor. It's hard to describe, and doing so is almost a moot exercise because, like flavor, there will be people that like it and people that don't.

Another thing that I really like about Motorhead, which may not be some people's cup o' tea, is the graphics. Yes, the game is mostly dark and foggy, and that's just the way I like it. The style is very cool, and is consistent with the game's urban, futuristic, context. The cars are decidedly low-poly, but manage to look sexy anyway, as do the shaders, which is impressive for a game that had to straddle the fence between D3D and Glide.

And the music... did I mention the music? When was the last time you played a racing game that had music that you wanted to actually turn up? The tracks are mostly techno, but manage to avoid sounding frenetic. Often, techno soundtracks in racing games just make my head hurt and my heartbeat skyrocket, like I've just consumed an all-syrup squishy. Motorhead's soundtrack keeps pace with the racing and helps put me in the zone in a way that hasn't occurred since I used to listen to Offspring while deathmatching in QuakeGL. Nirvana.

In short, Motorhead fits me really well. Your mileage may vary. Its design flaws don't keep me from enjoying the racing, and, like most arcade racers, it's best consumed in moderate doses anyway. Technology has already passed this game by, and eventually game design will as well (I hope). But Motorhead will stay on my hard drive, and I'll have a soft spot for it as long as I game. Not bad for a game that came bundled with my Voodoo 2.