MotorStorm: Apocalypse

Story

Apocalypse is more story-driven than previous instalments. The events of Apocalypse's MotorStorm Festival are told from the perspective of three participants, labelled Mash "The Rookie", Tyler "The Pro", and Big Dog "The Veteran" by Evolution Studios, with each participant also representing a difficulty level of gameplay. These three participants will each see different parts of the catastrophe unfold over the course of the three-day festival.

Setting

The game takes place in an apocalyptic urban area called The City, based on the West Coast of the United States (in particular California's Bay Area). The game consists of more than 40 tracks that can be altered from active catastrophic earthquakes and tornadoes as well as helicopters crashing through buildings.

Gameplay

New vehicles in the game include supercars, superbikes, hot hatches, muscle cars and choppers. Apocalypse is the first game in the MotorStorm series to focus on an urban setting as opposed to natural environments. The city that the Festival takes place in is enduring the throes of a massive natural disaster, causing the man-made structures in the city to visibly deteriorate. As players race through the tracks, the tracks can change in real-time; bridges can buckle and twist, buildings collapse and rifts open up beneath the vehicles as they drive. Players can also customize their vehicles with vinyls, vehicle parts, and modify the vehicle's handling, boosting and offensive abilities through perks. They are able to create and design their own game rules for online tournaments. A new gameplay element is the addition of "air cooling" one's boost. Similar to driving through cool water in Pacific Rift would speed up the rate of boost cooling, releasing the accelerator over a large jump will also cause the boost temperature gauge to drop quicker.

A new challenge in Apocalypse is the introduction of people who try to interfere in the event. The City houses two factions, known as the Crazies and Dusklite, who vie for survival. The Crazies try to impede the progress of the racers. They loot broken buildings, break into fights on the streets, steal cars and try to slam racers off the road, and attack racers with firearms. A private military company known as Dusklite attempts to enforce order and their involvement creates additional hazards for racers to overcome such as an attack helicopter firing missiles onto the track.

Vehicles

Five new vehicle classes; the supercar, superbike, muscle car, chopper and the hot hatch, are new additions, with the original MotorStorm vehicles, ranging from the MX Motocross bike to the Monster Truck, being included.

On 16 May the first DLC includes the "Revelation" pack, containing four vehicles that can be either bought entirely or individually.

On 30 May the second DLC includes the "Remix" pack, consisting three vehicles from the original MotorStorm game such as, the Mojave Slugger, the Patriot Surger and the Voodoo Iguana.

On 6 June the third DLC includes the "Prestige" Pack, consisting a rally car and two supercars that can be bought entirely or individually.

Title Sequence

After watching the title sequence for Smokin' Aces Alan McDermott from Evolution approached VooDooDog to explore developing a Hollywood block buster title sequence for the game. This was the first time VooDooDog had worked on a game title sequence, however Paul Donnellon notes in his interview with Codeshop that the approach was very similar to that of creating a music video, with music being a key element holding the elements together. In an article by Edge (magazine) special mention is made to the way VooDooDog developed custom fonts,

"We wanted to try different handmade fonts" explains Donnellon. "We wanted to build it into the walls like graffiti, so we had no choice; it wasn't something we could just grab together. We do make an effort to make it interesting if we can, but so long as people can read it. Even on film titles we try to push it more because, to us, typography alone isn't enough"

Title Sequence on Vimeo

VooDooDog also worked to create sequences to introduce each character.

Release

On 13 January 2011 the PlayStation Blog confirmed that the game would be released in Europe on 16 March 2011 and in North America on 12 April 2011. The game was initially scheduled to be released in New Zealand on 16 March 2011 but following a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in the country in February, the game release was delayed indefinitely. Similarly, the game's release in Japan was also delayed indefinitely after an earthquake and tsunami struck the country on 10 March 2011 - the game's originally scheduled release date. It was later confirmed its cancellation by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan three months later, with no reason given at the time. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe also delayed the game's release in the UK, stating in relation the disaster in Japan, "We are very conscious of the parallels between these events and the underlying theme in MotorStorm and are doing everything we can to be as sensitive as possible to the situation."

In Australia, the game was launched as scheduled on 17 March, but Sony confirmed the company would halt any further shipments and pull all advertising campaigns for the game.

The game was scheduled to be released in North American on 12 April 2011 but was changed to 3 May 2011.

Pre-order bonuses

In the North America three DLC packs available as pre-order incentives, each available from a specific retailler. Each pack includes a PlayStation Network avatar, an XMB theme and unique vehicle designs and stickers which the player can use to customise other vehicles.

Updates

The first update has been given to the game. The main feature of the update is that if one is to drive through a low tunnel in a large vehicle, such as a monster truck, the camera automatically switches to first person. It will stay like this until one leaves the tunnel.

On 30 May 2011, the MotorStorm: Apocalypse Tyler dynamic theme is available through purchase or as a free download for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

Reception

MotorStorm: Apocalypse received positive reviews. The game holds a Metacritic rating of 77, based on 74 reviews. While the game has received an 8.0 score by IGN for its well-designed visuals and arcade-styled handling to vehicles, the game received a 7 by GamesRadar for its short and bland storyline, as well as a less appealing offline gameplay. GamePro criticized the game for its "underwhelming graphics" and for the game being similar to the game, Split/Second. However, GameSpot rated the game an 8.5 for its variety of multiplayer options, well-designed tracks and destructible environments. 1UP also gave it a "B" rating. GameZone gave the game a 6.5/10, stating "For anyone looking for a fresh new racing game on the PS3, things could get a lot worse than Motorstorm: Apocalypse, but they could also be a little better."