Pure PS3
Pure is the adrenaline pumping off road racing game that makes actually driving those 4 wheel all terrain vehicles seem like a walk in the park.
Ratings: Graphics & Audio: 23/25, Gameplay: 22/25, Creativity 18/25, Fun 23/25
Total: 86/100
Pure is the adrenaline pumping off road racing game that makes actually driving those 4 wheel all terrain vehicles seem like a walk in the park.
Ratings: Graphics & Audio: 23/25, Gameplay: 22/25, Creativity 18/25, Fun 23/25
Total: 86/100
Pure from Disney Interactive and Black Rock Studio is an ATV off road racing game that adds the full out fun of ATV racing with trick riding thrown in for those that really care about that stuff. Pure takes an easy control scheme for pulling off those crazy tricks and adds the pure fun of off road racing to really get your blood racing.
Some games are just not fun and others are fun as long as you stay away from the hard to perform things like hitting so many buttons at the same time while driving and keeping the vehicle on the road. Pure doesn’t make you perform so many stunts that you can’t get anywhere in the game if you just want to open the throttle and try your best.
I like this game even with having to perform a few tricks here and there but they are not all that hard to do, mostly timing with the button pushing. All the races involve some really simple courses but the loose aspect of the tracks and the simple fact that there are twenty or so others trying to outperform you make it fun and hectic.
You start out your career in Pure by picking a character and a ride, but take your time and choose carefully grasshopper, the ATV has plenty of choices but you’ll get more as the game moves on. You can get different color schemes and such but the real choices come in types of brakes, engine and other performance parts.
Once you have, well, you and your four wheeler you start in on a tutorial to get the hang of controls and what exactly it is your supposed to be doing. I need not mention here that what you’re supposed to be doing and what I actually did was both only close enough to get to the next step of the tutorial and move on.
In the game you can just race around and finish the race which will get you money for winning but pull off stunts in your race and you get boost and gain a trick advantage. When you land tricks you open up more complex tricks as well as gaining boost to race faster but when you use boost you lose the higher level tricks.
You will be balancing the tricks and boost to finish the race if you’re much into the tricks part but I found you can do alright just beating the others to the finish line for a lot of races. To perform tricks all you have to do is hit the X, O or triangle button and a direction on the left analog and you’ll perform a trick.
The tricks aren’t all that hard to perform and you get the hang of it pretty quickly to rise in rank toward getting those better parts for your ATV. The World Tour which is your career mode has a lot going for it and you will not blaze through it quickly but you still have online to race against real riders.
The three modes of racing in the World Tour are the Sprint, Race and Freestyle; Sprint is smaller tracks that offer a quick race with minimal tricks while Race gives larger tracks to perform more complex tricks. The Freestyle is the open class without a finish line where you compete against the clock to get the most points for tricks.
Pure has some great scenic landscapes and very good graphics on the PlayStation 3 that make for a great ride even if you don’t always win. They have done a great effect when riding and taking off for a trick, the ground rushes up at you as your hurtling toward a far landing to really give you a rush while playing.
The games engine did a superb job of creating a lasting impression of speed and urgency while performing tricks and when you just don’t make them you do go rolling around with your crashing ATV. You start back up to continue racing as a spawn just a short distance backwards as a penalty to continue the race.
The effects for things like crashes leave little to the imagination as you tumble and roll with your ATV but the scenes you’re riding in are really great looking as well. All the textures and ground looks realistic to a point but the entire scene with others racing by you and the ground when you take off on some really big jumps looks really neat.
The sound and audio are great and you have a really good selection of modern rock to race to as well as the roar of the engines and cheer of the crowd. The music is very fitting to the game and makes for a really well made package that will not get boring anytime soon.
Pure does a great job of putting you behind the handle bars of your very own ATV and races you off into some trick riding that would be insanity to try in real life. The tricks are pretty easy to pull off and you don’t have to be a super fast nimble fingered youngster to have fun with it.
Pure is a great game and if you like any kind of fast off road action you can surely have fun with the World Tour or the online action.