Black Rock Studio, formerly Climax Studios, is proud to present their next racing title in the form of Pure. If you’ve never played a game from their gaming catalog, you can learn to expect greatness from this team. Having worked on the MotoGP series for THQ, they’ve strung together a series of fine racing games and Pure is included as one of them.
While MotoGP focused on ultra-realism and the simulation side of racing, Pure is about as extreme as a racing game can get. After playing Pure at E3 this year, I came away impressed and knew that fans of racing games would have an absolute blast when it released. Now that it’s on store shelves and in the homes of thousands, Xbox 360 gamers can add another racing game to their collection that I’m sure is full of dozens (Forza 2, Project Gotham Racing 3 and 4, Grid, Dirt, and a handful of others).
The over-the-top action and wild stunts help set Pure away from any other racing title on the Xbox 360. Plus, having it be an off-road ATV game rather than one that revolves around cars is a fresh break from driving automobiles. Pure appeals to not only racing fans, but players who want to perform death-defying stunts in mid-air that they normally couldn’t do in real life. Sure it’s fun to race to the finish line, but if you aren’t making it a spectacle in the air, then what’s the point?
Racing controls in Pure are to be expected with controlling your ride with the left thumbstick, accelerating with the right trigger, and using the brakes with the left trigger. Riding your ATVs around the tracks feels realistic as your rides have some weight to them when they turn corners and hit jumps. When your quad does hit the air, pulling off tricks is done by hitting one of the three face buttons and pushing in a direction on the left thumbstick. You’ll begin with Level 1 tricks and work your way up to Level 3 tricks with each one being mapped to one of the face buttons. The more tricks you land, the more nitrous boost you’ll earn to use to pull ahead of the competition. Beware though, if you use your nitrous boost, it’ll take away from the blue meter that allows players to move up in levels for tricks – essentially, you have a choice to make: higher-level tricks or nitrous?
For players interested in the single-player career mode, you’ll find that Pure’s World Your mode is adequate enough to appeal to your tastes. You’ll build your bike, choose a racer and begin a 10 stage circuit that ramps up on difficulty towards the end. You’ll compete in race types such as Sprint (getting to the finish line first), Race (a step up from Sprint with longer tracks and better jumps), and Freestyle (all about racking up points through tricks). Of the three, players should have the most fun with Freestyle since it permits players to be as crazy as they want to be and not worry about crossing the finish line; instead, they’ll focus on performing the biggest and best stunts while collecting power-ups along the way.
Other then the World Tour mode, players won’t have much single-player entertainment left outside of jumping into single events and playing through the Trial mode. Instead, players can jump online and compete against their friends to make up in replay value. There’s an online exclusive game mode called Freeride that players can participate in. Freeride asks for players to score points in areas such as obtaining the fastest lap, racking up trick combos, getting the highest jump and a few others. All around, Pure is excellent online with up to 16 players duking it out to call themselves the best rider.
Even better is that Black Rock delivers a stunning visual experience throughout Pure. The environments are lush and full of vegetation, dirt will be getting kicked up by your tires, the riders are proportioned right, the ATVs look great and even the animations are top-notch. The only downside of the entire package is that the tracks are somewhat repetitive and could’ve used a little more diversity when it came to the actual tracks. In total, there are only 12 areas to trailblaze through. Let’s cross our fingers that Black Rock is planning download content to help extend the life and replay value of Pure.
Pure is, without a doubt, the most unique racer to release in the second half of 2008. Forget driving cars and trucks; pick up Pure and kick up mud with your own custom ATV. There aren’t any better options when it comes to off-road racing on the Xbox 360.
