Motorhead Review

9.0

Format PC

Developer Gremlin Interactive

Publisher Gremlin Interactive

Genre Racing / Driving

Win some, lose some, it's all the same to Steve Hill.

Let's get the nomenclature hilarities out of the way: Motorhead are a veteran heavy metal band whose grizzled lead singer appears to be sporting face-mounted Rice Krispies; Motorhead the game is an arcade racer out of Swedish developers Digital Illusions, the team responsible for 1995's mesmeric Pinball Illusions. Whatever the musical connotations, Motorhead is a fairly logical name for a car game, and certainly more relevant and credible than Sepultura or The Tygers Of Pan Tang. Arf arf. Next.

Arcade racers are currently ten a penny on the PC, and the Zone network hard-core have recently been enamoured by the excellent Ultim@te Race Pro, with many late-night sessions masking the emptiness of our pointless lives. In common with any normal, right-thinking person, we fear change, and the arrival of Motorhead was therefore greeted with some suspicion, like the new kid at school with a fancy sports bag. Initial standoffishness ensued, but tentative approaches found it to be quite friendly, and within an hour we were whooping like children (before reconvening to the pub to drink like men). A fickle crowd, we are easily appeased by coloured lights and music in our heads, and Motorhead features both in large amounts.

Play, your card's right

By now you will almost certainly have cast your mince pies (eyes) over the surrounding taxi cabs (grabs) and found them to be objects of rare beauty. Correct. Running through 3Dfx or PowerVR, with all the options switched on, Motorhead looks absolutely stunning and is a match for pretty much anything on the PC. Lens flare, sparks, smoke, skid marks, all that business. You need not worry though, as poor people are also catered for, the graphics looking far from knackered in software only. It is much more than a shallow aesthetic showpiece though, and is in fact a ludicrously playable game. The first thing that strikes you is the incredible speed. Shit off shovels, rats up drainpipes, racing snakes and all other tenuous velocity-based similes are left trailing in its wake. The sense of speed is palpable, as is the feeling of motion. To labour the point further, there is also an option to turn on motion-blur, giving everything you see a slightly disturbing trail, apparently mimicking the effects of the crazy LSD killer acid drug. Due to the design of the courses and the way the perspective works, Motorhead is the kind of game that has you lurching around in your chair like a simpleton. Clearly there is very little dignity in this course of action, but scientists have proved that it does actually make you drive better.

Future shock

Stylistically, Motorhead is a kind of WipEout on wheels, with a Blade Runner-style intro hinting at its futuristic pretensions. In common with most modern cars, they all look fairly similar, but vary in terms of speed, acceleration and grip. Consequently, certain cars are more suited to particular courses, and selection needs to be thought about for at least a couple of seconds. The handling is fairly solid and - this being the future - the cars are constructed from damage-proof material, making high-speed collisions no more than an irritation. The invincibility factor also opens the door to some ruthless tactics, with ramming opponents off the road proving a viable strategy. Furthermore, the ability to look behind enables you to weave in front of pursuing cars in a totally unsportsmanlike fashion. This isn't a one-way thing though, as due to the unique AI of the other drivers they are capable of some dirty tricks themselves. They are also fallible, and it is not uncommon to come across a multiple pile-up during the course of a race.

Anti-nowhere league

Individual races are fully customisable, but the greatest challenge comes in playing out a league, with points awarded in a pseudo Grand Prix fashion - three divisions, eight drivers, with promotion and relegation going to the top and bottom two respectively. This system really forces the learning curve, with new tracks and cars made available with each promotion. At first you find yourself going up and down like a whore's drawers, drifting between the bottom two divisions like the Chester City of the car world - too good for the third but woefully out of their depth in the second. Eventually, either due to a freak result or hard work, a foothold will be secured which can then be built upon in a push for the top. Once unlocked, the courses can be raced either in single-player or network mode, enabling practice to be gained before mounting a championship challenge. For the solo player, this league system gives Motorhead a distinct advantage over Ultim@te Race Pro. While the latter's DeathMatch mode is undeniably superb, not everyone will have the facilities to use it. With Motorhead, what you see is what you get: a ridiculously fast, fantastic-looking, intense racing experience. Nice.