Rock N Racing off Road DX. The latest arcade-type game to the Xbox market, developed and published by EnjoyUp Games is certainly a game that you will either love or hate. At the start, I was quite keen to give it a go and see how the game would fare out, and if it could live up to my hopes and expectations that I had of it. Unfortunately, after about 5 seconds into the first race, those hopes and expectations were nearly demolished.
Let`s go from the very top. When you launch the game, you can see from the start the arcadic style and feel that the developers have decided to pursue. I indulged straight into the single player, which is broken down into 5 championships, each of which have 4 races in. These races then take place at different tracks based in different locations. The first cup I took part in was the North America Cup (Which is also at the start the only championship unlocked. The more you play and win, the more you unlock, similar to any other game I guess). Upon choosing which championship you are going to race in, you then get the choice of which car to select. At the time of doing the first championship, I went for the only car that was available to be picked, and that was the walker. Think of a Jeep, in the form of a little car model. Upon starting, you are then taken to a screen where it shows you what races you will be taking part in for that championship. For the first one, I`d be whisked off all over the place to Canada, Greenland, USA and El Mexico. All of which had a different number of laps. Once you start the championship, you are taken into the race, and that`s when the fun, or in some cases, frustration and disappointment, begins.
First thing you`ll instantly recognise is the airview camera angle of the races below. It`s very arcade like, and it`s the sort of thing I`d expect to see in an amusement arcade down on your local seafront. Now, that is the only camera angle in the game, so whether you like it or not, you have to accept it and get used to it, which for me, I hate playing at a birds eye view, especially on a game like this, so I really struggled to adapt to it. Now, control wise it is very simple and what you expect for a car game. Right trigger to accelerate, and left trigger to brake, and of course the left bumper to steer. I found this pretty easy, however, it`s not as easy as you may think. In the tracks, there are bumps in the road, that can make life extremely hellic for you if you go over too fast. It can steer you off course and you`ll end up crashing into the barrier or those sets of tires and that`s you out the race, as the rest of the cars wheel their way past you and into those podium spots. After several races where I would be accelerating too fast to go over the bumps without crashing into oblivion, I took a more calmer approach of really slowing down when it came to the bumps, and the corners. This is when my second frustration came into effect.
If you get hit by a car on a corner or a straight on this game, then you have had it. That`s you out the race, as that`s how you`ll feel once you`ve been taken out by a disastrous AI driver, and that`s when I start to lose complete interest in it. It becomes very boring and dull, and there`s no option to restart a race, without restarting the whole championship. I could be on the last race, needing to finish top 2 to win the title, only to be taken out at the last minute, and not be able to restart the race, meaning I`d have to indulge another 15/20 minutes (I know it`s not too long, but still, I don’t like there being no option) to complete a championship. I get it, it feels very arcadic, but even still, when I go to play a racing car game in the amusements, you don’t see some of the AI driving like you will do in this game.
The only fun part of the game for me really is the local multiplayer. You`re able to have up to 8 players playing, and with friends you can have some real fun and seeing who can take the bragging rights within your friendship group. But for me, this in itself, wouldn’t warrant me buying it just solely for that reason.
Some people may love this game, and some will hate it, as I said earlier in the review. Unfortunately, I`m in the group of people who hate the game, and it just isn’t for me. I`m sure that some would absolutely love the game, as it offers something a bit different to the racing genre on Xbox One, but for me, it isn’t. It`s something that should remain in an amusement arcade, and not on a next-gen console.
A huge thank you to XCN for supplying us with a review copy of Rock N Racing off Road DX.
