ATV Offroad Fury 4
Climax keeps things dirrty with the fourth installment in the series.
Tags: ATV Offroad Fury 4 Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Tracy Erickson on Nov 3rd, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| ATV Offroad Fury 4 (title page) | 1 - 8 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Racing | Yes | ||
Coming on the eve of PlayStation 3, the ATV Offroad Fury series is holding down the fort on PlayStation 2. While it may seem like the series is starting to show its age, ATV Offroad Fury 4 keeps things fresh with loads of new content and innovative features. Easily the best off-road racing series around, ATV Offroad Fury 4 extends the experience with fun features, vibrant visuals, and great gameplay.
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ATV Offroad Fury 4 keeps the series’ core racing gameplay intact with a slate of new features, vehicles, customizable, courses, and gameplay modes. While its to be expected that the newest iteration of the series would pack in a ton of new vehicles and parts, the addition of a new story mode and cross-platform multiplayer mix things up a bit. Regardless of what mode you delve into, though, ATV Offroad Fury 4 is still a racing game at heart. Learning how to control each of the four types of vehicles (ATV, bike, buggy, and truck) for maximum speed, as well as manipulating them to pull off tricks, is the core of the game. By placing well in races and earning points from tricks (sliding and catching air when controlling a buggy or truck), you can unlock new content.
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The biggest new addition in ATV Offroad Fury 4 is story mode, which actually takes you through the career of a professional racer. Even though the plot is laughable as told through several cheesy cinematics, story mode does offer a means of opening up new tracks and unlocking customizable parts for your vehicles. You don’t have to complete every race in order to develop the story, but tackling extra series will unlock content. There are a ton of events available in story mode, so you’ll spend most of your time racing and not watching B-grade cutscenes.
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As much as you’ll want to close your eyes during the cinematics, you’ll certainly be opening those lids to gaze at the impressive graphics during gameplay. ATV Offroad Fury 4 looks fantastic and runs quite smoothly. Racers and vehicles are highly detailed, as are the near seventy-five different venues. Effects such as rain drops hitting the screen during stormy races look realistic and add a nice layer of polish to the game’s presentation. Many of the screenshots don’t provide an accurate depiction of the game, as it honestly looks great running on PlayStation 2 hardware.
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If you’re adamant about simulation mechanics, stick with the main series on PlayStation 2. ATV Offroad Fury 4 is much more precise in its handling than ATV Offroad Fury Pro; however, this also means the controls are more sensitive. Maneuvering buggies and trucks requires careful attention to handling since the game does a great job in differentiating their physics from the ATVs and bikes. Even when controlling an ATV or bike, some of the advanced courses demand a bit of skill, so be prepared for a slight challenge. Tricks are noticeably harder to pull off than in the PlayStation Portable game due to the increased sensitivity in handling.
ATV Offroad Fury 4 is generally more difficult than its counterpart not only due to the controls, but also in the challenge posed by computer-controlled racers. Each race presents you with seven AI racers that really can give you a run for your money. Options allow you to tune the level of sophistication, but the additional racers alone make ATV Offroad Fury 4 exciting.
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Sony Computer Entertainment America has touted the ability for PlayStation 3 to sync up with PlayStation Portable for a select few titles when it launches in November; however, ATV Offroad Fury 4 can do it now on PlayStation 2. Connecting with ATV Offroad Fury Pro is simple, but be aware that you’ll have play a good portion of either game to see any new content result from the connection. In addition to unlocked content sharing between the two games, you can also trade ghost data and swap custom tracks you’ve crafted in the editor. The connectivity feature is novel, but honestly doesn’t do much more than allow content sharing between two highly similar games.
Multiplayer is where the game truly shines. ATV Offroad Fury 4 packs in a wealth of multiplayer options that ensure countless hours of competitive play. Each of the events found in single player are available for multiplayer, as well as extra mini-games exclusive to multiplayer. The newest and perhaps most impressive multiplayer addition is cross-platform play with ATV Offroad Fury Pro. For a specific number of shared tracks and events in both games, ATV Offroad Fury 4 connects with players from ATV Offroad Fury Pro for play. Should the story mode bore you, there are more than enough multiplayer features to keep you busy.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Tons of vehicles, parts, and courses to unlock + Great simulation controls + Loads of multiplayer options |
8.1 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Essentially more of the same - Hyped-up PSP-PS2 connectivity not a big deal |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| ATV Offroad Fury 4 is another great extension of the series that manages to keep things fresh with tight handling, improved physics, and an assortment of gameplay modes including tons of multiplayer options. | |
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Tags: ATV Offroad Fury 4
Posted by Tracy Erickson on Nov 3rd, 2006 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
