Reviewed: Blur (PS3, 360)
With everything beginning to become more realistic, more real life and getting a little removed from what gaming is all about, it is nice for a company to take the realism out and put the fun back in.
Blur, developed by Bizarre Creations of PGR fame and published by Activision sees this hybrid racer hit the market at a time when the racing genre is getting a little too stale for my liking.
Best described as a mix of Wipeout and Mario Kart, Blur concentrates on balls out, eyeballs on stalks arcade racing with power up twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you go head to head with up to 20 competitors in a heady mix of racing gametypes that include standard racing, point to point, one on one, demolition amongst others.
The game itself has a sturdy single player campaign that has more than enough to eat hours out of your day. To say this is all about finding the perfect lines and getting the braking correct couldn’t be further from the truth. This is all about getting those power ups, watching your front back and sides and being strategical in taking out your opponents without taking too much damage yourself. Add the demands of fans into the mix with little mini tasks during the race and you have a racing game that makes your brain race faster than what the car you’re racing is.
The campaign is broken up into 9 different levels with a number of gametypes in each. To be able to move on you will need to place first, second or third to gain lights with bonuses for gaining enough fans during the race which we will talk about in a minute. Also whilst in a certain level you have certain tasks that you need to achieve in order to unlock the last race which is a one on one that can be challenging but will unlock their car and also a mod which can be taken into races and applied to a certain power up. Power ups come in three basic forms, attack, defence and maintenance with each car allowing for 3 slots. It is here where most of your work is done whilst racing against 20 competitors with attacks coming in thick and fast, metal flying everywhere and you having to think on the fly. It is fast, it is chaotic and it is simply breath taking to play.
We mentioned fans a moment ago and they create a whole new dimension to the game. Whilst racing you will gain fans for taking people out and scoring in certain areas. At the beginning of the race you are assigned a fan target to beat which will give you an extra light at the end and help to unlock further areas. During events in later levels there will also be a number of fan demands to complete which can range from shunting another car with a nitrous boost to achieving a great drift. All of these little mini events and scores add to your total fan score (basically levelling) and will unlock new cars at the completion of each stage. I hope you’re still with me because Blur goes above and beyond the call of duty here to provide enough variety to stop Blur from going stale too quick, unlike other racers out there.
The cars and tracks are real world and look absolutely stunning in every area. From the good ol south coast hot spot of Brighton Beach (I wish there was sand like that but at least we didn’t see the Big Issue sellers every 100 metres!) to a trip around the coastal roads just outside the Golden Gate Bridge there are more than enough challenging tracks here to keep you on your toes. My one and only complaint here is that the tracks themselves could have done with better short cuts to really mix things up some more.
As I said in the last paragraph, the cars are all based on real world cars and for the sake of the game have all been categorised based on their speed, acceleration, grip and difficulty to drive. Some cars are more grippy,others are great for drifting and some balance between the two. It is here where you must decide what type of car will be right for what track and again can play a part in the race if you get it wrong.
The handling of the cars themselves are pretty bang on to what you would expect Bizarre Creations to provide and you feel as though you have good control at high speed until you get attacked with one of those pesky power ups. There is a real fun factor to the game that you rarely see nowadays so you have to give some serious credit to the developer for providing something that is engaging as well as challenging at the same time.
With the good comes a little bit of bad but thankfully not too much. The game comes with three difficulty options but the difference between them all is pretty vast. I have played a lot of racers and consider myself pretty good, not as good as some I know but I always feel that I can handle myself. For the purpose of the review I played it on the easy level which, to be honest, was way too easy. I cranked it up a notch and the difference was huge. Replaying the first level again I was having slight trouble with the one on one at the end and some of the races had that Mario Kart feel of you getting hit with a power up with seconds to go only for that car to come careering past. It is a small niggle in the general scheme of things but I have to make it known.
Unfortunately, each time I have tried the multiplayer the servers have been down. I am not sure if this is a problem to the PS3 only or not so for the moment I cannot tell you about this part of the game. It is something I will revisit but I have to say that I mananged to get a couple of private games in with a friend and it was a great giggle, lots of close racing and a lot of skullduggery too. Add another 19 people into the mix as Blur promises and you can bet your bottom dollar that it would be nothing short of absolute bedlam and chaos with you walking away from the lobby with a massive smile on your face.
Overall, Blur is one of the funnest non sim racers I have played in a long time. It brings me back to my PGR days with a big dollop of cream on top. Best described as Mario Kart on steroids it left me more excited than the first time I accidentally copped a feel when I was younger and for that it needs to be applauded.
From what I have read so far, Blur has not sold as well as it should so with the discounting that is sure to come in the shops I highly recommend a lethal dose of Bizarre Creations latest product.
