A lot of racing games these days lean more towards the simulation side of things, with titles like Forza Motorsport 7 and Gran Turismo Sport offering options that cater to hardcore players. But that’s not to say there’s no room for arcade romps, as Forza Horizon 3 and DiRT 4 have easily proven last year.
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Gravel, the latest racing effort from Milestone, definitely leans more towards the latter, doing away with real-time racing complications in favor of a simpler, stunt-filled ride. It’s not a bad game to say the least, but it stops short of the finish line in a number of areas.
The game is the latest effort from the team that brought us a number of racing games over the years, including the recently released Monster Energy Supercross: The Official Videogame, so you can see their experience shine through in some aspects.
This is mainly with the racing itself, which feels natural and pretty tight. Handling turns is solid, although you can tweak things in case you want the controls to go a little more your way; and the feeling of acceleration is nicely captured, especially when you go whizzing off a hill and inadvertently take flight. Whee!
Stuff To Do and Unlock, Some of It’s Not Bad
Better still, there’s a pretty good variety of cars available. It’s not as heavily stacked as DiRT 4, but you can unlock quite a few quality cars, including models from Porsche and Toyota. There’s some joy to be found in being able to switch between rally cars and trucks.
All of this revolves around a somewhat average story mode, consisting of a fictional TV series called Off-Road Masters. It could’ve been a little more exciting, like Split/Second‘s reality TV show, but it seems to coast on the basics, with predictable rivals that don’t pose much of a challenge and very few events to keep you intrigued. You’re better off just skipping the details and getting into the racing action.
Fortunately, progression makes up for the story mode, as you can unlock some sweet goods with points that are earned with in-race stunts, including jumps, drifts and reaching high speed. And it’s pretty easy to rack these up, mainly because the AI is rather predictable. They lack so much challenge, I was able to handily lap them within a few rounds. At least the racing and the stuff you earn makes up for it, kind of.
A Troublesome Presentation
But, man, I wish more was done with multiplayer. It’s shoddily put together, and I was only able to get into one race over the course of my connections – out of the multiple times I’ve tried. The leaderboards are okay, but I would’ve preferred Milestone to take its time and get it working more up to speed.
Outside of that, there are few modes to mess around with, although jumping into quick race modes is satisfying enough if you really want to get that burst of speed. Again, though, more time in the oven would’ve done this a world of good.
The game looks pretty good with its Unreal Engine 4 tech, with spiffy car models and varied track design that zips you to a number of four different circuits, from stadium cross to off-road events to more headline making tournaments. But it’s hardly perfect, as the game sometimes has frame rate issues, and, oddly enough, it doesn’t support HDR on the PlayStation 4 Pro. It’s still suitable, but not next-level material.
Gravel‘s in-game music is listenable enough, and the engine noises are authentic, but the announcer just sounds like he doesn’t care. He doesn’t sound very motivated at all, as if he’s just reading commands off a cue card instead of showing enthusiasm for each race. Even the announcer in FreekStyle – a game from the Xbox/PS2/GameCube era – had more drive than this guy ever will.
Spinning Its Wheels
Also, Gravel is $50. On the one hand, that’s a lower price than most $60 releases, but that’s kind of easy to see with the troublesome baggage it’s carrying.
In the end, Gravel is a mixed package. The driving itself is pleasant, and the arcade-style feeling kind of brings back memories of easier games like Off Road Challenge from Midway. But it also comes up way short on content, and has very little to offer online. As for the presentation, it’s okay, but hardly a revolution for off-roaders.
If you can, I suggest renting it first and seeing if it has any lasting value. It might be a worthwhile purchase for you driving fans looking to get your thrills with no frills. Everyone else, you’re better off hitting the road with the superior DiRT 4.
WWG’s Score: 3/5
Disclaimer: A review code was provided by the publisher.
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Image courtesy of Marvel Television
