|
|
|
Wipeout Pure |
|
|
Written by Insane_Kenny
|
|
Thursday, 29 December 2005 |
Welcome to the ride of your lives! Wipeout Pure for the PSP. "Purity meets state of the art technology."
 Probably the fastest racing game made ever is Wipeout Pure. From the country to the city, race across fantastic landscapes in little hovering racers! To get you started : Wipeout Pure starts off a bit slow. There's no introduction level for new players so picking up and playing can be a bit of a struggle. It's mainly a trial and error until you learn the various tricks and skills needed throughout the game. With only a couple of levels to go on at first it's not hard to get a grasp of the game when you're playing. The simple controls make it easy to use, with Triangle and Circle hardly ever being used. Then again this game does throw a few suprises at you to say the least. Gameplay : So i've already said that you can pick up the game very easily. Big deal. There's a lot more to this game than meets the eye. The different levels have almost been choreographed to challenge every whim of the drivers ability. Better than that, the graphics are intense even at high speeds. The levels have a lot to give so here are some of the gameplay modes. Single player: Signle Race : So here you have your standard race mode. 1 race, 3 laps and a gold medal waiting at the end of the road. The different levels of difficulty come when you have played all four tracks on single player and then beaten all four in a row in a tournament mode. Unfortunately you can't just pick "Easy, Medium and Hard" because that would just make the game too short. Instead we have different classes of speed and difficulty. The first Category you are plunged into is the "Vector" category. This is very simple and, even as a first time player, can be very easy to get a medal in. There are 4 different circuits to start you off. Each circuit is made up of three laps and 7 opponents, 8 cars in all. Most of the time you'll find yourself in first position half way through the second lap. When i say the first category is easy, i mean it. Of course what kind of game would it be if there wasn't any challenge to it? So what London Studios have done is they have implemented the old damage counter from way back. This little thing is determined by how much shield your car has got depending on it's other stats. The stats of your car are Speed, Shield, Thrust and Handling. All important for each of the races you are put through. If one track has a lot of bends then you pick handling. If another track has alot of straights in it then you pick speed and thrust. There are many cars to choose from and they all have different stats. Tournament : This event is where you pick one car for a number consecutive races in your category. The races will be scored on where you finish in the race. 8 points is the maximum, going down to 6 for second place and then 0 for last place. The first category is reasonably simple. 4 races and easy opponents. As you defeat the tournaments and get Golds or Silvers or even Bronzes then you unlock new tracks or new tournaments. You can also unlock new categories each getting harder and much faster in the speed. Time Trial : This is your standard race against the clock. There are no enemies and no pick ups along the way. Just one pickup is allowed each lap and this is a boost. The only things left on the raceway are the boosters. The quicker you finish a Track in Time Trial the better medal you will get. The time you must beat is indicated by a clock in the upper right hand corner of your screen. This shows the bronze medal time. Before you race you can check the time which you must beat to get each medal. Zone : You can't stop. The only thing you have to stop you is the ever changing path of the track hurtling towards you. Fortunately you can pick whichever car you like and you can also use the L1 and R1 buttons to slow you down while turning. The sad thing is that whilst you are racing round the track you are also clocking up your speed each zone you pass. There are an unlimited amount of zones, though i doubt anyone has ever got to 50 zones in this game. There are about 2.5 zones a lap, give or take a few, and each zone you pass is another step towards a medal. The first track you start off with on Zone mode is called "Pro Tozo" although the name is changed it still resembles a track out of the first level. There are a number of zones you must get past in order to win a medal. In this track, 25 Zones will give you a Gold medal, 20 will give you a Silver and 15 will give you a Bronze. A Silver medal is enough to unlock a new track but you're really aiming for a gold (explained later). There are only 4 Zone tracks, thank god, but they range in difficulty. Once you get to the third Zone track the fun stops. This mode is for people who feel they can control any veichle at a high speed, although this mode gives you a premade car so that you cannot choose one with a low speed. It's a fun little mode to play. The more zones you pass, the quicker you get, making the game harder and much more intense. Free play : What game wouldn't be complete without a good old free play? This allows you to revisit old tracks and try and get a good lap time, or race against a ghost (pre-saved onto your memory chip) and see if you can score a better lap time than that. The ghost tends to be the fastest lap time you have on that track. This is for fun only. If you want to test out new tracks before going on them then this is for you. Once you get to harder levels of ability then you may need to play on free mode to learn how to handle a faster car, even on a track well know by you. Graphics: What can i say? Little short of fantastic! The tracks are nicely presented with great backgrounds and no fade when going into the distance. The cars themselves have a very high level of detail and look very nice and shiny. The only downside to this is that when your car takes on damage the look of your car still stays the same, which is rather poor considering the overall quality of game. Through and through the game is well presented and has a high quality level of graphical capability. Online: Both Multiplayer and Online are quite fun to look at if you're available to a wireless internet connection. Multiplayer mode pits you against opponents from all around the globe or even people standing 2 inches away from you. This is fun to play but has little means of communication with other players. It's a shame if you win because you can't go and laugh in their faces. Online mode takes you to the Wipeout Pure website. Here you can download new tracks and events aswell as fantastic new cars and upgrades to maps. If you have enough space on your memory stick then download them all, it's certainly worth downloading. Connection to the internet: This can be painfully slow at times. While searching for players can take from 2 seconds to 30 minutes connecting to the Wipeout Pure site can be very quick. There is no lagginess whatsoever while on the multiplayer mode. Even when running on the lowest of broadbands you can still recieve great connection once you've got it eventually. Ranking: The ranking system on Wipeout Pure is measured by how many gold Medals you have achieved in each event. There are 120 Medals to be won and 12 ranks to be achieved. From the lowest of the low "Rookie" to almost godlike "Pro" or "Master". Though getting 120 medals may seem more like a chore than an idea of fun it's nice to know that you've achieved something when you're in the game. Playability: This game gets boring after a while. It's repetetiveness of tracks makes the game seem very limited in size and lacking in the track department. With only 12 playable tracks on single play and 4 tracks on zone this game can get extremely tiresome when you start to realise that your hard work was really for nothing. It's an old system that goes back to Wipeout on the PS1 but it is very repetetive and it can sometimes feel like it's dragging on when you move up in class from 3 laps to 4. The playability factor isn't high although the game is addictive. Just not addictive enough. Overall: The game is good but lacks a certain aspect to it to make the game a whole lot better. It's addictive and fun for a while but it's not a game you would play all day if you had the choice. All in all the game gets a nice average score of 76%. Although not high it's still a very good game to play and has a lot of good features. It's got high speed thrills and good tracks but not alot of them. London Studioshave made a good game but it's never going to be an all time classic. (pictures coming soon) |
|
