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| Summary: Great Game, Once You Learn the Mechanics
When I bought the PSP, GTA wasn't available yet at my local store so I decided to pick up Wipeout: Pure coz all the rave-reviews, lovely interfaces and the Designers Republic background kinda influenced me. Got home, opened up the packaging to be greeted by a nicely designed Manual/Inlay, UMD and Inner Cover (first PSP game I've seen this on, but I've got only 2 so far :P) Right there I'd give Wipeout Pure a 10 on Package design!
Next, Popped in the UMD and waited for the game to boot up, and screen after screen (loading, intro cinematic, menu, track/craft selection) I was visually amazed by the designs on the interfaces and how the studio has stayed in line with the whole theme of the game. So far so good.
And then the Race began. 3 minutes later I was disappointed. I had no idea how to properly play this game. I couldn't believe I had spent my cash on this instead of waiting for GTA to arrive. But I read review after review on this game before buying it, whats going on?
So I gave it another try, went to the controls and.. Air brakes? after about 10 minutes of learning to properly air-brake I was rocking the tracks! and so the fun began! So yes I'd say W:P has a kinda steep learning curve. All you budding anti-grav racers, try this: press left-right-left-right or vice versa on a jump.
Graphically, W:P has to be seen in person as screens simply do it no justice nor does movies on line. Its the little effects that make this amazing like the blinding flash of light as your eyes adjust to the light after coming out of a dark tunnel, the little drops of water falling on to the screen from the rain in the Sinucit track, the windmills that seem to be floating in space next to the track in Sebenco Climb. These tracks are gorgeous, my personal favorite being Sol 2. Some of the crafts I thought could have used a bit more work but its still amazing how they are pushing this type of graphics on the handheld.
Sound-wise, W:P has a nice section of techno, from back beats to drum n' bass (I'm not really up to par with the sub-genres of techno) but song-selection definitely kept me in mood with the game. The announcer sounds good (futuristic?) and the announcements are kept short and informative unlike the sometimes-cheesy Ridge Racer Announcer! The ships and weapons sound belivable as well. The whole sound got a nice bit of oomph after I connected it to my Sound System at home and I bet it sounds as good with a good pair of earphones as well.
Gameplay, the crafts on the beginner class, Vector, start at a nice enough speed for the beginners to the Wipeout series to get used to and ramp up gradually with the classes (Venom, Flash, Rapier and Phantom) to the point where its you, your reflexes and the track. If they made this game any faster, I swear my eyes would start to bleed! When it comes to the mechanics its all about precision air-braking, anticipation of turns and using your power ups intelligently. You get a selection of 10 power-ups (Auto-Pilot, Nitro, Shield, Plasma, Missiles, Rockets, Quake, Disruption Bolt, Mines and Bomb) the manual does a nice job of explaining what each one does. Hint: learn the weapon icons! You can either use the weapons with the Square button of press Circle to add it to your shields (coz once the shields go down its Game-Over, baby!) this adds a nice strategic element to the game.
The game modes presented are Single-Race, Tournament, Time trial and Zone. Zone mode is where its just you and the absolutely-minimal-but-simply-gorgeous-track (W:P level designers are TALENTED!) This is an endurance race of sorts where each lap is divided into a number of zones and every 5 zones the top-speed of your ship is increased. Heres the catch, there are no power ups meaning no way to boost up your shields. So basically, its “how many zones can you endure before you blow up your ship?”. Zone is ADDICTING. Getting Gold medals on all four zone tracks will unlock the ship for the other race-modes (trust me, its not easy!)
Another thing I have to touch on is the download packs available through Sony for FREE! There are about four packs which add about 12 more stellar tracks to the already great lineup and some skins to the ships. Be sure to check out the Omega pack if you have an European version of the game.
Where Overall Value is concerned, I think this game nails it coz the tourneys are not easy enough to tackle all at once as the later classes will require some training before you attempt, getting gold in single player races will unlock more tracks for you to race on and Zone mode will keep you coming back for more! And with the download packs available and more in the works I give Studio Liverpool a well deserved pat on the back on a game-well-done!
This is a DEFINITE Must-Buy for PSP Owners!
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