Pure

"It's Pure alright - Pure Adrenaline"

As a genre ATV off-road racing games have, for all intents and purposes, been in a coma since the middle of the last generation. In recent years the number of releases for the genre has dropped and of those that still stumble to the market, most are just the same tired stuff that's been re-released again and again. If I may be so bold as to make this next statement, the whole genre has become stagnant and will probably fade from gaming entirely in the next few years. But Pure might just be the spark that is needed to reignite the whole scene.

GRAPHICS
Simply put, Pure is gorgeous. The environments span from the deserts of California, to the mountains of Italy and the jungles of Thailand with more besides, and each is amazing and realistic. Lighting is used to wonderful effect, glowing off blinding sand and filtering down through the rainforest canopy. The effects for mud and water are also impressive, with mud splattering and water spraying into the air as ATV's blaze through.

Riders and ATV's are of just as high quality. During a race, the rider will get covered in dirt and mud. Rider animations are also pretty cool as they struggle to keep the ATV under control during hard turns, and fight to stay on after a botched landing. The ATV's are modeled down to the last detail, and though they are rarely seen up close, the work put into them is obvious when you do.

A final cool little detail is the way the camera moves around the rider and ATV as it speeds through the course. It will lag to the side as if it is having trouble keeping pace, and fall back when you're pulling off tricks. The moving camera thing has been done in other games, but here it actually works because it not only gives the impression of teetering on the brink of control, but shows off the visual quality of the environments a bit more. The coolest example of this is when you ride off one of the insanely high jumps and bust out a huge trick. The game actually slows down, pans back and to the side, showing off the rider while giving a panoramic view of the entire landscape. Seeing your rider doing a backflip with the beautiful background of a forest lake and the surrounding mountains is something you're unlikely to find anywhere else.

SOUND
The soundtrack is comprised of a respectable number of rock songs, most of which are perfectly suited to careening through the mud and soaring through the air. This is, of course, much appreciated since without the music you'd be stuck listening to the high-pitched whine of ATV engines for the entire game. Other than that, you'll hear your rider give an excited yell every now and then.

GAMEPLAY
Upon starting Pure's career mode, most will immediately recognize that they've stepped into something entirely different. Instead of picking a random ride from a lineup, players are immediately charged with building their ATV, from the frame up. The whole process is fairly involved (you can press a button and get it assembled for you), but quite interesting. The performance parts all impact various aspects of the ATV, from top speed, acceleration and handling to boost and how quickly you can link tricks. After getting the performance the way you want it, you then move on to the cosmetic portion of the process, picking out the body, fenders and paint along with a host of other stuff. After finishing, it's time to set out for the Pure World Tour.

The game only offers three event types, the standard circuit race, sprints and freestyle. Sprint is a little different than what its name suggests. Instead of starting at one point and making a mad dash to someplace else, it's really a pint-sized circuit race. The big difference is that there are less jumps, which mean less tricking and therefore less boost.

The whole trick and boost system is relatively simple in theory, but mastering its proper usage is another matter entirely. The entire system is governed by the Thrill Bar, a small meter in the lower right hand corner of the screen. By pulling off tricks you earn boost. Pulling off tricks is pretty simple. It just involves pushing the left analog stick and pressing a button. You can tweak the trick by pressing one of the bumpers. At the start of any race you can only pull off simple tricks using the A button. After accumulating enough boost, you can pull off more impressive tricks using the B button and then the Y button. At any time it's possible to cash in accumulated boost for, obviously, a nitrous boost. However, if the Thrill Bar is completely filled, it is possible to earn a special trick. Once this is earned, you can boost away and use the special trick later to earn another full tank of boost. Learning when and where to boost or trick is key, because more often than not, boosting is the only way to cross the finish line first.

Finally, there is the granddaddy of race modes, Freestyle. Unlike other games that put you in an open arena with a bunch of stuff to jump off, this Freestyle mode takes place on a regular off-road course. There are just two little quirks. Instead of a timer, you run on a tank of gas which constantly drains. Secondly, the course is liberally scattered with power-ups such as the double score modifiers and gas refills. As you can no doubt imagine, Freestyle races are pure chaos as everyone tries to throw down the most insane tricks before running out of gas.

ATV physics, as should be plainly obvious by now, are well on the arcade side of the line. One hundred foot drops pose no threat, and tight rocky passes can be safely navigated going full throttle (with the nitrous flowing no less). Overall, the physics serve the game well.

There are a few problems to be had with the game. First and foremost, there are the other racers. In any given race there are sixteen people on the track and it always seems as if a few zoom off ahead of the others right out of the gate. Other times, I was in the lead, only to have a few racers zoom past and take an insurmountable lead in the last few laps of a race. The only real explanation to this phenomenon is a good old-fashioned cheating AI. Other than that, the game is just too shallow to boast any real lasting appeal. With only three race types it's likely that a person could get their fill of this game in a single weekend.

THE VERDICT
Pure is, without a doubt, the best ATV racer to come down the pipe in years. While it isn't a drastic reinvention of the formula, it does breathe new life into it with its trick based racing. Unfortunately, it lacks enough depth to make it truly great.

HIGHS
- Gorgeous graphics
- Intricate ATV customization
- Intuitive trick system
- Freestyle races

LOWS
- Cheating AI
- Shallow

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/08, Updated 05/05/09

Game Release: Pure (US, 09/23/08)