It's All in the Reflexes
Rainbow Studios and THQ prep the latest MX vs. ATV entry and we go hands-on.
Published: October 16, 2009
The good guys and gals at Rainbow Studios were stuck in something of a proverbial rut. After being acquired by THQ back in 2001, they were essentially turned into the publisher's in-house off-road racing sweat farm -- not exactly a huge change from what the company had been doing already for years, but the switch to a mandated seemingly yearly release format had meant a shortened development timeline and pressure to release... something around 12 months after the last game with little in the way of deviation.
It was, all told, a pretty natural progression, though. The Arizona-based dev house had been slowly marching toward a seasonal effort for a while now, starting with their Motocross Madness games on the PC for Microsoft, then moving to the fantastic first few ATV Offroad Fury games for Sony, going back to bikes with MX Unleashed, then finally combining the two with MX vs. ATV Unleashed. Unleashed begat, Untamed, which begat Reflex, but don't think of the second next-gen offroad racer as merely the continuation of what came before.
This is, in a very real sense, the graduation of those basic ideas into something that feels like a fully built-up product -- something that goes bigger and farther than the previous games' building blocks could account for -- and much of that comes down to the brand new engine that Rainbow has scrapped together. At the heart of everything are two very important additions to the formula that was created thus far: terrain deformation and what the studio is calling "rider reflex" (read: the ability to control both vehicle and rider independently), and both additions elevate the experience in a way that makes it feel like the game has finally come into its own.
Make no mistake, Rainbow Studios is attempting to nip at the heels of Evolution Studios' MotorStorm franchise. At the Vegas event where they showed off the game (and allowed us a little time with actual ATVs and bikes and an actual MX event as a nice little frame of reference), comments about it being "true" deformation where the suspension would react to things was mentioned more than once. We're not sure if it was meant as a dig at Sony's off-road racer (MotorStorm's vehicles do indeed react quite clearly to the changes in terrain), but it's a moot point as the experience is quite a bit different anyway; there are no pairings of big rigs, buggies and bikes all jostling for the same position on multi-layered tracks here, no festival setting on some out-of-the-way locale. MX vs. ATV Reflex keeps things decidedly more grounded in actual events.
We're not going to speak to one's approach over another; both serve their purpose quite ably and stand side-to-side without a whole lot in the way of crossover and we're sure that's something both THQ and Sony are happy about. If you want an island or butte overtaken by a rave-like confluence of petrol heads and throaty vehicles, MotorStorm can supply that just fine. If you want real riders, tracks and vehicles taken from the upcoming 2010 racing season, Reflex will take care of you too. Everybody wins. We did want to bring that other off-roader up because there's an obvious (and welcome) influence on the rest of the genre -- even if one's not quite as arcade-oriented as the other.
MX vs. ATV Reflex feels more like a next-gen effort, though, not because of some whiz-bang new graphics tech, but because that tech is feeding directly into what the studio is attempting with the next version of their racer. If you take the breadth of riding surfaces and locales, mash up all the various motocross, stunt and open air event spaces and combine that with a free-riding experience that no other series can lay a finger on, you have a pretty good idea of where things are going this time around.
It was, all told, a pretty natural progression, though. The Arizona-based dev house had been slowly marching toward a seasonal effort for a while now, starting with their Motocross Madness games on the PC for Microsoft, then moving to the fantastic first few ATV Offroad Fury games for Sony, going back to bikes with MX Unleashed, then finally combining the two with MX vs. ATV Unleashed. Unleashed begat, Untamed, which begat Reflex, but don't think of the second next-gen offroad racer as merely the continuation of what came before.
This is, in a very real sense, the graduation of those basic ideas into something that feels like a fully built-up product -- something that goes bigger and farther than the previous games' building blocks could account for -- and much of that comes down to the brand new engine that Rainbow has scrapped together. At the heart of everything are two very important additions to the formula that was created thus far: terrain deformation and what the studio is calling "rider reflex" (read: the ability to control both vehicle and rider independently), and both additions elevate the experience in a way that makes it feel like the game has finally come into its own.
Make no mistake, Rainbow Studios is attempting to nip at the heels of Evolution Studios' MotorStorm franchise. At the Vegas event where they showed off the game (and allowed us a little time with actual ATVs and bikes and an actual MX event as a nice little frame of reference), comments about it being "true" deformation where the suspension would react to things was mentioned more than once. We're not sure if it was meant as a dig at Sony's off-road racer (MotorStorm's vehicles do indeed react quite clearly to the changes in terrain), but it's a moot point as the experience is quite a bit different anyway; there are no pairings of big rigs, buggies and bikes all jostling for the same position on multi-layered tracks here, no festival setting on some out-of-the-way locale. MX vs. ATV Reflex keeps things decidedly more grounded in actual events.
We're not going to speak to one's approach over another; both serve their purpose quite ably and stand side-to-side without a whole lot in the way of crossover and we're sure that's something both THQ and Sony are happy about. If you want an island or butte overtaken by a rave-like confluence of petrol heads and throaty vehicles, MotorStorm can supply that just fine. If you want real riders, tracks and vehicles taken from the upcoming 2010 racing season, Reflex will take care of you too. Everybody wins. We did want to bring that other off-roader up because there's an obvious (and welcome) influence on the rest of the genre -- even if one's not quite as arcade-oriented as the other.
MX vs. ATV Reflex feels more like a next-gen effort, though, not because of some whiz-bang new graphics tech, but because that tech is feeding directly into what the studio is attempting with the next version of their racer. If you take the breadth of riding surfaces and locales, mash up all the various motocross, stunt and open air event spaces and combine that with a free-riding experience that no other series can lay a finger on, you have a pretty good idea of where things are going this time around.
