When you combine some cool sci fi racing (which usually
entails extreme speeds and lots of weapons) with action-based gameplay, what you
come up with is a neat blending of styles that tends to cater to a larger gaming
audience. Games like F-Zero and Wipeout began the trend with some nifty speeds
and exploding vehicles, not to mention some destructive weapons, and throughout
the years we’ve seen some copies of those kinds of titles hit the shelves. A
little while back, there was a game that came out offering high speed,
futuristic, and deadly bike racing called Extreme G III … and now the sequel to
that game has come out known as XGRA (Extreme G Racing Association). While it
doesn’t provide a whole lot new to the style of 600 MPH speed and vehicular
combat style future racing, it does improve on the original in a couple of ways.
XGRA casts the player in the
role of one of 8 racers, each with his or her own personality and reasons for
being in the league. For some, like Inferno, it’s looking to gain enough
exposure in the public’s eye to tell the world how one of the major corporations
ruined his life by using him as a lab experiment. Others, like Diva, are looking
to simply further their modeling career or do like
Romulus
and get enough money to open his own corporation. Whichever personality you
choose to play with, the overall object of the game is to participate in high
speed races through various circuits looking to win money, pick up sponsorship,
and win the title while making a few shaky alliances and enemies along the way.
Players who are veterans to
games like Wipeout or the original Extreme G III will have little to no problem
hopping right in and going to work, since game additions are easy to fit right
into the big picture. The sponsors that you select from each have their own
unique bike that you will ride, and each one has different variances in things
like speed, shielding, and handling. In addition, each one carries its own
unique set of basic weaponry as well, so you may be blasting enemies from behind
with mounted machine guns or lobbing explosives at them, and each is upgraded a
level (up to 3) as you destroy opponents. In addition, the standard powerup
collecting for secondary weapons is found here as well, but in a little
different manner than what you may be used to.
OK … anyone whose run some
year 2080 – 5000 AD races have found themselves zipping around the tracks
grabbing everything from super speed to shockwaves to explosives when launching
secondary weapons attacks. In XGRA, the secondary weapon that you use is based
on sort of a stack system rather than a particular color or type. As you zoom
around the track, weapon powerups are simply green orbs that sit on the track.
If you pick up one, you are permitted to initialize the primary special weapon
which is a shield draining beam called the Vampyre, but holding off and
collecting more will allow you to launch a more powerful attack like super
speed, mines, or even the ultimate space launched satellite beam known as the
Deathstrike. Anyways, each power pickup (officially called “portals”) moves your
available secondary weapon up by one so you can decide when and what you want to
use the ability.
Another thing that I noticed
in XGRA versus the Extreme G III title is that the tracks seemed to be a little
better designed this time around, and in more of a Wipeout fashion. In EGIII, I
often found myself getting killed a lot not due to weapon fire, but due to
running into the walls too much. Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t do my fair
share of pinballing from rail to rail in XGRA, but the developers seemed to have
added in more areas of wider maneuvering (like desert canyons) and gently
curving turns with the claustrophobic and twisty turny areas to help with
balance. Since you have many speed pads that give you that extra boost of turbo
on the fly as you do with many future racing games, it helps in being able to
hit one and have fun with the speed for a bit rather than just slamming into a
corner.
One thing that acts in both
a positive and a negative standpoint in my opinion with XGRA is the level
progression. The career mode is broken into individual circuits, each with a
number of event races (bad weather, warmonger, etc) containing 3 tracks each.
Since you are sponsored, each race requires you to meet a certain contractual
agreement, like killing another rider or setting the best lap time, and
progression from one circuit to the next is based on the number of points you
obtain versus being in first place all the time. In a nutshell, the positive
here is that if you come in 4th or worse in a few races since you had
to slow down to get behind and kill the rider that your contract was for, it
doesn’t mean that you have to call it a day and start over. The downside to this
is that it also makes it easy to run through all of the circuits pretty quickly,
and most veterans to this kind of racing game will be able to burn through it in
a weekend. The draw to keep playing is to try and beat it with all of the
individual racers, but many people just don’t find that reason enough to go all
the way back to square one again.
Graphically, XGRA was pretty
darned impressive in my opinion (even while rocketing by things at 600 – 800+
MPH). The track layouts were creative and pretty balanced as I stated before,
and the locations of the races will take you from scorched deserts to underwater
facilities in a pretty good mix of environments.
The sound in XGRA was
probably my favorite part of the game for a couple of reasons … those being
dance and rock. The developers were nice enough to include the option to play
either blaring dance tracks by such artists as BT or blistering, heavy rock (not
that watered down pop stuff) that will truly help you get in the mood to rumble
with groups like Alien Breed and Noise Therapy. The bike sounds didn’t fare
quite as well though since they all tend to have that same high pitched, whiny
noise going on, and while it was interesting to see rival racers pop up and make
comments at you when attacked, it got really old after a couple of times playing
since they tend to pop up every couple of seconds to say something to you.
Ultimately, I turned the sound and voice volumes down and blasted the rock music
up and didn’t miss out on anything at all.
Overall, XGRA provides a fun
futuristic racing title for you Wipeout or Extreme G III (EGIII) fans looking
for a little something new to run with. Even though it may be a short ride for a
lot of you, the game does improve over the original and has a lot of high speed
and damaging weapons to play with to keep you entertained for a while.
Gameplay: 7.1
XGRA seems to
have improved on its predecessor with some improved track designs and better
bike handling, not to mention the unique “stackable” model of the secondary
weaponry. The game is pretty easy to run through due to the progression based on
points rather than victories, and makes the game seem to get done with too
quickly.
Graphics: 7.8
The graphics
looked good, with some nifty lighting and insane track designs. In addition,
parts of the track like billboards and such can be blown off and demolished
riders remain on the track as smoldering remains.
Sound: 7.7
Personally, I
loved the music tracks … but the sounds of the bike engines and weaponry could
have been improved on a little more. In addition, having each rider show his or
her personality by popping up and making comments when attacked was cool, but
not necessary every two seconds. Ultimately I turned the sounds down and the
music up and still got just as much out of it.
Difficulty: Easy
The AI puts up a
decent challenge, so “easy” is not to say that you’ll cruise to a 1st
place each time. Rather, the point progression system just winds up making the
game go by a little too quickly.
Concept: 7.5
The influence of
games like F-Zero and Wipeout are painfully obvious here, but XGRA makes
improvements over the EGIII title that was put out a couple of years ago, and is
moving in the right direction.
Multiplayer: 7.7
Up to four racers can hop in
and have some futuristic fun in XGRA. While I enjoyed the single player mode,
playing with multiple live opponents just adds to the fun.
Overall: 7.1
While XGRA is a
lot of fun to play and I liked what Akklaim did over EGIII, it just may not be
worth the purchase price for many of you hardcore sci-fi racers. If you’re
looking for something to play aside from the GC F-Zero title or Wipeout Fusion,
give it a go … but you may want to rent it first just to see if it’s something
you may come back to for a while to come.
