When the PlayStation 3 released, it was filled with excitement and anticipation and perhaps some of the best launch games ever. It wasn’t until two years later that a shiny black box was in my possession and even then, several of the initial titles were stacked on my shelf. One of those games was Motorstorm. Since its venture in Monument Valley, Evolution Studios has since conquered the man-made circuits of the tropical jungle and the freezing arctic, spreading across to the handheld portion of Sony’s empire. Now, the motoring festival takes to the city and it couldn’t be more dangerous.

Previous Motorstorm games, lacked an obvious feature that was never really missed, a plot. Before, it was just straight up festival racing but all that changes with Apocalypse. The basic and predictable storyline is that people need somewhere to race, and they chose the City which just so happened to be experiencing the biggest earthquake since records began. Even though Motorstorm has gotten on perfectly fine without a story, it certainly managed to engage, whilst not being the most imaginative of storylines, although to some people, it will seem like a useless addition. What is puzzling though, is how the narrative is told. In between races, you are presented with a motion comic which is used as the story telling device but, due to their clunkiness, they never really show you why Evolution adopted it and just feel out-of-place.

Fortunately, not everything has changed so dramatically. Once you get racing, players will feel right at home and will have a blast, literally. Races start off simple enough with the first not even being a proper races, more of a tutorial, teaching you the ins and outs. After a few races though, it gets into the familiar Motorstorm rhythm of ramming opponents off the course and making sure you don’t crash into a fork in the road. Then the quakes, explosions and gunfire make a timely introduction. Unlike explosive racer Split/Second, you can’t control these events and this forces you to stay focused or you run the risk of losing the race. Aside from the gunfire, they have a detrimental effect on the tracks themselves but the key factor about this is that it changes the course for the remainder of the race. At no point does the track reset and this alone provides for an interesting experience. The base design for the course is also terrific and every track feels like it’s from the same city while also providing varied environments.

The single player campaign is split into three stories over the same three days but from different perspectives. Each story has around thirteen races and they all begin and end with a unique segment. The very first ‘race’ starts with you following another vehicle to the festival headquarters while introducing the buttons while the end of the chapter sees you escape the collapsing city before the aircraft carrier (HQ) leaves. These are some of the most visually spectacular parts of the game and where the graphics really come into their own. Barely a race goes by without you having to pick up your jaw, because a quake has split the road in two or a Boeing 747 comes crashing down. Throughout every race, you are unable to choose what vehicle you will ride in and, while this seems like an annoyance at first, it forces you to race in vehicles you otherwise wouldn’t choose. It makes you race in other ways and forces you to change the routes you travel.

On the subject of vehicles, Apocalypse brings in a few more vehicle types from Pacific Rift. Bikes have now been split into Choppers, Superbikes and Dirt bikes while new classes such as muscles, supercars and superminis are introduced into the series. All classes have three vehicles and must be unlocked online by levelling up and completing challenges, which also reward parts that you can use to personalise your cars. This customisation is a massive upgrade from simply changing the livery and is a huge time sink for players who want to make their vehicles unique. Literally everything can be modified from the front bumper to the roof scoops and the spoilers to the wheels.

Aside from the collectible car parts, there are also one hundred and fifty cards for you to find while racing. These are hidden in obscure places and only sixteen were found during my first playthrough, so it will require a lot of time to find all of them and will encourage a lot of replays. Even though, Apocalypse doesn’t feel like a festival, it is still wonderful to crash against other racers with a great drum‘n’bass soundtrack. Disappointingly, the addition of the collectibles just feels like a cheap attempt to extend what is a considerably short career mode, one that is both briefer and easier, than Pacific Rift.

In addition to the single player portion of the game, there is Wreckreation. Containing stats like trophies, unlocks and where you can customise your vehicles, it acts as a hub for aspects of the Cheshire-developed title, but also contains the multiplayer. Too many releases these days omit the inclusion of a local multiplayer experience, which is why it is one of the best features Motorstorm. Up to four players can take part in the local split-screen and it is what every racer should include as it is a perfect and very welcome feature. Evolution has decided to go one better than that though as you can take that four player split-screen into the world of online play. As is the norm with most arcade racing games, it is always better to play online and against more human opponents.

As previously mentioned, the online segment allows you to complete drifting, air time and wrecking challenges and ultimately unlock new vehicles as you progress through eighty levels. As you can imagine, playing online adds a certain amount of tension to races but there is also a little degree of tactics added to Apocalypse. Betting against other racers adds this strategy as you can choose to gain a small amount of almost guaranteed chips (which acts as XP) and bet against a weak player or you can risk going after the stronger racer for big cash but you may end up with nothing. One new addition that caused a bit of anger amongst fans was the inclusion of perks. These perks can range from lasting longer in critical boost to ramming costing no boost when in critical. Fortunately, the perks are perfectly balanced and not once do you feel cheated out of a position but it also allows for tight races giving you the opportunity to catch up to other racers.

Motorstorm Apocalypse manages to bring a good amount of new features to the series while keeping the feel we know and love. It may not be the perfect racer but, with upgrades to vehicle customisation and online racing seeming a lot fairer, it isn’t a million miles off.