ATV Offroad Fury 4

A pleasant surprise, says Paul

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I wasn't filled with much hope when ATV Offroad Fury 4 landed in my lap, not only was it apparently the fourth in a series that had flown pretty much completely under my gaming radar until this point, it was also a PS2 game in a racing game sub-genre that was hardly filled with classics. The whole thing seemed to scream 'end of console shovelware' at me from every shiny pore. So I sat down to play, notepad at the ready, all set to catalogue the series of gaming faux-pas I was fully intending to find.

You can imagine my surprise then when a couple of hours later I put down the controller and realised that not only had I thoroughly enjoyed myself I'd also not written a single negative thing on my still pristine pad. Not a bad start.

The first nice thing you notice is that all the game modes you'd expect are included as well as a couple you may not. We have your standard quick race option which lets you pick from any of the event classes and get straight down to it, then there's the classic mode which is your typical set of multi-race tournaments. The training mode does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin giving you a basic grounding in the best way to drive each of the many vehicle types. There's also a track editor to play around with, it may not be the most sophisticated example ever but it's a very welcome little extra.

On top of all that there's also a single player story mode which attempts to string together a load of multi-race tournaments using a story which touches on pretty much every cliché in the book. Cast as either a male of female driver (nice touch) on the comeback trail after a breakdown induced hiatus from racing you'll have to work your way up from the bottom again competing against the odds... etc, etc... Okay, so it's not exactly going to trouble Mass Effect, it's linear to a fault and the cut-scenes that push the plot onwards are poorly scripted and acted but it's also just the kind of thing I'd like to see more of in racing games, and in its own cheesy way it kind of works.

The races themselves come in a number of different flavours; you've got Supercross, Rallycross, point-to-point, freestyle, national, circuit, and sponsor events. There are also four different vehicle classes to race them in, dune buggies, trophy trucks, MX bikes and of course ATV quad racers (all of which are upgradeable using credits you'll earn in races). While normally different races are for different vehicles the highlight of the game is the point-to-point events which see you racing from A to B rather than around a track and allow all four vehicle types to compete against each other. To even things out in these events Climax have included multiple paths through each race which are colour coded to indicate which vehicle type they're best suited for. Of course there's nothing stopping you from ignoring their advice and speeding down other paths but it's a classic risk/reward thing and you'll soon start to learn when it's worth risking and when it's not. All the paths cross over and merge at various point too so you have plenty of chances to make those choices as the race progresses.

The driving model for each vehicle type is another area where ATV 4 impresses. Whether you're in the bigger heavier trucks or the small bouncy quad racers, they all feel just right. This enables you to feel completely in control of your charge at all times which is handy considering the large number of terrain changes, swooping bends, hairpin turns, jumps and slopes built into the impressive track design.

Despite my initial blank sheet of problems ATV 4 isn't perfect and further playing time revealed a few niggles hiding under the surface. For a start the AI isn't the most impressive, with other drivers often seeming more than a little blinkered when it comes to noticing the presence of the other drivers around them, you included. The novel sounding 'rival' system that's supposed to introduce a degree of personal vendetta to races by giving you someone who's generally out to get you is also far less interesting in practice than it could have been.

The biggest moan however is reserved for the freestyle events. These are points based challenges where you perform specific tricks or manoeuvres in return for the aforementioned points. The problem is that due to the very nature of some of the vehicles, trucks for example, it's harder to pull off tricks and impressive feats in them than the more suitable bikes. To try and compensate the developers have chosen to award points for pretty much anything when you're in the more lumbering vehicles which is painfully out of whack with the complex stunts required for similar points when using something more suitable. This imbalance soon becomes frustrating ensuring that the freestyle events are avoided as much as possible which is a shame as they could have been a lot of fun.

Graphically it's pretty impressive for a PS2 game, it may look a bit old fashioned to eyes more accustomed to the HD gloss of the current generation of consoles but once you're past that initial bias there's some nice touches and attention to detail that indicate the PS2 is being pushed as much as can be expected.

For those of you with a PS2 network adaptor there's also extensive online options once you've had enough of the single player offerings. Up to eight racers can compete in both single races and online tournaments and in a flash of genius you're able to use tracks created in the editor online as well which creates unlimited possibilities.

It may not be the coolest console around any more but the PS2 is still managing to play home to some cracking games in its twilight years. ATV Offroad Fury 4 is a perfect example of this fact, not only is it the best game so far in this underrated series it's also one of the most enjoyable racing games around at the moment for any console.

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By Paul Newcombe