MotorHEAT: Review

Most Indie made by start up, young companies. However there are the odd Indie games which stand out. And this is one of them, the car you race in may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but it looks sleek enough to pass for a sports car, and you have a limited amount of customisation (spraying the car different colours) to suit whatever tastes.

Where this game shines though is the greatly detailed and good looking backgrounds to the tracks. Rolling hills look great and it just makes the game seem more than just mindless racing on a track. The game even has a mini day/night cycle, which I didn’t expect from an Indie game.

The aim of the game is to dodge cars as closely as possible to fill your boost bar and then continue to zoom closely past these cars at break- neck speeds. This is where the game impresses. Flying down the road whizzing past cars feels very good, especially when you can pull of a good run and continue to speed down the highway. When you crash though, you’re greeted with a little crash animation, and then you can continue on.

Times you get are posted onto leaderboards and the game encourages you to progress onto the next level and beat your times. But it’s just not that addictive, unlike Trials HD, the brilliant XBLA smash from last year, you don’t feel the need to go back to beat your friends time or get to the next level, and I think this is what lets the game down slightly. You can play it for a short while but then there’s no incentive to push on to that next level or beat that illusive time. But, it is an indie game, and they’re only 80 Microsoft Points each, so I would recommend picking this game up for the initial fun, it’s worth it for that.

Review by Daniel Brookes