- Title: MX vs. ATV Untamed
- Platform:Xbox 360
- Publisher: THQ
- Developer: Rainbow Studios
- ESRB Rating: “E” for Everyone
- Genre: Offroad racing
- Pros: Tons of stuff to do; huge outdoor levels are extremely well done; motorcycles feel great
- Cons: Game can’t decide if it wants to be a sim or arcade title; presentation is inconsistent
Features
MX vs. ATV Untamed builds upon the foundation laid down by the MX games on the Xbox by just cramming as much content as possible onto the disc. You can race different classes of motorcycles, ATVs, monster trucks, sand rails, trophy trucks, and more. There are a ton of different events and tracks to race on as well including both indoor supercross tracks and huge outdoor levels. You can play in quick races and custom events, but the meat of the game comes in the X-Cross Tournament mode. In X-Cross, there are a number of events to choose from representing each of the different race types in the game. The variety of events is definitely a plus in X-Cross, and there are a ton of them so it will take you quite a while to beat it.
There is also, of course, online play and local multiplayer. You’ll find all of the normal race modes along with a couple of cool new modes. Graffiti is just like in Tony Hawk where you perform tricks on jumps and you “own” it until someone beats your score. Snake plays like the light cycles in Tron in that you leave a trail behind you and other racers have to avoid it by going under or jumping over it. Very cool.
Gameplay
Outdoor events take place in huge open worlds that are easily the highlight of the game. Unlike the last game where there weren’t any visible boundaries and you unexpectedly got slapped back into the middle of the level by an invisible hand if you strayed too far, the open world levels in Untamed all feature lakes or highways or other markers so you always know where the boundaries are. That is a big improvement. These huge levels also are where you’ll get to use monster trucks or trophy trucks and more and really build up some speed.
That brings up a slight complaint, though. There are a bunch of different vehicles in Untamed, but none of them other than the motorcycles really feel all that good. They are fun to drive, sort of, but the thrill wears off very quickly. I would rather the focus was just on making one or two vehicles as perfect as possible than having a whole bunch of merely average vehicles.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, MX vs. ATV Untamed is pretty inconsistent. The vehicles all look pretty good, but the tracks vary wildly. The indoor tracks have bland textures and flat lighting and they all kind of look the same. The outdoor tracks, on the other hand, are all surprisingly great looking and feature nice lighting and water effects and are rather realistic. They aren’t just big open patches of desert like in previous game and feature other riders and highways with cars on them and even normal people just out having a picnic or doing whatever. And each open world level is absolutely massive and has a lot of varied terrain all in the same level.The sound is unspectacular for the most part. The engine sounds are okay, but they don’t always match up with what you are actually doing. Also, there isn’t much of a range beyond just idle, full throttle racing, and the high RPMs when you use the clutch. Better engine sounds would have been appreciated. The soundtrack is made up of a lot of rock and punk tracks that are fine, but extremely predictable and played out after years of “x-treme” games that all used the same stuff.
Bottom Line
