Blur Multiplayer Beta Impressions
The experience I had with the Blur multiplayer beta was mixed: I was left with both positives and negatives after a large chunk of play time. Bizarre Creations had a mighty big task (for me at least) to make a more enjoyable racing game than their previous one, Project Gotham Racing 4. The PGR series is a personal favourite of mine and whilst they may not be the best racing games around they are certainly the racing games I’ve had the best times with.
I had completely forgotten however about Blur until reminded to grab a beta code for the multiplayer. Interest piqued again, I waited until the email came through with my code and I downloaded and jumped into the beta with both eagerness and trepidation. In some way, I’m grateful that I wasn’t massively impressed with the outcome because in the back of my mind I must have known that no matter how hard Bizarre tried, they wouldn’t make a better racing game (again, for me at least) than PGR4.
Mixing an array of racing titles such as Need for Speed, Forza Motorsport, Project Gotham, Ridge Racer, Wipeout and even Mario Kart, the experience you have is ultimately affected by this. For the multiplayer side anyway, there is a ranking system slightly akin to Forza that you earn points for depending on what you do in races. The beta offers four different modes with six different tracks and several Modern Warfare-esque challenges to complete externally. The two modes I’ve experienced and most people will are unlocked from the start and both are basic races disguised as alternate game modes.
You start off with a handful of cars, all modelled with great realism: if you take any big positive from Blur, it’s the visual quality. The cars look fantastic, the landscapes look realistic and blend well with the shine and pace of the lights that flash and “blur” whilst driving at breakneck speeds. Visually, Blur is sound. The realism isn’t Forza standard but it’s pretty much on-par with PGR4 (at least with the cars).
Taking your shiny car to the track, the main objective is to win a race. To win you have to beat the other opponents to the line but there are several factors affecting how you do this that come in the form of powerups. There are multiple powerups that offer you different powers such as speed boost, mines, seeking missiles and shields and they are scattered over the tracks in numerous locations. Let me put it this way: the more offensive powerups you use, the more likely you’ll win. Speed and missiles are the most effective, whilst the other powerups have minimal use in the grand scheme of things. Keep picking up speed boosts and missiles consistently and you’ll probably win.
There are a fair chunk of powerups but after a few races you’ll feel a sense of unwelcome familiarity creep in. The powerups don’t seem varied or creative enough and once you’ve found that speed and missile powerups work wonders you’ll see little reason to go for anything else. This in itself is an issue because if looking at this from a Mario Kart perspective, Blur takes the bad side of the powerup system from Mario Kart and doesn’t factor in the good side- when in first place you’re completely subsceptible to missiles and other weapon and there’s little you can do except dodge and evade as much as possible. The powerups on the track are available to everyone and don’t waiver, so what you get everyone else can get.
Blur looks excellent, no question.
In Mario Kart, if you were in last it would give you an advantage to even up the odds. In Blur, if you’re in last you have the same odds as everyone else but if you’re in first you are actually at a disadvantage in that you don’t need weapons and everyone behind you will send attacks at you. One of those attacks hit and odds are you’ll probably get hit by another. You will probably lose first place to second and will have to play catch-up but if you’re more than halfway through a race you’re unlikely to win. By the time you’ve recuperated from the position losing hit(s) you’ll be at such a disadvantage that you’ll find it difficult to chase down first place and take it back.
This frustrated me because I found myself in first several times and losing the position because I focused on maintaining speed and my position and not anything else which gave other racers the chance to take advantage. This is where my next issue factors in.
The handbrake feels overly sensitive whilst the brakes not sensitive enough, so you find yourself around most corners fighting for control – the culmination of this usually leaves you bouncing off the walls or dropping a sharp amount of crucial speed. The game isn’t massively horrific to control but for a game that relies on the winner having consistency and tactical precision, the rusty and stiff braking control does nothing to help you.
Driving in a straight line is absolutely fine and even basic moving from side to side is fine too – just be wary of every corner that’s more than 90 degrees… Blur seems to want you to mimic Ridge Racer’s drift style (it even rewards drifting with points) but the execution of drift is either accidental or forced: it doesn’t feel natural in Blur to slide around a corner and you’ll usually be left lamenting your decision to drift when you drop a few places on the grid because someone else went for either the slow & steady or breakneck “bounce off the side” strategy.
This is the main problem above all else: it’s confused in its intention. It’s in a new but murky area where arcade simulation is combined with realistic cars, landscapes & controls. On paper, Blur should be highly intriguing and to a certain extent it is but once the initial wow factor of “look at the shiny!” has passed, you’re left with an awkwardly uneven driving experience that sits in a purgatory genre.
Overall Impressions:
You can’t fault the presentation of the game. It’s the game itself that’s at fault: it tries to blend together realistic driving simulation with arcade aspects to create a hybrid racing game and the end product isn’t as great as it sounds. Perhaps the single player will yield a better experience – it’s the game play that the issue lies with, not the multiplayer component.
With Split/Second and Gran Turismo 5 both on the way and Forza 3 already well-established, I can’t see Blur making the impact the developers would hope for. That being said, some will find the smash and bash racing & the ranking system to their tastes.
This beta was played on the Xbox 360. Blur will be released on May 25th in the USA and May 28th in the EU on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
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