Pure (Xbox 360) Review

Posted by Mark Salmela on 10.30.2008

In a season packed with off-road racers does Pure manage to stand out from the pack?




I must admit, I don’t typically associate Disney with off-road arcade racers *although the developers previously made the ATV Off-Road games*. But much to my surprise, here we are with Pure. Pure is quite an interesting game, as the best comparison I can make is to say that Pure is like SSX on ATV’s. A huge part of Pure is all about pulling off totally tubular tricks while catching some mad air. In fact, you may get so caught up in catching some big air that you may forget you’re in the middle of a race. That’s a good thing of course, as I must admit it’s a refreshing change of pace to a genre that hasn’t exactly seen a lot of innovations this generation *the only thing that I can think of is Motorstorm*. Anyways, onto the full review!



Graphics


Now would be a good time to “Quote Buy Print” with Esurance.


Pure is quite a beautiful game. Although in my opinion any racing game that isn’t cutting-edge these days in terms of graphics deserves to be shun but Pure is a flat out gorgeous game. What makes Pure so beautiful is the epic landscape that you see as your racer goes soaring 100 feet into the air. You truly feel as if you’re flying yourself as you gaze into the never-ending distance all while having that sense of speed that is required for such a fast pace racer. In fact, the only real complaint that I had with the graphics was with the character models, as maybe it’s just me, but I was constantly bothered with the way your racer’s shirt waved back and forth. Yeah it’s a minor detail, but considering you never leave the viewpoint of directly behind your racer it’s an annoying reminder that you’re playing a video game as the back of your character’s shirt has an aneurism every time you go airborne. But don’t listen to my nitpicking, Pure is gorgeous, everything from the epic landscapes to the awesome trick animations. Pure is definitely one of the best looking racers on the market *if not the best*.



Gameplay


You damn kids ATV’ing all over the sidewalk.


As I said above Pure takes an interesting twist on the genre by mixing arcade style racing controls with SSX style tricks for boosts. Every racer has the opportunity to pull off basic level tricks at any time *by holding a direction and the A button*, but will only receive a minimal boost upon completion. Hit enough of the basic tricks and you unlock more advanced tricks until you get special super tricks which are really quite satisfying to successfully pull off. As with any risk/reward system the more complicated the trick the longer it takes to pull off, thus the more likely you are to crash and take a decrease on your trick meter. You will need to constantly be hitting tricks off of every jump in Pure if you are going to compete. I will say it right now Pure gets very challenging in the later stages. If you don’t master when to use your boost versus when to fill it up by hitting strings of different tricks then you will not win. It’s that simple. While I won’t punish a game for being difficult be aware that only the hardcore will actually be able to finish Pure’s campaign.

Man, with all this focus on pulling off tricks it’s easy to forget that this game is an arcade racer at heart. Pure controls fantastic as the controls are very forgiving which is necessary for such a fast paced racer. In a surprising note Pure actually has quite the customization options for your vehicles in its bike shop, and it can be quite fun to tool around with to figure out what parts will best suite the racing conditions *like what tires to use for example*. I certainly did not expect to be customizing my vehicles in this arcade racer.

Pure has 3 different types of races in the single player. There is a standard race mode where everyone competes to cross the finish line first, a sprint mode where the tracks are shortened thus requiring more precise handling and precision, and a freestyle mode which is like elimination where players are constantly pulling off tricks to avoid running out of gas. While I wasn’t a big fan of the sprint mode I did enjoy the standard races as well as the SSX inspired freestyle mode where players must be constantly performing tricks to avoid draining their gas tank *thus forcing them out of the race*.




Sound


Imagine what the people on the blimps are thinking as ATV’s fly by…


Pure meets the requirements like every other racer now days. Impressive, loud sounding engines, lots of sound effects, and a hard rock sound track *with some electronic and hip-hop thrown in for variety*. To be honest I don’t know if there’s any improvements left to be made in terms of sound other than including sweet announcers and awesome song lists, because pretty much every racing game has the sound effects and engine noise down perfectly. So Pure definitely does nothing wrong in terms of sound, but it doesn’t innovate either.


Lasting Appeal


Hey Mom… I’m flyyyy…OH SH**!


Pure sports 12 different tracks and features over 50 challenges in its world tour campaign. While 50 races are more than enough for any racing title, I would have liked to have seen more than 12 tracks. Like I said Pure is a beautiful game, but some of the game’s appeal starts to wear off once you’ve played every track a few times. Everyone will have their favorites, but a few more levels would have been ideal. Every mode included in the single player is available online, including an online exclusive free ride mode where players can just screw around with their friends doing whatever they feel like. It’s nice to see every mode included online, but as I’ll get into in a moment, not everything is perfect *think offline multiplayer*. But if you’re someone who plays video games alone or is satisfied with playing online than Pure will last you for quite a while and will definitely give you your money’s worth, I just wish they would have included a few more tracks *but I’m greedy like that*.


Fun Factor


No offline multiplayer? Take me away God, I am not right for this world.


A lot of the fun in Pure comes from the sense of freefalling as your character falls back into Earth’s atmosphere after successfully launching into the air off of a jump. I mean it really is astonishing watching the vast horizon in the background as your character pulls off some impossible trick while falling over 50 feet in the air back onto the ground. Take the action online and the game becomes even more awesome as you’re packed into a room with other people as you all take turns soaring on your ATV’s through the air. But as fun as the online mode is there is one game-changing critical flaw which I will heavily punish any game that fails to include this and that is split-screen multiplayer. Pure lacks any sort of split-screen multiplayer, something totally offensive and inexcusable in the year 2008. A lot of the fun in an arcade racer comes from getting a couple of your best buddies on your couch and totally owning them in person. Sorry guys, but no split-screen versus is a big “no-no” in this arcade racer’s mind.



The 411


Who builds a statue on a race track, honestly?


Pure puts quite an interesting twist on the arcade off-road style racing genre, something that was needed if this game was to stand out amongst the pack. Pure does a lot of things right, and will definitely make your jaw drop the first time you go airborne near 100 feet in the air. When it comes to creating memorable moments, Pure has it down perfectly. If you can get past the lack of offline multiplayer *which this old-school reviewer can’t* than Pure is possibly the best racing game of the year *at least it leaves something obvious to improve upon if a sequel were ever developed*. Pure is a gorgeous, fun game that will definitely give players their money’s worth. You can’t go wrong with this racer.

Graphics	9.5	Pure really creates a sense of verticality as your character soars endlessly across the horizon.
Gameplay	8.5	Pure takes the best of the off-road arcade racing genre and mixes it with the SSX style trick system. It is quite the mix and most importantly works.
Sound	7.5	It gets the job done. Everything sounds just as they should. Nothing more, nothing less.
Lasting Appeal	8.0	While a few more tracks would have been ideal, Pure has enough content to justify a purchase instead of a rental.
Fun Factor	7.0	Pure is incredibly fun, but the lack of offline multiplayer is inexcusable.
Overall	8.4   [ Very Good ]

Screenshots
All 5 PURE Screenshots