After buying my XBox 360 Elite last fall and getting the Lego Batman/Pure combo pack as the bundled game, I decided I should at least try this game rather than let it sit on my shelf for a whole year untouched. Normally I'm not into the off-road dirtbike and ATV style games, but I haven't played one in a long time so I thought "what the hell". Needless to say I find myself 3 hours later sitting at my computer writing about it.
I had no real expectations when I walked into this one. Overall I was impressed. I was expecting to sit here and say that if you've played Wave Race, Jet Moto, 1080 Snowboarding, Cool Boarders, Tony Hawk, (you get my point right?) then you've pretty much played them all. The premise in PURE is the same in that you have to optimize combining tricking with racing. Although I have no patience to remember all of the button combinations an unheard of names for tricks, PURE was prety simple to pick up.
After getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter in my first couple of races, I was able to go from zero to hero in about 30 minutes. This is always a plus factor in my books. If I get beat out of the gates for too long by the AI I tend to lose interest pretty quick.
I would have to say that the most favourable part of this games was the ability to customize every last part on your ATV. I have yet to play a game that provided so much comprehensive customization options. Everything from selecting the frame and engine to painting the handlebars. It was also good that as new parts get acquired through the game you can add them to your ATV without having to exit to the main screen (my time is valuable to me, so also another plus factor).
The levels for the most part are pretty well done, having the ability to cross from route to route as you race keeps you awake. I did find it a little difficult to keep control of the ATV after some landings because the damn thing would land facing sideways but somehow manage to correct itself in an instant and go straight. I tended to find myself trying to correct steering that was correcting itself. The controls just take time to get use to more than anything. The way that rankings are also determined in races can get a little confusing while trying to focus on everything else going on. You an jump from 8th to 1st in an instant without seeing yourself pass anyone. A lot of the time this is due to other players failing tricks and falling.
The background music in the levels gets a little annoying. After about a half hour I started to forget it was playing, but its a lot of heavy rock and metal which I'm not exaclty a huge fan of.
On a whole, PURE is a pretty decent game that is great for passing time with. I wouldn't personally go out and spend more than about $20 on this one, but I still think it is worthwhile to add to your collection if its a good price.
This one I haven't played. I did play Lego Batman and liked it alot. It was aimed at kids but it was good family fun and like Lego Star Wars and especially Lego Indiana Jones had some funny gags.
ReplyDeleteI have had the chance to play Lego Batman on DS and it was pretty good. I also played Indiana Jones on DS and Star Wars on PS2. I tend to find all of the Lego series to be fairly entertaining. They tend to have a complexity similar to the SNES games of the past. Hard enough that you have to do some work but not impossible or excessively time consuming. The bundle games with 360 I tend to find are a hit and a miss. This particular bundle in my opinion was a hit.
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