Overview
BLUR is an arcade racer developed by Bizarre Creations who are best known for the Project Gotham Racing, and published by Activision. Go at it alone or gather up to 20 online racers, all battling it out through the mayhem. Bashing each other is welcome and to assist you is the use of ‘power-ups’ (think Mario Kart), including the ability to shoot flaming ball-type thingy’s, neon-rockets, a sonic blast to help clear the other cars out of the way with huge bursts of energy, speed boosts, and some other mad power-up. Choose from various photo-realistic licensed cars and use either an offensive and defensive strategy as you battle it out for the real-world track locations ranging from L.A. and San Francisco to the streets of Hackney, UK and the treacherous roads of Barcelona, Spain.
Gameplay and Features
The presentation in Blur is very attractive, neat, welcoming and menus are easy to navigate. Graphics are crisp and generally good while the cars look like good scale models of the real things. Tracks contain enough visual definition to never be difficult to navigate around them, even at speed. Sound affects are very arcade-style as expected and don’t expect the cars to sound just like the real thing and you wont be disappointed.
So on to the ‘power ups’ – the games calling card. The tracks are scattered with one of eight power ups that you will need to drive over to use to give them tactically in the race. There are 6 offensive and 2 defensive, you can hold up to three at a time and scroll through them to use them at the best moment. Defensive ones include a shield and a repair power but obviously you can use the offensive powers to defend i.e. drop a mine to get someone off your ass. Many of the powers can be used forward or backwards which comes in very handy when defending positions.
With single player mode the aim in BLUR is to firstly gain fans. In events you collect lights which are awarded by placing in the top 3 positions in a race or completing fan runs, and lastly by clearing sectors under the target time. These lights earn you new cars, new levels, items and challenges. Then to complete a certain area you will need to beat that area’s kingpin. You can either just win the race traditionally or by destroying their cars using anything and everything. There are many races and plenty to do with the different levels generally needing a different strategic approach. I found the single player mode took a few hours to get to the ‘juicy’ parts, so at first the gameplay was not too challenging… but it does get there where you are actually tested. Fortunately the handling of the cars is very good in terms of arcade racers. The cars either offer plenty grip, strength or they are drifty so I found that the handling was always manageable which was probably done so on purpose so you can concentrate on the powers and destruction of opponents – the real fun in BLUR.
BLUR is best experienced online with up to 20 players fitting in a lobby. It is clearly how the developers intended and there is even the ability to ‘hook up’ from within the game to your mates via Facebook or Twitter. There is a good assortment of multiplayer options and it is as robust as any game available online. Your aim is to level and rank up with achievements up for grabs. Online, fans are separate from your single-player ones and the fans will give you access to the new cars and bonuses as with the single-player. Your fan count also helps boost your online rank along with racing. Online racing equates to absolute chaos and fun. You can use the powers to win from the last place provided you know what you are doing. So to does it not mean you will win if you are in front. It just takes one shot of a well placed power for you to loose ground.
What I loved
- Nice selection of cars
- Cars look great
- class A and B cars are fast enough
- Presentation
- Online mayhem
What I disliked
- Single player campaign
- Class C and D cars were generally a bore
- Sound effects are very mediocre
- No car mods
- The tracks dont add much to the game
Conclusion
BLUR is an arcade racer that does have good handling mechanics which many arcade racers just dont. I feel that Blur tries to be a ‘Jack of all trades’ but ends up being a master of none. There is so much variety of events and they were mostly fun, but never an absolute adrenalin rush which is what I want out of arcade racers. I don’t get why the cars are realistic looking scale models of the true cars. And then you can fire neon-coloured rockets out of it. I mean if you are going to go ‘mad’ with it, then go totally mad. Why couldn’t the Ford Focus RS be a Ford Focus RS/Mig 21 Hellbat, and have the wing off a Concorde on it? It fires neon rockets after all. It’s an ‘out there’ arcade game after all, then why not make it totally arcade and have nothing realistic. I wish the cars started at the speeds that Class A finally delivers, only after you are well into the game. The game feels like it was thought of by a teenage boy and then put together by a level-headed adult who curbed the madness a little.
The single-player experience felt a bit flat as the AI is never really clever. It is fun online, although I think I would struggle to get 19 mates to join me which I imagine would be a complete riot. When its human racing it feels like every single person is out to get you alone, and the strategy of when to use what ‘powers’ brings out way more than when just racing against AI.
In the end the British have a term that best describes why I would want to play the game – “for a laugh.”
BLUR is also available on Playstation 3. For more visit the game’s official site.
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