I kind of knew right out of the gate even before I fired this up that it wasn't going to be my thing because A) I don't generally like racing games and B) I've never been a fan of monster trucks.
This is both of those things and it comes as exactly zero surprise that after about 40 minutes of playing it and finishing dead last in the very first race that is meant to serve as a tutorial of sorts, I switched it off and deleted it.
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There is one thing that I will give credit where credit is due and that is that they have some pretty realistic physics at least when you are racing or doing stunts inside of the arena. The things that the trucks can do in the game are things that I have seen on TV being done in real life. Once you go to the outdoors race tracks this all goes out the window as you would expect but that couldn't have been easy for the devs to have gotten down for the game. Damages are not realistic of course because you would be eliminated from every race after the first turn if they did do it that way.
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For people who are fans of this sort of thing I guess you might enjoy it for a little while. I can't really imagine who that might be but realize that there must be enough of them for to be a "part 2" of this series. There are a lot of different options in the game such as of course, online multiplayer, but who knows how big of a community that would be.
Remember this if it seems like I am being overly critical of this or any other game that I talk about on here: I am only rating games based on their immediate appeal levels as in *does the game captivate you right from the start and do a good job of making you feel like you should get better at it and continue along the path of advancement.
I realize that I am a bad candidate for this kind of game seeing as how it could be the best monster-truck game ever made and I still wouldn't stay interested in it for very long.
The outdoor races are very wide open in that you can go just about anywhere that you want and there doesn't appear to be any sort of pre-defined route that you are allowed or not allowed to take. I suppose that is sticking with the persona of what a monster truck is capable of but for the brief time that I was in first place, I couldn't really figure out what way I was meant to be going aside from a star appearing far in the distance. I was not really all that surprised when I finished the race well behind all of the computer controller trucks.
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Just like a myriad of other racing games this one gives you some sort of winnings for completing objectives and you can use these winnings in order to upgrade your custom truck or to unlock famous real-world teams like Bigfoot and Grave Digger. I never got to that point because once again, I am basing my opinion of these games on whether or not they can pull you in right away and keep you there. This game did not do that for me and it is already deleted from my PS4, never to return.
I hesitate to say that I don't recommend it for anyone but seeing as how there are over a hundred other games to choose from, this title feels as though Sony was simply trying to fill up the number of games that they have available in order to round out their "racing" side of things.
Games played so far in my trip through all the "Extra" games on Playstation Plus
- Windbound (survival game with rogue-like elements - not recommended)
- Magicka 2 (top-down humorous multiplayer hack and slash-sort with immense spell system - maybe recommended)
- Tearaway: Unfolded (charming casual 3D platformer with inventive graphics and gameplay designed for all ages - recommended for casual players)
- Spiritfarer (casual simulation / resource-management style game with an extremely good story - recommended for all)
- Observation (point and click survival sort of... interactive game of sorts set in space - found it very boring after just one hour and do not recommend)
- Gabbuchi (simplistic puzzle game that I feel is better suited to mobile devices. Not recommended on consoles)
- The Messenger (8-bit style action/platformer that is a throwback to original Ninja Gaiden. It's simplistic fun. Recommended)
- Megadimension Neptunia VII (typical JRPG with some adjustments made to combat for uniqueness. Could be fun and I lukewarmly recommend for someone willing to dedicate 50 hours to a turn-based RPG)
- Monster Jam: Steel Titans 2 (monster truck racing game that will appeal only to people who are already fans of the sport - not recommended for any other people)