MotoGP 17 Review By Kevin Tavore, 25 Jun 2017 FollowtopicsMotoGP 17MotoGPMilestoneLocal MultiplayerOnline MultiplayerGame reviewReviewSimulation RacingKevin Tavore Anyone who’s watched MotoGP events live can tell you that there’s something about it that’s just uniquely exciting. Perhaps it’s the insane speed and skill demonstrated by the riders, though that’s present in any type of racing. Maybe it’s the communal atmosphere, but all racing is highly social so that can’t be it either. I would instead say that it’s the feeling of fear that makes MotoGP unique in racing. Watching these riders take corners at blistering speed with their elbows and knees literally touching the ground is horrifying and spectacular. It’s so dangerous and they do it all just for a tiny bit of speed. That thrill of fear serves as the bedrock of everything that MotoGP stands for, so it’s too bad MotoGP 17 captures so little of it. If you’d prefer to see the game in action, you can check out my video review instead:MotoGP games launch every year and like all yearly sports titles, each title is built upon a foundation of its predecessors. After all, why reinvent the wheel every year when last year’s wheel is a more reasonable starting point. Last year’s title, Valentino Rossi: The Game, brought a bunch of new modes to the game beyond the standard MotoGP experience, such as rallycross. These added a much appreciated variety to a series that had begun to grow stale. That game told a story of Valentino Rossi, the famed rider, and it would have been great if it had marked a new direction for the series. Sadly, many of those new experiences have been stripped from the game leaving it as a minor improvement upon MotoGP 15. The game’s biggest and best leap for the series is the Managerial Career. Previously you picked a rider and rose through the ranks. That mode is still in the game, albeit with greatly reduced customization and no story at all — you just complete races until you’re tired of completing races. Instead, the Managerial Career sees you managing an entire team. This is a fun concept and it does some things quite well. You’ll need to hire riders for your team. At first it’s just one, but as the team grows you can hire more up to a total of six. When these riders race, they’ll gain experience to increase their attributes and slowly get better, earning you more money. You’ll also pick sponsors, bikes, pay for R&D to improve your cycles generally, and hire office staff. You’ll even choose what your riders do in off-weeks.That list of features implies a great deal of depth which isn’t there in practice. Recruiting riders is enjoyable enough, but it’s an exercise that lasts about fifteen seconds. Leveling their stats to help them improve is not interactive at all, with riders growing stronger without input simply by being on the team. The same thing applies to picking sponsors, bikes, and hiring office staff. There’s no complex management required here, just a few extra menus in which you'll spend just a minute out of every hour.What’s there is not bad, but there could have been so much more. When you choose what event to attend in your off-weeks, you literally press A to select your option and that’s it. There’s nothing interactive. There’s not even a video showing you performing that action. You just get your bonus and move on to the next race. The best word to describe it is “okay.” For the shiny new feature in the series, there should have been more substance. Of course, you’ll find that’s true for just about every element in the game. The actual racing is enjoyable at times. There are eighteen total tracks, which does a lot to keep variety fresh throughout the first few hours from a design perspective. The tracks are digital recreations of real tracks so you can rest assured that they are creative and intelligently designed to be both challenging and interesting. They are the height of the racing experience in this game. The low would certainly be the almost complete absence of bike variety, with only four stats actually affecting how the bike moves and handles. This means you’ll almost never care what you’re riding and you certainly can’t change the way you play while picking a new bike. To some degree this makes sense in a game exclusively focused on MotoGP, but last year’s game at least had dirt bikes to mix things up. Nothing here will distract you from the monotony. The only positive substantive change this year is the addition of the Pro physics model, which offers an interesting challenge for those who grow tired of the simcade style.The visual and audio aspects of this game are a disaster. The visuals are quite terrible and wouldn’t have been great a decade ago. The rider models are literally laughable — there is only one. You can choose the look of your rider by picking a picture of a person, male or female, each badly photoshopped to be wearing the same hat and uniform, but the model of your rider will not change from the default 170 pound male body. The only visual change appears to be the eyes within the helmet, which is never taken off. The area surrounding the eyes exhibits a strikingly different skin tone than the neck area, which makes the lack of care put into the models obvious. In the environment, everything is flat. Trees in the background are polygonal. The crowds are surprisingly rendered in 3D, but with very little movement so you’d wonder why they even bothered. There’s simply nothing interesting going on when you look at the game. Couple that with what appears to be a complete lack of anti-aliasing, with jaggies appearing even on the minimap, and you’ve got a visual package that would be at home in a budget indie title. This is a full price, retail title with many years of games to build upon visually. It should be better.Audio is perhaps even worse for a different reason. The bikes themselves sound like motorcycles, with sometimes deep growls and often high-pitched whines. This is realistic and expected. What’s not expected is the complete lack of any other sound. When you’re racing, there’s no music. You don’t even really hear the other bikes. You just hear your bike, whining at the same frequency for six minutes straight. After a few races you will be thinking about adding your own soundtrack. Within ten, you are guaranteed to have switched to music or a TV show just to drown out the sound of the game. Again, this is a fully priced title. Licensed music, even unknown electronica, would have gone a long way. The achievements are simple but will take some time. A championship will take about three hours of play. You’ll need to complete at least four of them, plus any extra if you make any mistakes along the way such as switching classes mid-championship. You’ll play in each class, you’ll play 20 races online, and you’ll complete a few miscellaneous tasks like pulling a wheelie or winning a race at Pro difficulty. Overall, the list is pretty easy if you’ve got 20-25 hours to spare. It should be noted that currently, one achievement is unobtainable.SummaryThis year's MotoGP entry takes one step forward and two steps back, offering a game without much innovation and even less reason to return for another lap around the course. With a returned focus on MotoGP alone, this year's edition feels like playing a test of attrition. The primary new feature, the Managerial Career, is full of empty promise, sabotaged by a profound lack of depth. The visuals are straight out of 2007. Audio is almost literally unbearable without anything to hear but the crushing whine of the engine. Customization is close to non-existent, and supplements varied models for a one-size-fits-all rider and badly photoshopped images in an attempt to fit every male and female in the MotoGP scene. But despite all of that, the gameplay itself is fun, especially thanks to the 18 tracks you'll get to race across. I thought I was done with the game after 7 hours but every day I'd come back for more and more. This would be a perfect fit as an indie title, but when it sits on store shelves at full price, you should expect more. You should demand more. As a yearly title, MotoGP 17 seems to have settled for being just alright in every aspect. It should have been better.6 / 10Positives 18 tracks that are true to life, keeping the races varied and fun for a while Managerial career is a good idea if you can get past its shallow depth Pro physics mode is enjoyable for experienced players Negatives Customization is almost non-existent Visuals are very poor and not up to the standard of a fully priced title No music or any sounds other than the whining engine while racing Decreased race variety compared to last year's edition EthicsThe reviewer spent 15 hours racing bikes, managing his team, and winning three championships in both the Managerial and the Rider paths. He unlocked 28 out of 35 achievements for 755 Gamerscore. An Xbox One copy of the the game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.More MotoGP 17 stories: Six Games Leaving Xbox Game Pass on May 15th June 2018 Xbox Game Pass Additions: MotoGP 17, Mega Man, and More MotoGP and Milestone Will Continue To Race Together for at Least Four More Years MotoGP 17 Achievement List Revealed New Trailer for MotoGP 17 Shows the Ranks of Motorcycle Racing ReviewVideoXbox One Written by Kevin TavoreKevin is a lover of all types of media, especially any type of long form story. The American equivalent of Aristotle, he'll write about anything and everything and you'll usually see him as the purveyor of news, reviews and the occasional op-ed. He's happy with any game that's not point and click or puzzling, but would always rather be outdoors in nature.
The reviewer spent 15 hours racing bikes, managing his team, and winning three championships in both the Managerial and the Rider paths. He unlocked 28 out of 35 achievements for 755 Gamerscore. An Xbox One copy of the the game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.