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Apex Review |
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Apex
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Ever since it’s release in November of 2001, racing fans have had quite a few titles to choose from on the Xbox. Project Gotham Racing, Rallisport Challenge, and SegaGT2002, to name a few exclusives, all fleshed out the Xbox racing portfolio fairly well. Then in the late Summer of 2002, a few videos and screens of a fairly unknown game called Racing Evolutione surfaced and got the community talking due to it’s crisp, beautiful graphics and inclusion of a unique storyline. The name later changed to Apex, and was released in February of 2003. Does this new Xbox exclusive racer have what it takes to beat out the current lot of great racers? Or is it just a gimmick?
In an attempt to distance itself from the pack, Apex goes a long way to include an effective storyline into the game. You’re the head of a new car company wanting to make a name for yourself by creating your first car and racing it against other maker’s cars for fame and exposure. In effect, winning races gains you points, which earns you research and sales points, which in turn makes it possible to upgrade your car and create more cars. The story mode is a very cool way to give the player more reasons to compete and progress in the game.
Not that most will have any problem motivating themselves into completing the races, as the track designs are one of the best ever seen in any racing game to date. Expertly designed city courses, viciously twisted mountain roads, and fast and dangerous freeway courses all make sure you’re never feeling stuck with the same roads over and over. The courses themselves aren’t designed after any real-life roads, but the locales and visuals will fool you into thinking they are. There are distinct Japanese, European, and New York-like feels to all of the 50+ tracks, even if they don’t represent their real-life counterparts exactly.
The driving in Apex is more arcade than sim, but not as arcade-like as say… Burnout or Test Drive. There are a few settings you can adjust on your racer, such as three levels of downforce, and three different gear ratios, as well as a setting to adjust to your personal driving style, but other than that, there’s not much to change, which is great for those of us who don’t care to adjust each and every detail of their car, but prefer to get into the race as quickly and easily as possible. You’ll gain upgrades over time, but you don’t control what upgrade you get, or how they are done. Your mechanic just does them and then tells you what he did, which then again, shows the simplicity of the overall driving setup. Apex was obviously not made to cater to the control-happy of the world; it was made for the people who feel a pedal to the metal and a firm grip on the emergency brake are the best policy. Count me as one of those.
Controls are simple. Brake with the left trigger, gas on the right, e-brake on the b button, and steer with the left thumbstick. You can change your driving view to whatever you’re used to, whether that be far behind your car, right behind the car, just behind the windshield, or right on your front bumper.
The cars in Apex are all licensed, with the exception of the car you personally created. It’s possible to drive the licensed cars in the arcade mode, but not in the story or “Dream” mode. Each handles well, and when you upgrade from roadster to sports car to supercar and eventually to dream car, you’ll definitely feel the difference. Roadsters are quick and agile as they should be, while the larger, more powerful cars have more cojones, but also more heft to deal with, so each car requires different techniques and finesse to master it.
With so much going for the game, it’s hard at times to see the faults, but unfortunately they are there. The first of which seems to be the “Rubber-Band AI”. It’s very possible in Apex to stop your car entirely in the middle of a race, and for 30 seconds or more simply camp on the track, then stomp on the gas again and catch up to your opponents and even place first in the race. Some degree of RBAI is usually evident in racing games, but it seems a little too much in Apex at times, as racers you’ve passed long long ago, seem to get up some extra muscle when you complete a lap. I’ve noticed more than once while looking to the rears for my opponents, them surging dramatically when my car completes a lap, even when at full speed, which is challenging, sure, but a tad annoying as well. I wasn’t supplied with any nitrous, so where’s my turbo button?
Also troubling is the magnetic car effect. More times than I’d like to admit, enemy cars would smack me from the side only to get seemingly magnetically stuck together for a short period of time. Okay, so that’s not that big of a deal, but what is disturbing, is that if you manage to break free from the magnetic field, you get a surge of speed usually enabling you to pass cars with ease. Does it help win races sometimes? Yeah. Does it lend realism to the driving experience? Uh… no.
Overall a great driving experience is slightly marred by a few niggles that hopefully may be addressed in the next installment of the Apex series, which hopefully finds it’s way to development soon if it hasn’t already.
Apex really looks great, if not perfect. It’s far superior in overall visuals to the launch title PGR, and even rivals the vaunted RalliSport Challenge in detail and overall polish. Realtime damage and near picture perfect cars would be good enough for most racers, but Apex goes the extra mile and creates environments that are truly breathtaking. Detail in trees, buildings, cityscapes, and waterfalls is immaculate. The roads themselves have the same semi-glossy, bump-mappy look to them as the tracks in MotoGP, and look great too.
Reflection mapping is well above the standard, as it’s possible to actually see the surrounding environments in the flanks or hood of your car. Other cars for some odd reason are not reflected though, which most people probably won’t notice unless they are looking for it. Even the engine in your car is rendered, not with a cheap flat graphic either, but each pipe and component is there and can be viewed before a race. Nice touch.
Replays in Apex are beautiful, and offer multiple views for your viewing pleasure. Interestingly absent though, is any semblance of a replay save feature. With graphics this gorgeous, it’s a shame that you can’t save it for later bragging rights.
Sound is decent, and so is the voice acting. Your mechanic, and the people soon to follow all have believable voices, and the engines and cars sound decent as well. There is an included soundtrack, but it’s pretty much forgettable, but the game does also allow you to rip your own soundtracks if you so desire. And you’ll so desire… trust me. Car collisions are dealt with in the same basic “chunk chunk” style with the same sound regardless of what part of the car is being struck. A few breaking glass or scraping sounds would have been welcome, if not entirely necessary. There are the standard tire squeals and suspension squeaks, but they are generally all the same too. Not too shabby on sound, but nothing too spectacular.
Apex is a surprisingly long and enjoyable game, which means you won’t find yourself putting the controller down anytime soon. Each time you develop a new car, with new capabilities, it’ll heighten the level of competition even more over the previous car, and freshen the game entirely in addition to giving you new and challenging tracks to learn. The availablilty of the two player mode is a welcome addition, and the arcade mode allows instant pick-up and playablity, as it offers at least one unlocked car in each category (Roadster, Sportscar, Supercar, and Dreamcar) even if other cars haven’t been unlocked thru playing the Dream mode. Online play would have been great, but then again, we can hopefully expect that in Apex 2.
The game is not without it’s flaws, but it does stand tall among a good group of racers on the Xbox. It’s the first entry for what will hopefully become a formidable racing franchise in due time. It’s addictive, fast and overall fun as they come. A few blemishes keep this beauty from true greatness, but overall a very strong entry into the racing arena for the developers.
Review By: JakeT
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