| Wipeout Pure review |
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As soon as those sleek arrowed lines melt their way across the PSP’s screen upon your introduction, it’s clear that Wipeout Pure is a title that matches the ethos and design intent of its host platform. Whereas Fusion, the last entry into the series, stuttered in conveying the ideals Wipeout has traditionally embodied, such as responsive control and sophisticated self-knowing art design, Pure is as clear to itself as the title suggests.
Wipeout is back.
While not quite returning to the same silky handling form that elevated 2097 and 3 to the status they enjoyed at the front of the futuristic racing genre, Pure instead marks out the identity of the series and returns crucially to the hallmarks which immediately spring to mind. The soundtrack is there, featuring those typically grand dance music names you’d hope to expect (series' stalwart Cold Storage returning), as is the immaculate menu and icon design fans had previously witnessed from the best of the now-departed The Designers Republic. But above all those concerns is the speed, and the consequent fluidity that arises from the carefully thought-out control and course design. No longer do you have to worry about falling through tracks, being stuck to them like glue or finding yourself constantly (on all levels) hounded to death by weapons-mad AI. What Pure does is slide itself in structurally between 2097 and 3, offering (in terms of completion) the straightforward league format of the former, and the methodical medal collecting of the latter, albeit without the repetition of having to win every race with every single craft to complete the game.
It’s a title that represents well-considered balance, determined to capture the achievements of the series’ strongest two titles, and combine them both artistically and structurally in an aim to recapture what was later lost. Comparatively, Wipeout Pure echoes many of the same footsteps as Ridge Racers, by harking back to simpler times and providing a snapshot of what used to work, before criticisms of poor originality helped both series derail themselves in delivering experiences that were never their key selling points.
In terms of course design, it’s evident that Pure is neither as fiendish nor as difficult to master as earlier games, though importantly the feel and look of each track manages to beautifully take us back into that fresh, mysterious and minimalist universe Wipeout has become famed for. This is something taken to the end of its logical conclusion with both the Zone and Classic modes that each accompany the normal set of tracks. Zone mode is one of the few aspects of Fusion kept in to add an arcade-styled challenge, where the basic aim is to survive a looping track as your craft slowly speeds up to insane levels. Classic mode, on the other hand, harks back to the prototype tracks of Wipeout 3, delivering a Tron-esque view of landmark courses that helped define prior games in the series. Although both of these modes are weaker in contrast to the main meat of the game’s body, they each offer variety, both in terms of gameplay and artwork, helping to alleviate any potential monotony that may set in as Pure is slowly unravelled.
While the game can be thought of as relatively conservative in terms of introducing radical elements, a couple of additions have been incorporated to streamline the racing and help maintain the importance of the track design. Specifically, shield-recharging lanes have disappeared, with players now expected to absorb weapon pickups to regain energy and progress. A consequence of this move is that it adds a careful layer to the combat and racing with regards to tactical strategy, and at the same time necessitates the need for you to take your eye off the track and focus on recharging your craft. It's now also possible to excute a barrel-roll move that allows for an extra burst of speed after hitting a ramp, which introduces a level of strategy when you have to consider you lose energy for using it. These additions are there to delineate the emphasis on the racing, and the result is that your attention quickly fixates on the craft handling, which in a similar fashion to how the art design blends earlier styles, sits somewhere between the (relative) stiffness of Fusion and the floaty sensation that marked the handling methods in 2097 and 3. One of the strongest aspects of Pure is that it successfully manages to regain the ability to quickly allow the player to become absorbed and concentrate intently on the races, without prompting frustration over worries of whether the game will hold together. To further encourage studious and skilled progression, Pure even provides a detailed stats page that relays a wealth of information that includes distance travelled, weapons fired, opponents killed and game time to name a few.
Make no mistake, this is no small game, for while each race only takes a couple of minutes to finish, the difficulty level beyond the Flash speed class means that only the dedicated will truly see the best of this title. Even though this demanding nature is nothing new to the series, what will grate veterans and newcomers alike is that Pure fails to quite escape the shadow of Fusion in terms of its sometimes irritatingly unfair AI. Flash, and to a lesser extent Rapier, can be learned and managed through strict memorisation of tracks and boost points, so that the increasingly aggressive opponents can eventually be learnt to live with. Although the AI is problematic, it's thankfully nowhere near as frustrating as the crafts Fusion placed you up against. Phantom on the other hand, traditionally where Wipeout comes into its own, suffers from AI that has a frequent tendency to turn races into difficult tests of endurance, where you may be considered lucky to keep your craft intact, let alone finish in those vital third, second or first places. To make matters worse, although Pure doesn't suffer from the same flaws as Fusion in terms of bugs, its frame rate has an unhealthy habit of dipping to worryingly low levels when the screen gets hectic. And on courses whose designs struggle to cope with the game’s physics on higher speed classes, this can mean everything from moving from first to last place in matter of seconds. It’s lucky then that after the main leagues have been nailed down, the game shifts its perspective onto the solitary pursuits of time trials and free runs, where the steadier engine performance and speed increases start to shine and encourage competition. The ability to trade, swap and download ghosts adds immeasurably to the game’s longevity, as does the wireless multiplayer and downloads that have been provided since the initial release of the title earlier this year.
Perhaps one of Pure's best selling points, and something that makes reviewing the game a difficult task, is the constantly evolving content. Available downloads from the Wipeout site provide menu skins, extra ships and tracks, with the teasing promise (at present) of music downloads and player-specific remixes to come. Studio Liverpool have provided a game that not only capitalises on the PSP’s unique abilities, but also demonstrates how to make best use of them, even this early in the platform's lifespan. Indeed, the likes of Staten Park and Uber Mall, (two of the tracks provided for download) have already proved to perhaps be the most memorable additions to Pure, and generally these consistently high-quality extras have helped maintain interest and overall longevity, not to mention mark out new experimental territory for handheld gaming as a whole. For the most part, Pure is a tour de force in exactly what the PSP can achieve on a technical and artistic front, both with the downloadable content it offers, and how that content weaves itself effortlessly into the main bulk of what the game has to show.
There lies the juxtaposition within Wipeout Pure: on the one hand, it’s fan service of the highest order, returning to the roots that helped them fall in love with the series in the first place, while also suffering from rife conservatism intent on keeping the structure and handling of the play predictable. Likewise, it’s also a title that doesn’t just fit snugly within the aura of the PSP’s desirability, but bravely steps into bringing the world of portable gaming to a whole new realm where games can function in refreshingly forward-thinking ways. |
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System: Sony PlayStation Portable
Genre: Racing
Developer: Studio Liverpool
Publisher: SCEA
Players: 1-8
Version: United States
Reviewed: Aug 2005
Writer: Ben Mottershead
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Pros:
- A return to form for a series that had lost its way
- Amazing, detailed graphics
- Large amount of sustained downloadable content
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Cons:
- Frame rate fluctuates when on-screen action gets heavy
- On Phantom speed level, races are often disrupted by enemy craft unfairly being violent
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Wipeout Pure Video: 3.7MB
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