Off Road Drive takes the trill and excitement of professional off road racing and delivers it in a format where you can sit in the comfort of your living room and enjoy the thrill, without getting covered in mud. Does the game pull it off or do we still need to go mudding every other weekend to get our fix?
Off Road Drive is not your typical racing game. Like the name implies, you don’t race on your typical tracks, but in mud holes and flooded rivers that most 3rd world countries would have a hard time calling “roads”. Your path is never easy in Off Road Drive. Racers must plow through flooded areas, soft muddy roads, loose sand, and rough uneven terrain. To help you navigate through the courses, the racers have a variety of in-race options to help bring their vehicle to the finish line. Players can toggle four wheel drive, adjust their axle differentials, down shift, and use winch cables to pull themselves out of hard spots. This may seem like a lot to think about as you’re on the course, but you’ll quickly learn when to use each “tool” within a race. If those options weren’t enough, the player can also tweak their vehicles in a variety of ways pre-race by adjusting tires, shocks, and various other features.
You'll get muddy in this game but getting stuck sucks
Off Road Drive seems to do a lot of things right, that is until you actually go to the racing part. I found the driving in this game to be extremely frustrating and I actually rage quit several times throughout my play time, which is something I don’t typically do. The frustrating part about the driving is your vehicle has a terrible time of getting hopelessly stuck. I understand that getting stuck was going to be part of game play because it’s a part of off road racing, however, there were multiple times when I was flat out stuck and could not get my self unstuck despite all my tricks and tools including using my wench or reversing and trying again. When this happened I was forced to restart the race which was really irritating. I think a lot of my frustration would have been eased if the developers would have incorporated a reset button that most racing games do. I would have gladly taken a time penalty in exchange for getting reset just a little past where I was stuck at. I also had problems of getting stuck up on signs on a few occasions I went off the “track” again another instance where I had to restart the level. When I was able to get going I enjoyed myself and it was fun to see dirt and mud fly all over my screen and vehicle, however, I personally spend more time immobile than speeding around the course.
Summary
Strengths
Mud and debris effects on vechiles and screen
Deep and varied vehicle tweeking
Weakness
Frequently getting stuck during the course
Inability to reset vehicle
The frustrating thing about Off Road Drive is it’s a racing game that doesn’t primarily focus on driving but getting unstuck. Although I think actual Off Roading would be a blast, I just don’t think it translates into a video game well. I would give this title a pass unless you are a fan of professional off road racing or if you have the patience and perseverance to liberate digital vehicles from the muddy clutches of Mother Nature.
Jump in your 4X4 and drive
