Gravel Xbox One Review: Addictive, but could be longer

Gravel is a new off-road racer from Italian developer, Milestone, that brings together ideas yous might take seen in other titles like Forza Horizon and DiRT.

It's a racing game that doesn't take itself also seriously and is piece of cake to go used to. The issues with Gravel aren't anything to practise with the meat of the game but rather how long you might be playing it.

Single-player fun with questionable longevity

The core of the Gravel experience is the unmarried-player career mode, the Off-Route Masters. You play through a serial of challenges across different environments and race types, in pursuit of the concluding showdown with the best driver in the earth. Progression is based on stars, and unlocking the new events is straightforward. You lot won't have to ace every race with three stars to deport on, which is excellent.

Information technology's extra excellent because in some races at that place'southward a questionable difficulty level. In the Smash It races, you lot have to bulldoze through a series of green boards as fast every bit possible. Missing one resets you to the rail with a time penalization, and hitting a reddish board slows you lot down. Just even on a clean run, hitting every dark-green lath, I cannot finish above terminal. Then I gave up.

Mostly though the difficulty and the AI drivers are pretty well balanced. It's supposed to be an arcade-style racer, so expect wild driving and bumps galore. It's not every bit realistic feeling equally DiRT or the WRC games, simply it isn't meant to exist. Here you've got ludicrous jumps and really engaging environments to race in that also include some pretty spectacular looking stadiums.

Controls are straightforward and the differing environments don't make much impact on how the cars handle. Again, it'southward an arcade-manner game, so that'southward completely fine. The races aren't too long, either, then if you lot just desire to pick it upwardly for a quick nail you lot can. And there are plenty of casual player-friendly features, like automobile indicators and a rewind button for the times you lot get information technology completely wrong.

There's no grind in Gravel, and I like that a lot.

The single-player mode has plenty to keep you entertained, merely how long for is the biggest question. The only roadblocks to progressing are the special episodes where you need to win a series of head-to-head races to unlock the next areas of the game. Only even then you won't need long to beat them. And once the single-player is over there'due south non a keen deal to do.

There is a season pass for Gravel with a promise of 5 boosted packs with new circuits and races. But if you were hoping the multiplayer would prolong the life of this fun racer, you'll be disappointed.

Almost non-existent online multiplayer

On Xbox, multiplayer is seemingly not-existent. Every time I tried to become into matchmaking I was left waiting for what feels like an eternity earlier quitting and going back to unmarried-player. And if the lobbies aren't very full right now, the chances of multiplayer competition in weeks, or months doesn't look too good. And that's a shame, considering Gravel is a lot of fun.

Besides the Off-Road Masters, there are weekly challenges put into the game past the developers. There's only been a couple so far but they're challenging enough.

Well presented and Xbox Ane Ten Enhanced

Gravel is a decent looking game throughout, and while it'southward non every bit expert looking as Forza Horizon, it's not bad. In that location are tons of licensed vehicles, and while some of the overall detail is a trivial defective, it makes up for it in places such every bit seeing the drivers paw move to modify gear through the dorsum window.

The environments are the standout part of Gravel'south visuals. They're engaging, atmospheric and the conditions effects are actually well done. When it'due south raining, your entire screen mists over a little, only as information technology would in real life, for case.

Gravel is also Xbox One 10 Enhanced which delivers 4K resolution, albeit just at 30 frames per second (FPS). There are other "visual enhancements," also, but one thing that is lacking is HDR. In an interview with WCCFTech the developers confirmed that HDR is exclusive to PlayStation 4 and PC versions of the game (hint: Blame Unreal Engine 4).

What's less impressive are the occasional performance issues. Certain, there are a few frame charge per unit skips here and there, just I tin generally ignore those. What'south less pleasing is when the auto drive message that's shown on a rolling get-go doesn't become away, so you don't know yous're now driving and you crash into a wall. The game has also frozen upward completely a couple of times.

Gravel for Xbox Ane review: The bottom line

Gravel is a lot of fun, offer an enjoyable arcade-racing experience with oodles of sideways flare. It's well presented and has plenty of entreatment for fans of unmarried-player games that only want something they tin can choice up and play without much of a learning curve.

The lack of HDR is disappointing, simply at least the Xbox One X has been considered, though personally I'd trade 4K back up for 60 FPS every day.

Pros:

• No learning bend, arcade-style racer.
• Fun gameplay.
• Decent visuals and soundtrack.

Cons:

• Questionable longevity.
• Basically not-existent multiplayer.
• Occasional operation issues.

The only real cloud over Gravel is how long the unmarried player will be enjoyable for. I also don't know how the developers could encourage more people to play the online multiplayer.

Merely if you like fun racing games, specially ones that never endeavour to exist also serious, Gravel will scratch your itch. The driving part of it is consistently enjoyable. It'due south available now for $49.99.

• See at Amazon
• See at Microsoft

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/gravel-review

Posted by: shermanbaces1946.blogspot.com

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