It's been some time since I reviewed a racing game; my last was Need for Speed for PSP also. So it's quite a change, from the fast modified cars racing through the city streets, we're up against desert, ice and mud with 4x4 Ford cars and licensed Land Rover vehicles.
I put the disk in the drive and race on. A beautiful intro shows you the supremacy of these 4x4 monsters, with drafting moves and a lot of action. So, just to take a quick glance of the game, "Quick Race" was the first option.
Loading screen... not impressed. An 8 bit looking image with a licensed Ford on it. Loading is complete so it's time to race. 3, 2, 1 Gentleman start your engines. As the race progressed, I was on the 4th place out of 6, I', thinking... this must be on medium difficulty, this guys are too good (I had no option of selecting the map or difficulty of the race). At the finish line, I was on the second place with the thought "I'm out of hand, I just need the practice".
The best way to see what the game has to offer is to start the "Career" mode. Here, you have a Showroom where cars are available to purchase. With $10.000 starting money, you must purchase a car with the only option of choosing your paint. The car stats are represented by a block bar and the only stats are Acceleration, Speed and Handling. In the career map, which is very simplistic, there are a lot of challenges, each unique in its own way. You can find challenges like straight-out races, damage control, elimination challenges, gold rush, checkpoint race challenge, seconds out or expedition challenges and many more.
To take a quick brief about the challenges, I want to talk about some of the challenges. Gold Rush is a very interesting game mode, as you go through the race and collect a certain amount of gold coins to complete the race. Damage Control is a frustrating mode because you must finish first and at the same time, you must only take limited damage to be a winner. I said it's frustrating because the other cars don't seem to take the race too seriously, as they go into this rage and crush your car over and over again, too much for you to handle the damage control. Of course, there are repair pods along the course but it doesn't help too much as they are placed almost at the edge, forcing you to take damage right after you collected the repair pod.
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Seconds Out challenge is a time based race, where time is essential and you must pick extra time capsules along the way to expand your race time, and you have to be quick about it because there isn't much room for error. And the last I want to talk about is Expedition, another frustrating challenge. You need to roam the track in the given time, finding hidden totems scattered along the way. The best part is that the totems are hidden in curves, after columns, pixilated bushes, and the items have a pale texture that won't be easily distinguished from the environment.
Unfortunately, damage in the game is almost an illusion. You can't see any damage to the car but sometimes it can be felt when you don't gain as much speed.
In the garage, the place where all your purchased vehicles are stored, you have the option to repair them. Unfortunately, this is all the features the garage offers. No power-ups, no pimping, no nothing.
Besides career, there is the Tournament mode which is basically same as Career, has the Garage and Showroom, but the challenges are grouped into a 4 stage race with different challenges.
If you want to try single races on custom maps, then Arcade is the mode for you. This is the only mode where you can choose the difficulty. Choose from Race, Expedition, Time Attack, Overtake or Slalom, just to name a few, to play with the cars unlocked in the Career on one of the 12 tracks... well 24 tracks (normal or reversed).
Besides the fact that the game has 18 licensed cars, and they look like replicas of the real ones, the game doesn't offer much. Maybe the hardcore racers and the ones who played any game of Ford Racing series will try this game, but I doubt this game will keep anyone seated.
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Gameplay: 58
The game could be entertaining in the first hours but there's a big change to disappoint as the game isn't offering much, it's more frustrating than rewarding and the AI isn't here for the race, they came for Destruction Derby.
Graphics: 66
The cars are very well represented, and they look like their bigger brothers from the real world. Off Road also uses real lightning and shadow features, the tires leave marks on the ground but the textures are pale, the vegetation looks weird and sometimes it's hard to figure out where to go because it all looks the same.
Sound: 56
If you play this game for a half an hour, you'll probably know the music by heart. This is because there are only 2 songs that keep repeating again and again. Those aren't bad songs, it's just after a while it's too much. Someone told me "the engine doesn't sound like that" and it's true all you hear on the PSP is just a flat noise that should be the engine, and frankly, it sounds the same for most of the cars. I even plugged-in the handheld to a 500W audio system but the sounds were the same. I hoped to hear some roaring on the subwoofer... fat chance.
Multiplayer: 69
Up to six players can compete in WLAN games. You can choose from modes like race, expedition or damage control, to overtake your opponents along with AI competitors or not.
Hardware: 70
The game moves relatively ok, but the high loading times could be a problem.