Blur Review

Posted by Jereme Puik at 8:35pm on June 23rd, 2010

If you’ve ever wondered when someone was going to make a game where you merged real life cars with power-ups from this side of Mario Kart, you’ve finally got your answer. Bizarre Creations have given us Blur, a game that has taken real life cars and given them power-ups that you would swear you’ve seen in Mario Kart. The fusion of these two oddities made way for an exhilarating racing title with plenty of depth to keep you busy for more then a few hours. Another element that takes a keen eye to pick up on is the experience system that seems to be inspired from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and integrated into the entire game. What comes out of it is a pulsating race for experience to earn you fans, prizes and more cars. But what else does Blur have to offer that everyone else doesn’t? Read on to find out.

So, while it’s all fun and games to be having strong power-ups at your and exotic places to drive around in, the big question is, how’s the driving? I’m here to report that the driving is solid and easy to take control of. This is a game where quick reflexes are necessary in order to finish ahead and grab the checkered flag. After a bit of practice you’ll easily be able to dodge land mines, avoid missiles and take tight turns to get ahead in the competition. There are plenty of vehicles to pick and each of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, if you’re working on those tight turns you might have to pick a vehicle with a little more grip. Some cars even have the ability to drift more if you’re looking for quick speeds and easy handling.

Beginning early in the career mode you’ll have an easy time to pick up on the controls and the general concepts of the game. However, as the game moves on, objectives and races become more difficult. There are a total of 63 events and nine bosses to compete against, so you’ll be busy for a while. But, by no means does that mean Blur isn’t a fun game. On the contrary, Blur is exciting and brings the action right in your face without thinking twice. In the game there are three event types to work with; racing, destruction and checkpoint. Racing is pretty obvious; you’ll be competing with you and 19 other cars.  Checkpoint has you racing against the clock to hit various checkpoints across the map before time runs out while gaining speed boosts and time extensions along the way. Finally you have Destruction which allows you to race against other vehicles with very low health giving you the opportunity to blow them away to earn enough points to move on to the next objective.

On the multiplayer side of things, it’s eerily familiar to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare as I mentioned earlier. You’ll race against 19 other players in a 3 lap race to the finish. You’ll gain experience along the way helping you level and unlock new awards and cars. The multiplayer level cap sits at 50 for online play while the level cap is stopped at 25, giving you much more reason to keep playing. There are a few race types you’ll be able to play through, but after leveling up more of them become available to you. Also adding to the online experience are challenges you can send to your friends as well as alerting your friends of any new times you gain. So, there are plenty of things to do if you feel fed up with the single player portion of the game.

To sum it up, Blur is an excellent racer that shouldn’t be overlooked if you’re looking for an impulse buy. What should also be remembered before closing is that the visuals of the game are outstanding. The only issue you may encounter is when you’re low on health, in which the screen will pump a red glare making it hard to keep track of the road. You should have no trouble enjoying the full realistic car models and excellent views of the city in your tracks. Blur is a fast and fun to control racer with an unlikely marriage of two popular genres combined into one.

Verdict: Definitely an impulse kind of buy. Blur does an excellent job of keeping the racing genre fresh and new again. The combination of Mario Kart and RPG is a match made in heaven for Bizarre Creations. You’ll loose long hours of time in the game going through both the single player and multiplayer.

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