Track Review - Future

Track: Future (Download)

Author: Irondragons (TMX)

Type: Race

Environment: Bay

Length: 45 sec

Mood: Sunset

Custom Content: None

First Impression

Way too difficult to find your way around. Not as special as I was hoping for (based on the many awards on TMX - overrated, perhaps?), and when I finished it I was actually quite disappointed. Hopefully I’ll learn to like it when I’ve played it a few more times…

Track Design

The design of the track at first seems quite poor. It’s hard to navigate (which makes the track challenging in a frustrating and bad way - I would give it the “challenging” tag, but I’ve decided I won’t, as the track isn’t challenging in a good way - it simply doesn’t deserve a tag), jumps and loops are unsmooth and everything just looks like a mess.

But then you start to learn the track. Once you’ve figured out where to actually go, you will soon have the correct speed to take jumps and loops in a good manner. The track suddenly becomes smooth, fast, and actually fun to play. The design, in other words, isn’t that bad after all. The speed and narrow sections make the track quite thrilling, too.

When it comes to what is included in the track, there are basically some jumps, loops and a lot of platform racing. Boring? Well, yes, as it doesn’t have many interesting sections. However, again if you really drive the track and look into the details, much of the track is actually quite original. The design is unique, both to the good and bad! Rating: 8.5

Scenery

The scenery is quite boring, to be honest. There isn’t much interesting to look at besides the actual track. And often, the actual track is enough in environments such as Bay and Coast to keep the track from looking too boring. But as this track includes a lot of platforms (which are black in Bay), the track it self isn’t quite enough, and things just get blurry. An average score. Rating: 5.0

MediaTracker

Intro: Does show the track, but only from far above. A bit disappointing. There could be both more special effects and more close-ups of the track. An average intro.

In-game: Cam changes (which are actually sometimes annoying), and a “hint” saying “Keep to the left”. I’ve yet to understand that, as the only route I can find at the place where the hint is placed goes straight forward, then diagonally to the right. What’s that all about?

Outro: The camera angles don’t “follow” the car. Instead, most of them assume the driver will go the same way and same speed as the author did when validating the track. This is a mistake, as on the first tries you will most likely go slower. But overall, the outro isn’t too bad (as long as you stay in the picture, which you usually will once you learn the track).

In all, a decent MT work but far from what would be considered good enough. Rating: 6.5

Originality

Again, to begin with, Future looks like quite a boring and not at all innovative track. But once you get the hang of the track, you start noticing the real beauty-parts. The track actually does contain quite a few original sections, and generally the track has an original design. However, most of it is just a re-invention of old stuff, so it’s not at all a perfect score on the originality part. Rating: 7.5

Fun Factor

Extremely frustrating and annoying to begin with, and not at all challenging in a good way. But as you learn the track, it turns into a real masterpiece. Most will probably quit the track before they get to that point, but if you take the time to get to know it, you are sure to love it. But for how long? The scenery is boring, and the track gets boring quite quickly too, so the fun isn’t that long lasting… Rating: 7.5

Summary

(Extremely) frustrating in the start, but a real joy once you get to know the track. Due to the lack of interesting scenery, however, the joy probably won’t be too long lasting, and many will get bored quite quickly.

The MT work is decent, and the originality is actually quite good once you start looking at the details of the track. Overall not at all a bad track, but truly not the most interesting track either.

Final Rating: 7.5 (good)

***

Notes:

- Ratings range from 1 (bad) to 10 (perfect). 5 is average.

- Your help is always needed! If you are interested in writing track reviews for the TMU Blog, you may apply by dropping an e-mail to Jozii@pp.inet.fi.

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