Freak Out Hands-on Preview

Freak Out – Extreme Freeride is the latest downhill skiing title to have a bash at taking on the mighty SSX series. Up until now it’s only really been Amped (Microsoft and then 2K Sports) that’s offered any real alternative to EA’s long-running series, but developer Coldwood Interactive and publisher JoWooD think their title has what it takes. Due out later this year on PC, PS2 and PSP, I hit the slopes with a work in progress PC build to see if it’s as extreme as the title suggests.

Straight into the game then, and things seem pretty good. While the visuals aren’t a patch on what we’ve seen in Amped 2 for the Xbox 360, the mountains look large and the snow glistens as you scream down to the plateau finish. It’s effectively nothing more than a high-res PlayStation 2 game, but it does the job. While we’re on the subject of presentation, the soundtrack is certainly going to be an acquired taste, with lyrics informing you that it’s a good day to commit suicide not really putting a happy spin on proceedings.

Armed with an Xbox 360 controller (keyboard controls are woefully hard to get the hang of) I dabbled with a few of the game’s core modes, all of which were set on different stretches of the same mountain (there’ll be four different mountains in the final game). Other than the specialised trick events (which give you short runs and ramp to pull tricks off of) you’ll be careering down steep slopes, carving up snow, pulling off ridiculous mid-air spins and grabs, grinding on any suitable surface and generally trying to ski with enough flair and skill to increase your trick multiplying ‘Flow’ rating.

With the key controls mapped to the 360 controller, pulling off tricks and spins proved to be relatively intuitive, but it’s the events in which the skiing has been inserted that could well be the game’s downfall. At the moment these events are very run of the mill, with little that hasn’t been seen before, and done better – collectathons, grind challenges, jumps and the like. The main event offers numerous mini-challenges as you ski, but on-screen help pops up after each icon is crossed, ruining your timing and generally causing you to fail.

Another issue with the current build is how much feedback is given to the player. Successfully completing challenges seems to bring about little in the way of information on how this affects the overall game, with you simply clicking continue and choosing another event, which you may or may not have already completed. It’s all likely to be sorted out before the game hits retail, but at the moment it’s hard to get a sense of progression within the game.

At the core of Freak Out is a competent skiing game, and there’s a chance that the end result will be an enjoyable downhill skiing experience, but a lot of work needs to be done. The character progression system found in the full game could well add a much needed connection to what’s going on, but we’ll have to wait and see if the developers are up to the task. Freak Out – Extreme Freeride is due for release in Q1 2007, so should be hitting store shelves at some point in the next few months.