ATV Offroad Fury 3 Review

Released way back in November 2004 in the US, ATV Offroad Fury 3 has finally arrived in Europe. All these months later, you wonder why it’s been released at all, and considering it’s lacking the online play seen in the US release and only features one discipline (unlike MX vs. ATV Unleashed) it’s a hard game to get excited about. ATV racing games are hard to review. I’m not sure if the sport is considerably more popular outside of the UK, but as far as I’m aware it’s certainly a minority interest over here.

ATV Offroad Fury 3 continues where Offroad Fury 2 left off, although no longer by Rainbow Studios, instead being produced by Climax Racing. The game offers the usual mix of indoor tracks and wide-open outdoor courses, each with plenty of jumps to pull off insane tricks, and sharp corners which lend themselves towards some hairy crashes. It’s safe to say that only fans of previous games need apply here, but considering the previous game arrived years ago, even they have probably moved on by now.

With online play strangely missing for European players, game modes are limited to a challenge-based training mode, single races, four-player split-screen races and a championship mode. The championship mode is the meat and bones of the game, with a mixture of straightforward indoor and outdoor races, plus sprawling checkpoint races. Progression through the game is pretty standard stuff, and as you move from race to race you’ll unlock new ATVs essential for harder races. The game has an arcade feel to it and it’s certainly fun to slide the ATVs around sharp bends and fly high into the air off large ramps, but for some reason the whole thing just isn’t as thrilling as racing a car or a bike.

Tricks aren’t essential to most of the game modes, but pulling tricks earns you credits which can be used to unlock new vehicles and gear for your rider. The trick system is pretty simplistic, but by combining a direction with face buttons you can pull off various extravagant moves and even link tricks together to perform combos. To get the maximum air time it’s essential that you pre-load a jump. This is done by pulling back the left analogue stick and pushing it forward as you leave the ramp. While in the air the left analogue stick is also used to balance the ATV to ensure a smooth landing.

The game is some 14 months old now and it shows. The tracks are large and there’s a decent draw distance on the outdoor courses, but detail isn’t great and textures are a little blurry. The frame rate also chugs the majority of the time, never really hitting its stride. The game looks its best when you pull off insanely high jumps, letting you see far into the distance, but on the whole ATV Offroad Fury 3 is a rather bland and dull looking game.

The soundtrack features the usual mix of rock, funk, hip-hop and techno music, but these genres are used so frequently in games like this that it’s becoming rather annoying, especially if you don’t like it in the first place. If you’re into ‘artists’ such as Good Charlotte, Chevelle and Lostprophets then this will be right up your street, but for everyone else the option to turn the music volume down to nothing comes as a welcome relief. The ATVs sound suitably ATV-like, but again, their whiny engines do start to grate after a while.

With games such as MX vs. ATV unleashed on the market and doing what Offroad Fury 3 does, but better and with more variety, the market for this late release seems rather limited. Racing is fun enough, but it all becomes pretty monotonous after a while. Things aren’t helped by some drab presentation and a generally annoying soundtrack. Online play might have given ATV fans a reason to pick this up, but with that being cut from the European release the one reason for having an interest in the game has been removed.