Milestone’s MotoGP series has come along ways since it sped back into our living rooms in 2013. However, recent years’ titles have seen the Italian developer stall, fresh ideas and genuine leaps forward proving few and far between.
MotoGP 17 is the fifth title in Milestone’s now long-running series of games and one that has come at a time when MotoGP is massively growing in popularity. So, is this year’s game a triumphant wheelie across the line or an unceremonious slide into the gravel?
The core game experience has changed little for this year, but that is not exactly surprising nor is it a bad thing either. Like in MotoGP 15, you have two career options: work your way through the ranks as your own custom rider or do the same while also managing your own team in the new managerial career mode.
The former is self-explanatory and has changed little from previous years, except with the introduction of the Red Bull Rookies Cup as your career starting point. Managerial mode is a nice, if not exactly new, departure from your standard career modes.
Much like in the 2015 game, you can create your own team, complete with custom livery, and sign sponsors to fund your career. The better you do, the more in-game cash you receive, which can be spent on new machinery.
In this year’s game that money can also be spent on riders to partner you in your teams, as well as on staff to carry out various tasks within your outfit. It feels very much like Codemasters’ Grid career mode, which I very much enjoyed.
The sense of achievement you get from taking a win or championship with your own team makes the managerial mode something worth sinking your teeth into for a lengthy period.
If lengthy careers aren’t your thing, you can pick a rider and bike from the entire 2017 MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 or Red Bull Rookies roster and jump straight into a race. Classic content also returns, with a plethora of historic machinery to play with ranging from Valentino Rossi’s Aprilia RS125 through to Wayne Gardner’s Honda NSR500 and Casey Stoner’s 2007 Ducati.
A lot of the classic machinery does need to be unlocked by completing various in-game challenges, but the grind is certainly worth it. All of these bikes can be taken online, too. Multiplayer is pretty standard, though the inclusion of co-op season is welcomed.
Critically, once in a race, Milestone’s servers this year aren’t a lag-filled disaster, though you would expect this with a Dorna-backed esports championship coming up this year.
Of course, all of this in-game content is pretty pointless if the actual racing isn’t up to much. Milestone has put a lot of work into this year’s AI, and it shows. While not perfect – the AI do tend to make quite a bit of contact with you and on certain tracks can be way off the pace – racing against the AI in MotoGP 17 has been a genuine enjoyment.
In previous games it proved pretty easy to hit the front and check out in the early stages of a race, but not this year. The AI put on a determined showing during races, making each point scored a small victory in itself as you will have truly earned it.
The handling has also massively improved, with each class and brand of bike feeling more nuanced than in past games. This is particularly, and probably more crucially, evident in the MotoGP class. The Ducati is a fast beast in a straight line but heavy in the bends, while the Yamaha is silky smooth and nimble.
Whenever a bike steps out of line or you twist the throttle a little too early, it’s much easier to adapt to the situation. Of course, if you do find yourself heading skywards, the rewind system is present and well in this game.
One thing that has always stood out in Milestone’s MotoGP games was its use of the license. Working closely with Dorna Sports has a very apparent effect on the game. Menu screens are littered with official pictures, while in-race graphics are identical to those you will see on television.
It’s a very small detail, but one that does not go unnoticed by the die-hard MotoGP fan. It is something that brings the virtual MotoGP experience a little more to life.
That lifelike experience extends to the games sound design. Finally, after four years, we have bike noises that actually (almost) sound realistic. Though still a bit computer-like, each bike now has a much more pleasing sound to it; the KTM RC16 screams while the Moto3 bikes angrily buzz. The sound design is a massive step in the right direction and one that should get better when Milestone switches to its new game engine next year.
That should hopefully mean we get a much more visually pleasing game. Compared to recent years, MotoGP 17 is the best looking MotoGP game ever. But that isn’t saying much. Textures are a bit nicer and the game runs smoothly enough thanks to its 60fps, but the overall visual fidelity of the game leaves much to be desired, especially three years into the current console generation.
Milestone did want to run MotoGP 17 on its new Unreal engine, but the restrictive time frame it had to get the game ready for its June release meant coding everything for the new engine would have taken too long.
Hopefully with a new engine we will see other details added, such as an actual damage model, differing grip characteristics of race tracks, dynamic weather and realistic tyre wear models to add some sort of strategy element to the game.
These are all things Milestone’s rivals have been implementing for years and doing a fine job with it to boot.
So MotoGP 17 is still behind the curve when it comes to quite a lot of things. But for the first time in a long time, I am actually excited to play a MotoGP game again. The handling of the bikes on top of a far improved AI make for a brilliant racing experience, and the addition of a managerial career as well as a deep well of content make MotoGP 17 a worthy investment in both cash and time.
