Dirt: Showdown Review

With only a year since Dirt 3 was released Codemasters wasted no time in pumping out another game in the series. Instead of calling it Dirt 4 they opted to give it a subtitle since it does differ quite a bit from the previous games with this one leaning more towards straight up arcade racing. People used to the controls of the previous Dirt games might need some getting used to with Showdown since while they didn’t drastically change anything, there is a definite difference; the cars felt a little on the border between having the more slightly realistic physics of Dirt and a lot more arcade touch. I noticed this when I started my first Head 2 Head event and I found myself failing horribly at the tricks which surprised me since I was pretty fucking good at the gymkhana stuff in Dirt 3. Eventually I realized that tricks such as drifts and donuts seem to ‘snap’ into place once you hit the handbrake and will stay in place as long as you hold down the acceleration trigger; there’s no need to continue steering to keep your car in place since the game does it for you. Remember how satisfying it would feel to pull off a tricky triple donut? Yea, you just have to get the car into position, hold down the accelerator, and the car just snaps into the donut forever. Doing the Gymkhana stuff ends up feeling a little empty when you win since they’re not as hard now while before I felt pretty damn good with myself when I managed to get high scores in those events.

Dirt: Showdown
Developer: Codemasters
Price: $50
Platform: PC, PS3 (reviewed), & Xbox 360

So Dirt: Showdown ditches the rally racing in favor of faster paced racing with some destruction derby and a lot less gymkhana events. This transfers to the tracks as well with each track filled with fireworks at almost every turn on a track to remind you how awesome you are even at last place. There are four tours with around 20 events and a finale in each tour. While I did feel Dirt 3 was a tad slow paced (fuck those 8 lap races) I don’t much care for the actual race events in this game. The tracks themselves are pretty damn boring with the actual race tracks being completely flat and uninteresting, while the 8-ball tracks are even worse. The destruction events are a little better but not by much thanks to the AI. I felt the AI was a little too aggressive during races or destruction events, sort of like the game selected who it wanted to win the race and set the rest of the drivers to fuck you up. I swear there’s also rubber band AI but I can’t be sure; if there isn’t then the other drivers sure as fuck are given more boost than me.

The destruction events are definitely the highlight of the game with big arenas where the fireworks effects really get put to work. You’ll get points for simply ramming opponents but the big points come from taking out a person and each mode ends with a frantic double point session. You’ve got your basic deathmatch mode, Knock Out where you get points for knocking other drivers out of the stage, and Hard Target where everyone is out to smash the target (spoilers: the target is you). Some people might be put off by the fact that you respawn in these modes and it really would’ve been nice if they included a permanent death mode at least in the multiplayer. The gymkhana events are the same as before but now there’s a new smash event where you’re tasked with smashing a certain amount of blocks of a specific color before moving onto the next set all while under a timer. It’s interesting enough (if not pathetically easy) but it does drag out after a while. Online multiplayer includes two different spins on capture the flag and a checkpoint race mode. They’re fun but it really makes me wonder why they would keep it to multiplayer only.

As you play the game you’ll acquire money you can use to buy new cars and upgrading any you already have but I never felt like I really needed to upgrade or buy anything. I’ve been rolling through most of the tour with the starting car at no upgrades. The game also tries to really push you into connecting your YouTube account to show off anything you do in the game. You can turn off the pop-up that asks you about it, but there are subtle hints throughout the game that keeps poking you with the idea; there’s also some Twitter business too. While I enjoy the feature, I didn’t really care much for the game making me feel like I was a scumbag for not wanting to do it. It also keeps reminding you to sign-up for Racenet and entices you with a few liveries and in-game cash. It was just sort of pathetic how it had to offer me rewards to sign-up instead of being something I would actually want to sign-up for.

The Battersea Compound from the previous game is back with a slew of new challenges and some returning ones (like trying to land a jump in those stupid containers). They’ve changed things up this time though since you have access to both Battersea Compound and the new Yokohama Docks stage right when you start up the game under the Joyride section. Instead of unlocking each area from playing the tour mode, you simply have to complete around 90% of the challenges in an area before you’ll be allowed into the next. As a big fan of just driving around pulling off jumps and tricks, I fully welcome this change and hope future Dirt games adopt it. Battersea is the same as it was before but I’m not really a huge fan of the Yokohama area; I just really felt like it was too enclosed while Battersea feels like one big area. The challenges are a healthy mix of each gymkhana trick with 100 hidden packages spread out between the two stages. I was a little annoyed that they didn’t give you an option to turn on the donut/spin indicators since there are some challenges that are a little finicky with what they consider a spin zone or not.

The graphics are just as gorgeous as ever and Codemasters continues to show that they can make some pretty damn slick menus. The soundtrack is full of dubstep and newer alternative music that I felt was pretty hit or miss, but for some reason it fits. More developers really should follow in SSX’s example of allowing us to not only use our own music, but customize the music in their soundtrack too. There are some solid tracks in the game but I’d have to sit through songs I didn’t care about until I finally got to hear the few songs I like.

The Final Word
Codemasters made a smart move by giving this game a subtitle instead of making it Dirt 4 because this is more of a small taste of Dirt before the next numbered game. I enjoyed the destruction bits of the game but there are so many other games out that do car combat better than Dirt: Showdown that it makes it hard for me to recommend the game based on that alone.

– MonsterVine Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – Fair