Milestone S.r.l., creators of basically every major bike game out there such as MotoGP or MXGP, recently flew us out to check out the sequel to last year’s Monster Energy Supercross and we left with the realization that riding these bikes is a lot harder than it already looked.
Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame 2
Developer: Milestone S.r.l.
Platform: PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One
I’m not going to sit here pretending to be an expert in motocross, let alone in the racing sim genre, but Monster Energy Supercross 2 definitely made it easy for a newcomer to jump in. The sim elements are still there, with multiple brakes to handle for specific moments or knowing when to lean into a turn and how far to lean, but the game also has a host of accessibility options you can toggle such as linking both brake types to a single button or adjusting the physics. Now mind you, these options won’t turn the game into something akin to Burnout, but they are helpful to ease you into the more hardcore settings. A really neat feature is the real-time terrain deformation. As riders tear through the track you’ll see the lines they make in the dirt and hitting those paths will actually make it easier for your bike to move through the mud.
For the die-hard motocross fans, you can expect 80 official racers to be in the game, so there’s a good chance your favorite is in here, along with nearly twenty tracks to choose from. On top of the standard tracks, there’s even the return of the Compound map that was DLC in the previous title. This is an open area for you to race around in and practice without having to stress about a race or other riders. The Compound is unlocked right away and the track list implied there were a few variations as well; it was definitely a lot of fun being able to freely take my time to make jumps off a ramp to my own leisure. Although not part of the demo, the track editor was confirmed to be returning which should excite fans of that feature. As someone who, once again, isn’t very accustomed to the racing sim genre, it was nice to hear that Monster Energy Supercross 2 will include a tutorial mode that will explain all the various mechanics of the game. I caught on to how to play the game the more I had my hands on it, but it’s nice knowing that there’s a mode there that will properly explain various aspects that I was unaware of like when to lean into a jump.
A major change to the game is the inclusion of a pseudo-RPG element to your bike. The previous game was pretty barebones when it came to additional features, something the developers said was a big focus for the sequel. As you complete races you’ll earn XP for placing well, performing tricks, and other general things like pulling a smooth turn. This will level up your rider and in turn unlock parts to add to your bike. These parts will offer up various bonuses such as making turns easier to perform. On top of this, you can also unlock victory poses for your rider to perform at the end of a race where you’ll be a treated to a QTE to perform said pose. I didn’t get a chance to see what these exactly looked like since they weren’t in the demo, so I opted for my own victory pose of launching off a ramp at the finish line straight into the crowd.
From our review of the game last year, Spencer Legace mentioned how the original game had a plethora of bugs and menu hitches which seems to still be the case here. Menus didn’t have a particularly snappy feel to them and I encountered a few bugs in my time playing through the demo. A few times when I’d crash, the game would respawn me fifteen feet in the air pointed down and repeatedly spawn me that way forcing a reset. Some framerate issues would crop up occasionally as well and I found a particularly “race breaking” glitch. If you’ve ever played any sort of kart racer you’re aware of the art of launching yourself onto another part of the track to cut ahead. Obviously I spent a decent portion of my demo trying to do that since you can get some pretty big air on some of these jumps, but anytime I’d try to do so the game would reset me back to where I was. That is until I hit one particular ramp on a track that had the reset counter pop up, but then it disappeared without resetting me. I was able to hit the same ramp throughout the race to cut ahead multiple times which is obviously a problem in a game with online multiplayer. It may be pertinent to add that the demo was running on a PC and I was told that the assets being used in that build were from the previous game, with the newer assets to be added in closer to launch. Time will tell if these issues are ironed out or not of course.
If everything I’ve said sounds good to you then you can look forward to picking the game up when it drops on shelves next year on February 9th for PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. If it doesn’t sound good then I don’t know man, maybe you don’t like bike games so then why are you reading this to begin with? If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go watch a few more motocross videos on YouTube and chug some Rockstars I mean Monster Energy™ drinks.
