REVIEW

Moto GP 15 Review

by Luke Walsh, July 11th, 2015

For sports gamers a new year signals a new edition of their game of choice. For most motorcycling fans, Milestone’s MotoGP 15 is the game they’ve been waiting all year for. The common dilemma with new sporting games is weighing up whether they offer more than their predecessor, and this is the mystery I hope to solve with the newest in the MotoGP series.

Building on the previous games in the series, MotoGP 15 offers everything you’d expect in a licensed motorcycling game – the complete roster from Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP classes, a presentation style courtesy of the MotoGP television broadcasts, and more. The licensing support makes the game feel as authentic as ever, and allows for quality touches like the introduction video of the career mode that sees a host of MotoGP riders presented to the player with their achievements, boasting the best MotoGP lineup ever.

The career mode is arguably the main event of MotoGP 15, as with previous games in the series. The rider creation that takes place at the very first point in the game sets you up to become world champion, should you take on the challenge. With your created avatar the task is simple enough – win. As always with these games it isn’t quite that straightforward, however. Starting off as a wildcard, you must perform well enough to impress a team and get them to sign you for the season in the Moto3 class. Depending on how you approach MotoGP 15, this can be a challenge or the easiest thing in the game. For anyone who hasn’t put much time into MotoGP games or similar titles, it is worth noting that choosing your difficulty level is everything. Too low and the game becomes too easy and repetitive, too high and the game is infuriating and annoying. There is usually a sweet spot though, and once found MotoGP 15 can become enjoyable.

There is limited progression in the career mode, but this year’s edition offers the ability to form your own private team to variate from the norm of joining real life teams. The introduction of GP credits means that once set up, your private team can splash out on new bikes and use data packages to get upgrades. This is easily the biggest addition to the series, in what is otherwise a rinse and repeat of the previous games in the series.

Another new addition to the series sees the inclusion of 2014 riders and teams on top of the newest set. These are utilized in special events that see the player recreate or re-enact scenarios and events from the 2014 MotoGP season. If the career mode is the main event, these scenarios make for a fun and challenging warm-up.

Whilst MotoGP 15 makes the most of said licensing with the aforementioned true to life rosters, I fear that these also bring about the biggest downside of the game. One of my biggest gripes with the MotoGP games, and Formula One games for that matter, has been that the licensing is so strict that all riders stay with their teams throughout the duration of a career. The player is free to move around into different teams but Marc Marquez will always be on the Repsol Honda, Valentino Rossi doesn’t retire, and other younger riders never move up from Moto3 and Moto2 to the premium MotoGP class. MotoGP is a massive worldwide championship, and when you consider EA’s football giant series FIFA it allows players to transfer from team to team and generates new players, MotoGP 15 is still a way behind in the scope of things.

MotoGP 15 is neither spectacular nor terrible visually speaking, the lighting seems smoother and more realistic than previous editions but there are some basic environment models that let the scenery down. The gameplay more than makes up for the lacking graphical prowess, but for a new-gen racing game you’d still expect a little more wow factor.

The game is probably what most fans expected, sports games are little more than a rinse and repeat of the last game and MotoGP 15 can hold up to that, if nothing else. The introduction of private team creation is a definite positive and could see the series going in the right direction, but there is still more to be achieved in the motorcycling franchise. Maybe in 2016, guys.