Blur was a title which was barely on my radar, however after spending a good few hours with the game I can confidently say that this is most certainly not the case anymore. The beta features a fairly generous offering of content allowing gamers to experience around 15 licensed cars, 4-5 maps, 4 different modes and a taster of the games' unlock system.
After jumping into my first race Blur handled significantly different to what I had expected. The cars have a real weighty feel to them making the handling reasonably believable, as opposed to the arcadey' style I was anticipating. However as soon as you get a hold of the power-ups, that's when things seriously start to heat up. The 8 power-ups in the game all seem like they've undertaken a huge amount of testing and balance, from the simple speed-boost to the explosive missile or even the satisfying shunt power-up. Most offer 2 different fire-modes, triggered by simply hitting the A button or holding back on the Analog stick and pressing A - such as firing a missile backwards or doing a 'stop-and-boost' move with the speed-boost power-up. Not only that but many of the abilities can be cancelled out, such as firing a quick-shot backwards into an incoming missile will simply destroy it. Combine that with the various perk-style ability unlocks and you've got a surprisingly robust system. It simply never gets old to absorb someones missile with your shield only to fire it straight back at him.
Much like Call of Duty, the game features an unlock system with perks, challenges, upgrades, cars and match-types. It seems Bizzare have learnt well from said shooter franchise as the game is constantly rewarding you with 'fans' - the game's form of XP. Overtake 10 cars with a boost and you'll get extra fans, or simply chain together a few power-ups and again you'll receive a bonus. After a couple of levels you'll also gain access to the 'Mod Shop' - this is where you can create 4 different loadouts, much like the classes we know and love from various shooters. Here you have 3 different perk-style slots, each allowing for 8 different abilities, creating a total of 24. These range from dealing more damage in collisions, to converting attacks with your shield, to even gaining a random power-up at the start of the race. There also looks to be 3 car upgrades to unlock (which if the emblems are anything to go by, are the same for each car) along with new paint options such as metallic and pearlescent, but I'm yet to experience any of these first hand. The whole system certainly does a solid job of encouraging you to play, but it's too early to tell whether it's persistent aspects will stay addictive after lengthy periods of playtime.
With a surprisingly polished beta, the game is already looking promising. With a possible 20 players racing at once things can get excitingly hectic. I strongly advise gamers to try get their hands on one of the thousands of keys floating around the internet at the moment and experience this frantic 'Wipeout on Wheels' title for themselves. I'll see you on the 8th March!
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