Hey, guys!
Welcome back to a "not so retro" review!
And, this time around, it's all about Dakar 18, a game that I was waiting since forever!
But, was I disappointed with it?
Let's take a look!
Bigmoon Entertainment is a small and young Portuguese developer with a bold mission:
to bring the Dakar experience to fans and enthusiasts that always wanted to tackle such
a challenge and extreme adventure on the comfort of their homes.
In the past, a very restricted group of video game developers had the guts to try and replicate
the feeling and emotion of such an endurance race.
We have to travel all the way back to 1988 to find a game that really captured that sense
of freedom, of choice and of strategy.
That game was Paris-Dakar, from the Spanish developer Made in Spain.
In that one we had a simplified road-book that would tell us how many kilometers we
should drive north, then how many we should drive East, and so forth.
Believe me, it was a huge challenge, and on an 8-bit home computer.
30 years have passed and, in the meanwhile, the event switched from European and African
landscapes to South America.
It was no longer safe for contestants to cross certain African countries.
Their lives were at risk.
The last 3 events would have their initial start here in Portugal, and, as a huge fan
of the event practically since birth, I simply had to follow the race as close as I could.
Sadly, the 2008 edition, and last one starting from Lisbon, was canceled due to threats of
a terrorist attack on whoever crossed the Mauritanian border.
Let me remind you that this is an event that needs to be planned almost a year in advance,
and practically half of this particular one would take place in Mauritania.
With that said, ASO, the organization responsible for the Dakar, crossed the Atlantic and landed
on Argentina the next year and it stayed on South American soil since then.
As said before, Dakar related games came and went, but those were traditional racers just
like all others, and competition is ferocious in that particular genre.
Finally, in 2018, we have the chance to try a new Dakar game, but, this time around, extremely
focused on navigation and orientation using the most important item on such a race:
the road-book.
This is what this game is about, a true Sim in what orientation and navigation is concerned.
These were based on the real road-books used on the 2018 Dakar event that took place back
in January, and the waypoints are exactly where they were supposed to be that even Alex
Haro, Nani Roma's co-driver, recognized.
Nowadays the Dakar is open to 5 distinct categories:
cars, trucks, bikes, quads and sxs,
and Bigmoon tried really hard to implement those in the game.
Bikes and quads have strange behaviors, but, at least, they don't have a navigator by
their side yelling at them!
These vehicles respond weirdly to the controls and I can't get no fun and enjoyment
out of them.
As for the 4 wheelers, trucks and the 4x4 cars are the ones that really brings a smile
to my face.
Even not having the physics' models that all fans, like me, were hoping for.
Maybe on Dakar 19.
So, putting the physics aside, what have we got left?
The vastness of the desert, the huge dunes, miles and miles of open landscape to drive
and to get lost….
and our co-driver yelling and, most importantly, telling us where to go so that we can focus
on driving and on reading this treacherous terrain filled with traps and hazards.
If you want to simply go flatout across the dunes following a pre-determined track or
path, well, you've come to the wrong place.
There's tons of options out there.
But if you're willing to try something new, something unique,
Dakar 18 is definitely for you!
Dakar 18 is all about cross-country rally racing, with long stages of up to 1 hour non-stop,
if you're an experienced driver and somehow slightly familiar with orientation and navigation.
Obviously that there are tutorials and a rookie mode to help you get familiar with this game.
For the hardcore racer and fan of the real Dakar event, Competitor and Legend modes are
the way to go.
Dakar 18 offers a play area of over 18.000 square kilometers divided across the 14 official
stages of the real Dakar Rally 2018 detailing, not only the expected course for each stage,
but also a huge area for us to explore and to get lost covering Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.
There's even a Treasure Hunt mode that will allow us to find…
well, treasures!
And, while doing it, we'll come across incredible and mystical places such as the Nazca lines,
in Peru.
Picking a category may be the most difficult choice you'll ever make in this game, so
choose wisely and start by a vehicle that you find more suitable for your own personal
driving skills.
All of them are licensed from the real manufacturers and teams and, for instance, the big trucks
are really fun to drive, but a bit slow, whilst within the car category there are the rear-wheel
drive buggys from Mini and Peugeot that can really be challenging to drive, sliding all
over the place.
Again, choose wisely or you'll probably give it all up in the first couple of miles.
Even so, the more resilient players out there, that are really looking for a true challenge,
should pick a bike or quad in where, as told, there's no navigator by your side, so you'll
have to drive, read the road book, make the necessary adjustments to the distance travelled
to match the ones on the road book, etc, etc.
By the way, and in the meanwhile, the two-wheel bikes were completely re-worked and, after
the last released patch, riding these is slightly improved.
Again, driving in general is not as enjoyable as it should be.
Even with a steering wheel and pedals!
But the real test lies on navigation and orientation.
Taking your vehicle into the unknown, having the real sense of being lost somewhere in
the desert and having to find your way back to the right path,
is a freakin' amazing challenge!
Surely that it would have been even more incredible if the driving mechanics and feeling
were there.
But we have to keep in mind that this is the very first racing game entirely developed
from scratch coming from Bigmoon Entertainment.
There's so many cool features included in Dakar 18,
like being able to help other drivers that are stuck in the mud or on the top of a dune,
use shovels to dig our way out or apply recovery boards
if there's no one around to help us.
Also, after freeing our fellow drivers, they can run you over!
So just stay out of their line of sight!
Also, the online multiplayer is really engaging and fun, but it's quite difficult to find
someone to play with.
There's also other multiplayer options, like the traditional split screen mode and
even two-screen mode, so that each can have their own screen.
This last mode is truly enjoyable and extremely fun that brings that good old spirit of couch play,
something totally forgotten nowadays.
After the day one patch, there was a ton of issues still to be corrected.
These issues are now addressed but there's others popping out as more players starts
playing the game,
like cars disappearing in thin air or trucks appearing from nowhere on top of others.
Hummm…
this is weird…
In the meanwhile, 8 patches have already rolled out for the PC version, improving and fixing
tons of issues that players are reporting on a daily basis.
And, what's also awesome about Bigmoon, is that they're actually listening to all
our feedback!
So, after being playing Dakar 18 since day 1 and experienced all bugs and tried all patches,
I can conclude that, as for car physics and handling, we're stuck with what we have
right now.
As for the experience and feeling of being part of the greatest off-road event on Earth,
it's all there, and being able to finish every single stage is already a victory!
As I said in one of my other Dakar 18 related videos,
"Dakar 18 is a game to be tried by everyone, 'cause it's different from everything else!".
We can't just floor our way through.
We'll need to drive with our head, take extreme care of our vehicle, listen to the codriver,
follow the roadbook and drive our way around obstacles.
As simple as that!
Dakar 18 isn't for everybody.
Don't expect to find a racing game similar to Forza Horizon, DiRT, Baja, WRC or V-Rally.
It's a totally new breed of rally raid racing with a different concept that we can't simply
compare to other racers out there.
Even so, I invite you to try it out for yourselves, 'cause Dakar 18 will certainly produce completely
different and contrasting feelings to everyone that has the guts to tackle such a challenge.
So, guys!
This was my complete and honest review of Dakar 18, after being playing around with
it for a full month.
As a huge fan of the real event, I was really looking forward for this game and we must
applaud Bigmoon for the effort and, again, guts to bring a game based on the Dakar.
I'm positive that Dakar 19 will be a lot better and prepare yourselves for huge dose
of dunes, 'cause the real Dakar 2019 will take place exclusively in Peru!
If you're a racing fanatic, fell free to browse the channel, 'cause there's a ton
of videos related to that genre since the early days of gaming.
While you're at it, don't forget to like, to comment, to subscribe and to smash that
bell icon so that you're notified when my next video becomes available.
Thank you very much for watching, and…
I'll see you all in my next episode!
For more infomation >> Elimi Bırakma 16. Bölüm Fragman - Duration: 0:46. 
For more infomation >> "Selbstbestimmungsinitiative: Schweizer Recht statt fremde Richter" | 04.11.2018 | www.kla.tv/13279 - Duration: 10:27. 
For more infomation >> KOSTKA WYBUCHŁA - EPICKIE NAGRANIE - SPRAWDZ - Fortnite Battle Royale - Duration: 2:16. 
For more infomation >> Forged in Fire: Three Blades Tested (Season 5, Episode 2) | History - Duration: 5:05. 
For more infomation >> Прогноз руны дня на 5 ноября / Наталия Рунная #рунныймаг - Duration: 2:44. 
For more infomation >> A new start. A new day. | FortuneMC Factions #1 - Duration: 14:27. 
For more infomation >> 3 WORD FILM CHALLENGE - Duration: 4:22. 
For more infomation >> Schubladen und andere hohle Sachen: Büssi zappt'!n - Folge 20 - Duration: 5:23. 
For more infomation >> Dance Moms: Dance Digest - "Collateral Damage" (Season 5) | Lifetime - Duration: 5:07. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét