Review: MotorHEAT

> posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Developer Milkstone Studios used to supply the Xbox Live Indie Games channel with high quality titles and MotorHEAT is one of my favorites from their impressive lineup, which consists of almost 30 titles! Considering this high output, you'd suspect the quality of their games to be sub-par but Milkstone never failed to deliver very polished products. This 3D endless racer was no exception and was one of the best racing games on XBLIG. Fortunately, it can also be purchased on PC (please note the disclaimer at the end of the review!) and there's a demo available to download from the developer's website so you can witness the intense speed rush this game has to offer with your own eyes. But beware: playing this game will dry up your eye sockets, so better get your eye drops ready!

Let's get behind the wheel, then. This won't take long as there is only one car to get into, a Laborghini look-alike, and the developers promise that it's the fastest car in the world. You can give it a new paint job and admire it in the parking lot for a bit before taking it for a spin and stepping on the gas. Actually, the latter isn't necessary because your vehicle accelerates automatically. You only have to steer and boost and keep an eye out for the oncoming traffic.


The endless roads of MotorHEAT are divided into levels of specific lengths. Cover a given distance within the time limit and you will level up, granting improvements to your car's handling and speed. You can also pick up time and score bonuses, multipliers, boost energy and even invincibility power-ups scattered across the highway that will help you reach the next level in time and increase your score. Points are accumulated by passing traffic as closely as possible, with near misses giving you more points and boost. Crashing will not only reset your multiplier and empty your boost but will also result in a penalty of ten seconds, so you'll have to weigh risk against potential reward within the blink of an eye while racing at breakneck speed.


The controls are really tight and responsive and the car has a very direct feel to it, which is rather arcadey and not very realistic, but a perfect fit for this type of gameplay. The longer you drive, the denser traffic becomes and some cars will even changes lanes, spoiling your best-laid plans. As if your dried up eyes are not enough already, weather and daytime will change, too, reducing the visibility of oncoming hazards even more, which makes for an intense experience.


Considering its age (the game was initially released in 2010), the visuals are still nice to look at although the landscape is rather bland with not much variety of objects on the sides of the street. When boosting, the heavy use of motion blur conveys a really nice sense of speed, though. The music is rather forgettable and doesn't really do much to support the thrill of the ride, but I guess that's a matter of taste. In the end, it all comes down to the intense gameplay on endless highways, an incredible speed rush and the infamous “just one more attempt” effect, that will make you grab the steering wheel again and again because you want to find out how far you can drive on your next attempt. There's definitely an Outrun meets Burnout vibe to this game which is a good thing in my book. But there are major downsides to the only version still available to purchase for PC.


IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Two main features of the game that I assume many players would consider essential are not or only partially working in the PC version of this game: 1. The online leaderboards are working on a peer-to-peer basis: you'd have to play the game at the same time as other players to be able to sync scores, which is very unlikely to happen, so you'll keep staring at empty leaderboards. Also, there are no local highscores. 2. The awards (in-game achievements) can be unlocked but not viewed from within the menu. The game seems to expect you to be logged into Xbox Live.

So why review this game at all? On the one hand, even without being able to earn bragging rights, the game can still be enjoyed purely for its gameplay experience, which I still find highly enjoyable. On the other hand, I'm hoping for an updated Steam version or even a sequel that expands upon the concept. Also, this title was part of the phenomenon called Xbox Live Indie Games, a service shut down by Microsoft about a year ago, and in my opinion it's a good idea to appreciate and preserve its legacy in some way. This review is my contribution. So go and see for yourself what MotorHEAT still has to offer even with some features missing now. But don't forget your eye drops.