MotoGP 20 Review

MotoGP 20 is a motorcycle racing game which comes developed by Milestone SRL and is available on the PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PS4. The game is a racing simulator specifically for motorcycles and aims to give players a realistic racing experience.

This is the first MotoGP game I have played in a very long time and the first motorcycle racing game I’ve really had a good go at since Super Hang On, on the Sega Mega Drive. In saying this, I guess I am a bit of a novice when it comes to this genre of racing games. Although I do dabble quite a bit in car racing games such as Gran Turismo, Need For Speed, and Grid, MotoGP is a bit different. Motorcycles do not handle in the same way as cars do and the game offers something different and unique to players.

The Gampelay

The game will see you race on multiple race tracks made famous due to the real life MotoGP such as Red Bull Ring – Spielberg. When racing you’ll be able to choose your favourite track or one will be given to you if you are in the career mode. If you are in quick race you can select your driver, weather and racing aids before you begin.

When playing the quick mode, you get three options to choose from that will define your racing experience. These include loading a new Grand Prix, Time Trial and also starting a new championship. The Grand Prix is basically just a quick race mode, the Time Trial is just you racing against the clock and a championship is something a bit longer. For people like me who don’t have too much time to do a whole championship the Grand Prix is more than enough, I can easily customise the settings for what I need and just go in for a quick race.

MotoGP’s gameplay changes based on what you select as your riding aid. There are three possible riding aid settings you can choose from and these include assisted, normal and pro mode. If you select pro mode you will not have any automatic braking and will be left virtually on your own to control the bike. If you were to select assisted mode you will have automatic braking on race track corners and falling off the bike is a little more difficult. Veterans of the game will likely go for the more difficult and challenging modes while people like me will go for the easier ones.

MotoGP does take a lot of practice to get use to the racing style. The main difference I found between playing this motorcycle game compared to the many racing games I’ve played is that you have to be a lot more careful with bumping into opponents on the corners of the tracks. A simple bump will send you flying to the ground and you’ll crash. This happens so often, I would find myself especially in the early hours I had with the game bumping into other riders and falling to the ground. It can get very frustrating. Luckily the game does offer players a re-wind mechanic which will let you go back in time to before you crashed, so that you can correct the error.

For new players, there will be a little bit of a learning curve to mastering the gameplay of driving the motorcycle. This is no arcade racer that you can just pick up and after 1 or 2 races and start winning each race easily. There is some skill to the game, but once you master how to properly turn corners, brake at the right distance and steer so that you don’t hit opponents, winning races becomes much easier.

Additional modes in the game include a career mode, this is where you will compete in the MotoGP and complete races in a set yearly calendar. You will be able to earn money, customise your bike’s appearance and also choose a manager. This is a fun time and is pretty much what you could expect to be the bulk of the gameplay experience. It will take many hours to complete this and is somewhat rewarding.

When in career mode, before you race in a new GP, you have the option to complete practice rounds, qualifying rounds and warm up races before going on to do the main MotoGP. For the most part, these will probably be more fun to do for the hardcore fans of the game, but for me, I always just enjoyed skipping straight the race. Doing all these will help you to do better overall, but after doing it, I felt that it took so long by the time I actually got to do the actual race event, that I was bored with it. I just don’t want to race around the same track so many times to just get a better starting position.

The final part of the game allows you to race in a historic game mode. You can play as either Michael Doohan or Valentino Rossi. This mode is tiny and only has a few tracks for you to play on and having so few historical racers to choose from makes it kind of a waste. Do not buy this game if you are interested only in this mode, it is very small.

Sound & Music

The sounds and music in this game is amongst the probably the worst I’ve seen in a racing game. There’s pretty much no music during races, the menu music is annoying and basically anything musical is almost non existent. This is terrible for the atmposphere of the game and keeps away any energy from any parts of it. MotoGP is nothing compared the musical experience you would get in a Need For Speed game, which makes everything exciting there. It’s also not slick and relaxed like in racing simulators like Gran Turismo.

Sounds are a bit better. Motorcycles sound realistic and in game race noises sound like a simulator should. There is a lot of realism to the experience and hard core fans of simulated engine sounds will enjoy this.

Graphics

The graphics are nice. I played the game on PC, but I’ve also seen it running on the PS4 and on both platforms the game runs well. It is probably the best looking motorcycle game you could find out there in 2020. In this area, the game should not disappoint you. I also enjoyed the various weather effects and bike rider customisations.

Overall

MotoGP 20 is a game I would recommend for those most interested in MotoGP and motorcycle racing in general. For casual gamers like myself who are new, there will be a bit of a learning curve with this game, but it’s not impossible to get used to it. It possibly would be better if there were more tutorials for new entrants to the series as this seems to be completely absent. Making use of tutorials or game modes that could teach you how to better do things would go a long way for helping players get better.