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The king of motorcycle racing games comes from Italy and now wants to make everything even better. Is Milestone catching up with the genre luminaries with the latest installment in the long-running series?

All screenshots are from GamersGlobal

When it comes to the cultural metropolis of Milan, it’s not just me that first thinks of the famous fashion show or the Teatro alla Scala – closely followed by me personally Adriano Celentanos Song Raggazo della via Gluck and the racing bike classic Milan San Remo. The capital of Lombardy and the second largest city in Italy is also important for gamers. Among other things, the games company Milestone has its headquarters there, which implemented the early official games for the World Rally Championship until 2013. Back in 1999, the Italians developed their first motorcycle racing game and in 2007 they launched theirs MotoGPseries, the official version of the motorcycle world championship of the same name.

MotoGP has become more and more realistic since then, making it particularly difficult for beginners. With MotoGP 22 everything should be different now. Not through a more arcade concept, but through new tutorials and co. I found out for you why this plan doesn’t quite work out and how the brand new story mode is doing.

Your knowledge from car racing games will not help you in MotoGP 22, because the bikes are completely different. The new tutorials only convey these basics to a limited extent.

A season to melt away

Before I get into the allegedly massively improved tutorials, I would like to address the most important innovation of MotoGP 22. It’s called NINE Season 2009 and is an interactive story mode similar to what you see in Codemasters’ F1 2021 (in the test: grade 9.0). Here, too, you intervene directly in the mostly short racing sessions and, for example, have to drive to the front of the field within a few laps or at least get a place on the podium – but there are no interactive dialogue sequences or interviews like in F1.

But the big difference is that NINE doesn’t tell a fictional story about an established racer and his aspiring new teammate. Rather, you experience the motorcycle world championship of 2009, in which four riders fought for the crown, embedded in a high-quality documentary by the British documentary filmmaker Mark Neale.

As great as it may sound, taking turns in the roles of Casey Stoner or by the later world champion Valentino Rossi to hatch, the playable sections are relatively boring. This is mainly due to the fact that, due to the lack of staging, the tension that the documentary captures so well does not even begin to develop. I also find the poor soundscape even more disturbing in this context, which generally gnaws at the atmosphere. To a lesser extent, this also applies to the off-track environments, which fall noticeably in terms of graphics quality compared to the rider and bike models.

I expect a lot more from a story mode than interspersed, unadorned racing tasks. So it’s a pity that I can’t watch the first-class documentary in one go. Unlocking the whole movie was my only motivation to stay with NINE. Luckily, the legendary 2009 season is not only included in the story mode. You can also start complete individual races on all tracks and with all drivers of this season, whereby the important players like Rossi do not have to be unlocked first.

The story mode NINE is similar to that from F1 2021. One big difference: The interactive sequences are embedded in a (really good!) sports documentary that I would have liked to watch straight in one go without becoming active myself.

Fat (license) package

Nobody can seriously complain about the range of game modes or racing classes in MotoGP 22. Individual races (on request also with free training, qualifying and warm-up), full or shortened seasons, races in MotoGP or the two junior classes Moto 2 and Moto 3 – no problem at all. There is also the career mode again, in which you not only have to prove yourself on the bike, but also improve the team and motorcycle and, for example, develop new parts. It also sounds a lot like F1, but it is the more complex system from the WRC-Playing Kylotonn similar.

The multiplayer options, which have also been on the rise in eSports for some time, and the split-screen mode included for the first time are less relevant to me. There are also time trials and the GT Academy. In the latter you want something like last in Gran Turismo 7 (in the test: grade 8.0) win gold, silver or at least bronze medals with your times in individual sectors or on the entire Grand Prix track. In individual races or in a career, you can of course also choose your own driver and even create your own team in the career. Don’t get your hopes up too high, especially when it comes to your driver’s visual customization options.

If I usually prefer the cockpit view in racing simulations, I prefer the follow camera in MotoGP 22. Incidentally, you can also reduce the easily recognizable motion blur on the console.

Conditionally beginner-friendly

One of the biggest problems MotoGP 21 was that the increasing degree of realism made it difficult, especially for beginners, to find an approach. However, the new tutorials in particular are of little help. How to “drive properly”, how or when you have to give in or that the braking behavior of the two-wheelers is completely different than that of F1 cars is only conveyed to a limited extent. Advanced users are more likely to get their money’s worth, as they are better informed about tire wear, fuel consumption and the like in further tutorials.

Not that the tutorials are useless, but they could still be a lot better. Because in the end you always have to fiddle with it and that’s just as effective if you start directly with individual races and thus increasingly develop a better feeling for the game mechanics. Despite my experience with earlier series parts and other motorcycle racing simulations, it took me a good two hours before I was able to control what was happening. You must be willing to get through this phase, no matter how much longer or shorter it may be for you; but then it just keeps getting better.

While I increasingly activated the sometimes cumbersome driving aids – in which the game analyzes your driving behavior and suggests turning this or that help on or off – at the beginning so as not to constantly fall flat on my face, I was later able to deactivate more and more of them. With F1 and Co. is not remotely comparable. There I use the aids minimally at best, in MotoGP 22 considerably more, also because they are harder to dose. So for me the fun just started after a while. Simulation purists or players who also ride their motorcycles privately and have the appropriate prior knowledge need not worry. MotoGP 22 can also make these players into hardcore simulation effortlessly in the options.

Author: Benjamin Braun, Editor: Hagen Gehritz (GamersGlobal)

Opinion: Benjamin Brown

MotoGP 22 does a lot of things absolutely right in terms of the driving model, optics or the range of game modes. Simulation purists can even look forward to a manually controllable ride height device and will generally have fun with the ultra-realistic racing game experience with disabled driving aids. However, even with the new tutorials, newcomers or casual motorcycle racers aren’t introduced as well as they could be. Even those who play car racing games regularly must be prepared to have to familiarize themselves with it for a long time.

The story mode might have been my highlight. The documentation sections are also clearly among the highlights. However, I find the interactive sequences almost boring. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to just watch the documentary if I wanted to. The bottom line is that MotoGP 22 makes another small leap, even if it is ultimately not enough to reach the level of an F1 2021. Friends of motorcycle racing games definitely don’t find a better alternative at the moment.

MOTOGP 22 Xbox X