From its beginnings as a pure rally car simulation in Colin McRae Rally, after the untimely death of the game's namesake endorser in 2007, the series has evolved into the DiRT franchise, which still has that rally car heart but has transformed into an entertainingly diverse racing/demolition derby game with the newest release, DiRT Showdown on the Xbox 360.
In this reviewed version, the Hoonigan Exclusive Edition available at Walmart, gamers get a few extras to start: three Monster Energy Team and Hoonigan Team liveries and a Head Start Booster Pack. Regardless of which version, the gameplay places gamers in the front seat of a Showdown Tour, with four levels of increasingly tougher and longer events. Although on the normal setting, finishing in first place in almost all events, especially after unlocking, purchasing and upgrading the faster and tougher vehicles, is relatively easy.
What makes DiRT Showdown such a good game is the variety of racing offerings it has. Gone is the rally racing-only that defined the Colin McRae franchise. DiRT Showdown is a solid, varied-event arcade-style racing game. There's still rally-style races, but tons more, too. Race-Off is simply that: a race with seven other cars around a rally-style enclosed track. But there's also the 8 Ball event, where gamers race around a figure 8-shaped course with plenty of loops and junctures for possible crashes. Eliminator is where the last car in the pack as the timer expires gets eliminated, and continues until there's just one car left. Hoonigan events are difficult if you haven't mastered the moves needed to succeed: drifting, donuts and slides, particularly in Head 2 Head but especially in Smash Hunter, where you have to clear colored obstacles in a specific order. Sounds easy, but if you miss one or two, it's almost impossible to finish first.
Wrecking and ramming full-throttle demolition derby events are the most exhilarating ones in DiRT Showdown. Rampage mode is a standard twisted metal demolition derby, where gamers score points for clobbering other cars, and big points when dealing a final car-terminating impact. By far, the best facet of DiRT Showdown is the demolition aspect.
The Joyride mode allows gamers to roam around joyriding while searching for Showdown icons to collect and performing mission tricks to open up the environment even more. The only difficulty during the Joyride mode is that the marking system isn't that good; sometimes it's really hard to figure out what area you're really supposed to be doing a trick in.
No matter what mode, part of the fun is unlocking better and stronger vehicles, then upgrading them, including plenty of real-world beauties and other cars and trucks with Frankenstein-style modifications to create a vehicle designed to withstand and unleash high-impact destructive force.
That fun carries over to the well-structured online environment. All the events in single-player are present online with some gameplay wrinkles (a "capture the flag" and "carry the loot" event). However, nothing is more entertaining than battling on Xbox Live in destruction derby events against other human adversaries. There is even some social media inclusion, too, as you can challenge friends who have the game to a particular event if you racked up a great score or finished with an impressive time, giving them opportunity to exceed your score/time. Gamers can also upload impressive crashes to YouTube if they want.
Transformed by one of the racing genre's best developers, Codemasters, from a rally racer to a arcade-style cornucopia of crashing and colliding car-racing mayhem, DiRT Showdown is a diverse and thrilling game, with both a solid single-player and an exceptional online offering sure the rev up the adrenaline rush.
– Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com
The Good:
‑ A great variety of modes both online and single-player, including highly combustible and entertaining demolition derby events
The Bad:
‑ Most events on the normal setting are too easy to finish first in, so the challenge level isn't very high
‑ The Joyride missions are sometimes confusing due to a not-always-clear placement of marker icons
Score: 9.0 / 10
