Freek Review: Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad

Trevor Roppolo — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:23:00 GMT

Fans of arcade rally racers like Dirt and the classic XSN title, RalliSport Challenge will find a lot to love about Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad. Is it a good as either one? Probably not; but you’ll be shocked at this racer’s cost-to-fun ratio.

For only $10 you get 5 different vehicles including buggies, trucks and rally cars—each with 3 different setups and each really fun to drive. You get a 23-event career that takes about 2-hours to complete on semi-pro difficulty and moving up to the harder difficulties adds more challenge and more time.

The 7 included tracks are some of the most fun I’ve played in a racing game in a while—with trips through jungles, deserts and snow-covered passes. Beating and banging with opponents, launching for big air and crashing through dynamic environments was intense and gratifying. As you progress, you’ll earn experience each race that buys you simple upgrades reminiscent of the old Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off-Road arcade game. It’s not a big deal, but it was nice to see my vehicle’s performance improve along with my own.

I think developer 2XL Games and publisher D3 made a good call with this game. It’s fun, value-priced and looks great running at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second at 1080p. There are a few small peeves here and there but nothing that will get in the way of your good time. Completionists and online players will find nearly unlimited playability with Jeremy McGrath—as long as you can find some other humans in lobbies to play with.

Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad is available for both PSN and XBLA for $9.99.

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Freek Review: Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad