Baja: Edge of Control HD returns with revamped graphics and improved fluidity. However, it is not the new setting that makes the remaster worth playing.
The first few minutes with Baja: Edge of Control HD it is extremely weak. The creators tell us to start the career mode with two races, which are incredibly boring, and the terrains on which we will have to take turns – completely uninteresting. A few simple slaloms, small jumps and empty spaces “filled” with single trees – the game is presented to us as simple races in which it is in vain to look for greater emotions. Then we reach the third rally and suddenly the title score jumps a few points higher. Why such a sudden change? What w Baja: Edge of Control HD It’s sensational designed, it’s physics. It is known that it is a representative of arcade games and none of this simulation, but the mechanisms used by the developers responsible for the operation of the suspension and the routes have been prepared so as to take advantage of all terrain unevenness. This makes the item ported by Blitworks it is worth playing and a large number of routes will keep us longer.
There is a career mode in the game, in which we start our adventure with small off-roaders. They don’t develop very high speeds and they have trouble riding up a steep mountain, but they are a great introduction to get a feel for the physics of the game. The authors allow us to choose the difficulty level at any time, but the main change that takes place in the game after switching from easy to difficult is how our vehicle behaves. On an easy level of difficulty, we can throw at full throttle, releasing it only on sharper turns or with almost vertical descents. The high level already introduces a few difficulties. The competitors only have a slightly better artificial intelligence, but our off-roader is much more difficult to keep on the track. We need to operate the gas and brake efficiently here, because if we add too much power, we will skid in the first corner and start spinning donuts. By the way, probably someone will hit us then, and the vehicles do not break down here only visually. IN Baja: Edge of Control HD we have indicators of engine heating, oil condition, clutch, brakes, tires and general vehicle damage. Arcade game, and you have to remember about so many things? – you ask. In the short races we start with, we don’t have to worry about these things completely.
We will check the condition of the vehicle when we unlock more powerful machines, and our task will be to drive through very long rally stages. One rally here takes a few minutes, and usually we have to complete a minimum of three. Rushing through huge deserts (the scale of the maps is quite impressive here), we will be forced to stop at designated repair points. All we need to do is stand there for a moment and the vehicle will repair itself, depending on how much time we spend on the pit-stop. But what if we run a flat tire in the middle of nowhere? We call the helicopter, which lands a few kilometers in front of us (interestingly, the pilot may refuse to land), and we analogically stop next to it and repair it. There will be at least a few such stops, especially when we decide to include a rally lasting up to three hours – and I’m not talking about the accelerated time in the game, but the real one, because that’s how long it will take us to complete the longest BAJA 1000 rally. Shorter rallies also occur, so if someone He prefers to drive fifteen minutes or an hour – no problem.
In addition to classic races and rallies, there are several other variants of racing waiting for us. The authors have prepared the Hill Climb mode, which consists in driving up an extremely steep mountain and then safely descending it. Losing control of the car equals a lot of damage, but it is in vain to count on an advanced car demolition system, because we drive licensed vehicles, of which there are a lot of them. The sheet metal will fall off, but there is no point in waiting for the cars to be crushed like cans. The challenge mode also gives a lot of excitement. It consists in the fact that by choosing the best car, for example, we start the race at the end of the stake and our task is to catch up with other cars and reach the finish line in the first place. The whole thing is so carefully planned that overtaking the last vehicle always takes place just before the finish line, which gives a lot of excitement. The last mode in Baja: Edge of Control HD is Free Ride. We can freely ride through numerous maps and discover small towns hidden in them, but there is no sense in this. Rather, this mode is used to test how our vehicles are performing, which we can improve by improving their performance or changing configurations for even better times. Regarding the times – the game has a problem with showing how many seconds the opponents are behind us. It happens that when we go first, the rider who is third has a smaller time loss to us than the one from the second place.
The creators in the premiere trailer focused mainly on the graphics, as if they were to sell this title. I don’t know who made it up, but Baja: Edge of Control HD it just looks faint. We have Full HD resolution and 60 frames per second here, but it does not change the fact that the quality of the boards ranges from a school grade two with a plus to a maximum of four. In addition, there is a graphic error in which the tracks left by vehicles on the road can be seen through e.g. the top. In the place where we see a strange streak, it always turns out that it was a fragment of the board showing through another element. The shadows look very faint, scaring us with jagged edges, and things get worse in split-screen mode. I was able to test the game with three people at once (maximum four) and with each subsequent player the graphics deteriorated slightly, but the smoothness remained at the same level. Oddly enough, when playing with friends on one couch, we cannot count on a race with the standard eight participants, because artificial intelligence can control a maximum of two vehicles. Music does well. A dozen or so tracks, ranging from guitar sounds to rap, match the fun and pump up adrenaline as we take off to jump several hundred meters. Cars sound different, but you’d want better quality sounds that would enhance the feeling of driving a huge beast.
Baja: Edge of Control HD it also offers an online mode, in which we face other players on maps freely configured by us. We can also play races in ranked mode, but I couldn’t see how it all works in traffic, because the servers are empty. Sometimes someone will join our lobby, but usually they disappear after a while. Honestly, it makes me a bit sad, because this off-road racing is really doing well. The graphics are not impressive and there are some minor bugs, but overall I had a lot of fun. Two driving models, a few variations during the race, numerous types of modes we can play, a multiplayer mode for up to four players on one couch – it’s really worth giving this title a chance, even at full price.
