Navigation
Freestyle MetalX is a fast paced dirt bike stunt game, where you choose a rider, bike, game type, and map. There's 9 huge levels, a plethora of riders, customizable bikes and bike parts, a TON of unlockable goodies and videos. All that sounds great on the box, but is it actually a good game?
Gameplay:
The game requires good hand/eye coordination, because it's fast paced and you have to keep up with how you're falling in order to recover, pull off tricks at the last moment and so on. The tricks in this game are beyond plentiful: over 100 combinations for each rider, and that keeps the replayability pretty high. There are over 10 riders, each with their own styles and weaknesses, and of course a gigantic selection of moves.
Because of the massive amount of tricks, it's hard to remember all of them, but they are all easily accessible through a menu. You can do all kinds of flips, 180's, one-handers, "Coffins" (and plenty more!) as much as you want, just try to land them. You can also "Burnout" which makes a horrible screeching noise, but lets you speed off into a ramp or loop with rapid succession and air. If you manage to beat the championships and "Cross-Country" event (more about that soon) you can unlock alternate costumes for all of the characters. And you can earn money in these tournaments for purchasing bike repairs and parts, in order to customize it into a hell-raising machine.
There is a lot of game modes to unlock, such as Big Hill, where you have to be the fastest to the top of a hill without flying off of it, or Race, where you race against that stages best known rider. Of course there is also a free-ride mode where you can just go and cool off with awesome tricks and no time-limits, and practice all the moves. You have to unlock the other 9 stages, by going through a "Career" mode, where you do challenges set up around each level. In order to get other tracks, you have to beat a chunk of each level's challenges, and while doing that, pick up a variety of secret hidden posters and music videos.
The learning curve is pretty simple, tricks are as simple as Up Up Up Circle, or Down Triangle. To master, it's as simple as remembering the good combos and landing hard tricks. Not to mention the controls, very simple, double tap down to do a wheelie, reverse that for a stoppie. The turning is also easy, and you turn relatively fast. Gameplay in this game is definitely a blast.
Sound:
The sounds of the dirt-bike are average, listening to a rumble of the engine every living second gets very annoying, so turn down these in the sound menu. Burnouts and crashes make realistic noises, like a nice screech noise, or a deadly sounding crash. The characters also make small comments when crashing, but they don't sound too special. The music in the game is quite similar to the one from THPS3, the same selections, along with Will Rock and Ace of Spades, Motorhead, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister and many more. The selected tracks sort of make up for the rest of the things from the sound department.
Graphics:
The graphics are good for the bikes, especially with the customization of them. The wheels can also get "dirty", a minor but neat addition. The riders look pretty bad, as do the seldom pedestrians. The textures themselves are all repetitive and bland and can get tedious. People only really have textures for mouths too, which is ugly. On the other hand there are ragdoll physics, where if you're hit in your arm, it acts like a real skeleton. Overall the game gives me mixed feelings again, just like in the sound department. While the tracks and bikes are nice the riders themselves and most textures couldn’t convince me at all.
Overall:
I think this game would be fun for hardcore dirt-bike fans, especially with the giant variety of tricks, and not to mention the wide range of customization. The trick system is the strong point in this game, the rest although has been seen many times before and is by all means only average It feels like part of the game were made in a hurry, and it really should have gotten better rider graphics, sound and smoother quality. Also, a lack of multiplayer really takes down the final score.
