Back on track, Shwodown is divided into a few but balanced events that are there normal races and those dedicated to the destruction of the adversaries who are divided in turn into Arene, in the run to 8 where with narrow slopes and intersections of absolute chaos, the fun is painstaking. We then have called challenges Knock Out where the cars challenge each other to the last wheel on a suspended platform and score points by knocking out the opposing cars or destroying them. Lastly, in Eliminator, the last car in the race is thrown out of the race. Obviously it does not end here because if the previous game options were dedicated to DD, we now come to the more classic ones. We have hooligan that would be the new name for the old Gymkana mode that had taken hold with Dirt 3 so much… I'm not saying the previous chapter because, I stress, Showdown is a spin-off unrelated to the series. We then have the Street Pro Domination which is a race in which the goal will be to establish the best and shortest race time between sections of the track - we had already found this mode in Dirt 3. Lastly (what an abundance), we find the head-to-head races where technique (so to speak) and speed counts. In short, the dish is really full of things to eat and I think that even just one game mode can hardly make you turn up your nose were it not that those dedicated to DD will steal entire afternoons of chronic fun.
EASY MAN!!!
As I said above, the Showdown driving model has been substantially revised to allow everyone to take a car in hand and run in absolute carefree. The driving is therefore tamarra and spectacular, also forgetting the car settings and the damage that will only be aesthetic - I repeat that it is an arcade. Among the things that did not suit me very much at the level of "simplification", I would like to point out that on the screen there will not even be a map of the track that we are going to face as well as the reference to the speed of the car ... oh my, we race so much, however, we miss it. Instead, the health icons have been included (yes, so you understand at what level of damage you are involved), the positions (this inevitable, of course) and the nitro bar that recharges automatically by performing the most spectacular maneuvers. Regarding the gameplay imported from previous games, the driving differences remain between one class of car and another as well as the behavior of the cars on different types of terrain such as mud, gravel, asphalt, sand and snow. Lastly, the difficulty levels also remain, which however do not affect the game itself as much as the tenacity of the computer-controlled opponents: so much so that at the maximum difficulty level, it becomes a real nightmare and the AI seems to have sworn extreme revenge. Absolutely perfect the balance between easy medium and advanced that really guarantees a clear line of ease or difficulty ... something that doesn't always happen in arcade titles and in the opposing AI.
STUFF THAT DOESN'T CONVINCE
Showdown is a hilarious and very simplified title as you would expect from an arcade but some things are out of tune. Let's take the graphic part for example: the game is not absolutely bad indeed, we are in line with the production of Dirt 3 but the problem lies here since the graphics engine (always the usual EGO Engine at home) does not seem to have changed one iota in a year of development. The visual impact always seems excellent but if you go nit-picking you can also see some semi-recycled tracks from Dirt 3 with light effects and moved things in the background that refer us to the previous game. In short, given that Codemasters always amazes and the graphic differences from Dirt 2 to 3 were really evident, here I would have expected the same qualitative leap that instead fails. Another slightly negative factor concerns the clashes and their dynamics which are not always so "realistic". Now, I understand that this is an arcade but if two cars collide at full speed in a head-on I expect a huge knock which is not considered so much that the machines seem to do more damage when hit from the back or side instead. For heaven's sake, maximum fun but little emphasized. Also good all the part dedicated to sound with music taken in weight from songs of rock and electronic origin. The game is all in español and dubbed just fine.
GOOD BUT NOT EXCELLENT
Dirt Showdown is definitely a nice arcade racing game that has a ton of events to play, a lot of cars to unlock and that will give you many hours of fun without big headaches, even counting the entire online part. DS has excited me enough even if it has some flaws on its side that could have been avoided but it still remains a great arcade. It remains a recommended game that may not go down in history as the most original title in the world but its hours of fun will fully guarantee it.
FINAL VOTE 8/10
