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Amped 3 Review
Chris Leyton
19/12/2005
Ski Sunday crossed with a dash of The Adam & Joe Show, Eurotrash and South Park - don't ask us...
During the process of becoming part of the 2K Games brand having enjoyed success in the company of Microsoft with Links, Amped and the Top Spin series, something has gone bizarrely wrong with the snowboarding series making its next-generation debut on the Xbox 360 in Amped 3.
Whereas previous titles have taken an approach with realism to mind - closer to 1080 Snowboarding then SSX - Amped 3 throws all of this out of the window for an arcade like experience that provides plenty of fun, bewilderment and just plain craziness in a game that mixes ample doses of Eurotrash, The Adam & Joe Show and South Park for inspiration. The storyline follows a group of boarders in a Road Trip style adventure, taking in the sights of seven different resorts from across North America in the hope to generate enough cash to send them all of to Chile - however things don't entirely go to plan...
To its credit the mountains with Amped 3 are undeniably impressive, often housing three different areas that need to be unlocked before you can witness their true scale. Hovering at the peak of a mountain and looking down to the resort below captures the nature of being there, even if the lightweight physics, unbelievable trick system and overly simplistic controls don't. Anybody who has played a snowboarding or Tony Hawk title in the past will know what to expect, however there's a general lack of finesse to everything Amped 3 does which isn't necessarily a bad thing given the game's overall tongue-in-cheek style.
In addition to the typical flip, grab and grind moves players can also butter down the mountainside or carve their way through the unexplored backcountry to chain together tricks in a similar style to the Tony Hawk manual - the only difference being the sheer simplicity to do so in Amped 3. Whereas most of what its predecessors laid down before it has been thrown out of the window, Amped 3 does maintain the style technique granting additional points to tricks performed with slight and calculated movements of the analogue stick. Successfully stringing together techniques and pulling off outstanding moves will build up a bar, labelled your awesomeness, which in turn allows you to be king of the mountain by impressing a certain number of passer-bys; in the typically zany style of Amped 3, different themes provide varying sounds with each trick from the Buddhist chimes of the Zen Master to the bleeps and buzzes of the Sci-Fi geek.
Where Amped 3 more then makes up for its deficiencies is the level of variety presented to the player. There's a huge assortment of challenges in store, from performing certain tricks to the watching media, racing through gates or collecting kitty litter icons (I kid you not)! Away from the traditional (and not so traditional) snowboarding challenges players can also unlock and collect various different sledges, ranging from lazy-boy armchairs to oversized saucers, with which to cause as much damage as possible to the main character by hurtling down the slopes and jumping off at the correct time - it's amazing just how much time you can waste away hurtling the main character over cliffs and watching him contort with pain down the slopes thanks to the Havok physics engine. As if that wasn't enough you can also jump aboard a snowmobile to carve up the slopes, ideal if you've just missed a checkpoint and need to go back up the mountain or the occasional challenge that involves one such as hurtling down a gigantic ramp and performing a death-defying leap of doom across the mountainside. Although the game lacks support for Xbox Live multiplayer it's rewarding to find leaderboards pop up every time a challenge is completed, integrating that sense of challenge and replay to everything on offer.
Sandwiched in between the multitude of challenges available are Story missions which are used to push forward the story and progress through the game. Cut-scenes and the various characters within your group are nothing short of deluded, it's the type of humour that's likely to aggravate as many as those it entertains and because it's so fundamentally built around the game you'll want to make sure this is your type of thing before investing.
Rewards come in the shapes of Reputation, Cash and a plethora of other goodies such as new accessories, clothes and awesomeness. There's a good sense of there always being something to do within Amped 3, which gives it a very accessible feeling whilst the motive to keep coming back for gold is surprisingly strong thanks to the steady rewards that the game grants to players.
Visually Amped 3 is something of a disappointment. Standing at a mountain summit and gazing down to the resort is impressive thanks largely to the level of definition and the sheer scale of the seven mountains, and there's little denying touches such as the individual strands of fabric on a Burton ski-jacket or the tread of the snow looks neat; however there are plenty of touches that could have elevated Amped 3 even further and made it more befitting of a next-gen title. The way in which other skiers and boarders pop in and out of the game is extremely disruptive and hurts the overall sense of immersion; likewise it's a shame that none of them kick up a cloud of snow behind them like the main character - this would have looked excellent on some of the sections. Equally some of the beautiful lighting effects and use of HDR we've seen in other 360 titles has been left behind in Amped 3, which is a missed opportunity given the blinding light and sheen from the snow that occurs during the real thing. There's also a stack of glitches which largely stem from the use of Havok physics; it's hardly anything to complain about given the overall style of the game, but it can detract from the experience if you're expecting something a little more serious.
