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Shox Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Shox offers pure unadulterated arcade action and boy is it fun...
Whilst the latest iteration in the Colin McRae series is undoubtedly the most realistic title that rallying fanatics will see this year, Shox from EA BIG strays down the other side of the path offering a distinctly arcade experience reminiscent of the great Sega Rally.
Emphasis is placed on speed, power-slides and in the traditional EA BIG manner getting your blood pumping through a mixture of big-beat music and intense action; on this front Shox does not disappoint.
The main game is structured into a number of competitions; starting in the compact league youâll have access to a limited selection of relatively low-powered cars and have to win through six races across three different types of terrain. Progress will open up a number of new options, including further leagues; a gambling mode, which allows you to race one-on-one for cheaper cars; night-time racing and a variety of multiplayer modes. To access the harder leagues youâll need to purchase or gamble and win a car based in that category to move on.
The actual racing experience provides a lot of entertainment; the emphasis is placed on speed, jumps and powersliding. To this extent youâll find that handbraking around corners will often provide the fastest route through, and at times youâll slow down mysteriously when you havenât handbraked around a inconspicuous looking corner. Itâs tough, but it certainly creates an arcade like experience thatâs been lacking in the racing genre.
Each race has three âShox Zonesâ in them, hereby youâll pass a checkpoint and be given a certain time to reach the end. Completing it quickly will give you a gold award; if youâre not too fast youâll end up with silver, bronze or ultimately nothing. Effectively these create little races within the overall race, so the action is always tense, however gain gold in all of the Shox Zones and the fun really begins to start. The booming commentator announces that a âShox-Waveâ is imminent, come up to the next Shox-Zone and a countdown appears, as soon as you pass it an undulating wave appears before you.
The technique is to ride this wave; keeping in touch with it will boost your speed and earn you mega bucks. Furthering the EA BIG feel are a number of dynamic cameraâs that heighten the atmosphere, but can be turned off if theyâre not to your taste. The first is the âDrama Camâ, which switches to a cinematic perspective after gaining air from the biggest jump on the course. Personally I loved this as the music stopped, the action cut to a perspective view and slowed the action down before re-emerging back into the car and onto the race. Others feel that itâs a little too obtrusive and can cause crashes when youâre not expecting them. The last camera is the âCrash Camâ, which switches viewpoints whenever a crash occurs. To be honest the crashes donât appear to be anything special in Shox thus far, theyâre either too erratic with a complete lack of any appreciation of physics or mind numbingly boring as you simply get turned on your side and have to wait to slip down. Thankfully the choice is up to you, if you donât like either of them simply switches them off.
Each of the cars in Shox suffers from damage, however this is only visual and doesnât have any effect on your vehicles performance. Every knock however is deducted from your earnings at the end of the race. That doesnât mean youâve got to worry about safely taking the driving line through each corner and safely slowing down before each one, if you come first youâll easily cover the cost of your damages no matter how many times you crashed. This type of dynamic is very similar to the arcade racers such as Sega Rally, and ensures that the sole motivation is to win the race and not to worry about smashing up their car.
The visuals in Shox are very impressive, each of the cars have an almost caricature feel to them, aptly displayed by the Mini Cooper with a Union Jack paintjob. All of the cars on screen feature true reflection mapping, which looks very nice and a far sight better then most other attempts on the Playstation2. The game moves at a quick pace without any signs of slowdown, an essential feature considering the hectic nature of the game.
Youâll know what to expect in the sound department if youâve played any other EA BIG title. Music is the key to setting the atmosphere in these games and Shox doesnât disappoint. The usual mixture of big beats and thumping basslines keep the action heated, whilst thereâs the trademark sound system that gets more progressive depending on how well youâre doing.
Thereâs plenty to unlock in Shox with a variety of different leagues and multiplayer modes to choose from, not to mention 24 different licensed cars including from famous makes like Citroen, Audi, BMW, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Lancia, and Ford.
