Review: Asphalt 7: Heat (Xbox Live)

Score:
87%

Author: Gameloft

Version Reviewed: 1.1.0.0

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It was easier a few years ago. When you sat down to develop your driving game you either went for a realistic 'simulator' type game, or you went for an arcade like smash and grab with fast moving graphics and a car that had 'left' or 'right' as the steering inputs. Gamers have moved on now, and while you still have the distinction between arcade and realism, this has tended to move towards the challenges set up by the game designers, the environment, what sort of effect crash has, and if you have the mysterious 'nitro/turbo' option in your car.

Gameloft's long-running multi-platform series of driving games under the Asphalt banner are all clearly under the arcade banner, and unashamedly lean towards adrenaline and quick reactions. You have a judicious amount of nitro to apply a burst of acceleration that can be refilled with pick-ups around the driving courses, and there are countless 'impossible' jumps around the circuits which are 'based on' actual locations rather than replicating an exact environment.

At its core, Asphalt 7 is a collecting game. There are 60 cars to drive, but not all of them are available as you first open the game. Through smart driving in the various selectable challenges, you can earn the two currencies in the game - Asphalt Dollars and Asphalt Stars. These can be used to buy upgrades to your cars, or new cars to add to your collection. Naturally you'll want to know how to get these valuable currencies. Well you can pick up the dollars as you drive - they tend to litter the circuits as you drive around - and as you play through the career mode of the game, winning races will reward you with the stars.

I doubt you'll be surprised to know that you'll never have quite enough stars or dollars from your racing, and the Gameloft designers will be tempting you to use the in-app purchasing to raise the funds for your automotive empire. With a bit of repetition in the races, you'll be able to grind out just enough money, so Asphalt 7 is not a 'must buy the IAP's' which is good to know. A dedicated player might just be able to finish this without any extra purchases, but it would be a close run thing.

Career mode will see you presented with various circuits and challenges as you work through the title, while Free Play lets you set up a single race with your choice of car tier (how powerful the cars are in the selection), the location, and the style of race. As well as the straight ahead 'beat all the other cars', you have more esoteric options which include 'beat the set time without crashing', 'drift a certain distance before the time runs out', or 'destroy as many opponents as you can'. These keep the game varied and help extend the life of the title, although at heart they are all asking you to be fast and accurate in your driving. Nevertheless it's good to see there is some variety on display here.

The third game mode provides you with a multi-player environment, and Asphalt 7 is an Xbox Live title that starts to get this right (it's just a shame it wasn't followed through by other titles during this year). Offering you multiplayer over both your local wi-fi connection, and the cellular connection, you'll set up a multiplayer room, decide the type of race, and wait for everyone else to gather. It works well, and it's nice to see true online multiplayer make it to Xbox Live and Windows Phone (honestly I thought that after the N-Gage I would never see that on a Nokia gaming device again).

Gameloft provides three control options for steering, with an on-screen steering wheel or large virtual buttons if you want to have touch-screen steering, making up two of them. To be honest, these are good for the first few levels, but you're going to need to have more precise controls over your car to make it round the courses faster than the more powerful cars. Which is where the accelerometer based steering comes in. With the ability to make small corrections or large turns, it's accurate and has little lag.

That doesn't mean you won't power slide the car on loose gravel (because half of the fun of Asphalt 7 is realising that the power slide, also known as the drift, is the key to a fast lap time), but it does mean that you can balance the car in the curves, bring her round the corners without bleeding off too much speed, and can twitch steer around other cars on the streets of the cities you drive around.

The circuits themselves have a bright and colourful look, with lots going on as you race past buildings, signs, and junctions. There are times when it can get a little muddy and unclear, especially with the short draw distance alongside the perceived high speeds of the cars, but again this will be nothing new to the arcade racer fan - it's about the reactions when things appear on the horizon and are suddenly on top of you, not about being able to spot the apex of a corner from 600 metres away. Windows Phone has more than enough horsepower in the graphics department to get away with all these graphics, so any issues that remain are more stylistic choices.

The same goes for the audio, with crisp engine sounds and burning rubber. As befits a game of this style there is a musical selection to go along with it, but you'll find the tracks repeating rather quickly, so you'd best switch the music off and keep just the sound effects.

If you're into your arcade racers, then Asphalt 7 is certainly going to scratch an itch. It doesn't do anything different or new, nor does it stretch the genre. What it does do is deliver on the promise of a good mobile arcade racing game, with fast moving graphics, well designed circuits, and a good balance between the ability to drive the racing lane to win with smart driving and having to manage the collection and use of the power-ups.

It's not going to win any new converts to this style of game, but for the faithful, Asphalt 7 delivers on everything that the title and the franchise promises. And that's a good thing. Graphically rich, accurate controls, and a longevity of gameplay, Asphalt 7 is both a credit to the franchise, and a great to game to show off the capabilities of Windows Phone.

Reviewed by Ewan Spence at 22:09 UTC, November 6th 2013