Valentino Rossi The Game PS4 Review

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not a huge fan of MotoGP. I’ve always found myself preferring the likes of Formula 1 and Rally driving, purely because I find them more enjoyable; that doesn’t mean I don’t respect MotoGP though, it’s a sport that takes unbridled amounts of courage and skill, with riders constantly putting their bodies at risk on every single corner. No other rider embodies that mentality more than Valentino Rossi, the winner of 7 MotoGP Championships and a household name to many across the world.

Valentino Rossi The Game is celebration of a 16-year long career, one that spans various championships and teams. The game is developed by Milestone s.r.l, which is possibly one of the busiest game developers I know. This is the third title I’ve reviewed by them this year, with the previous two being MGXP2 and Sebastian Loeb Rally Evo.

The main draw of Valentino Rossi The Game for many will be the “Rossi Experience”. It gives fans the chance to play many of Rossi’s famous moments and even challenge his various track times and records. The Historic Events is a selection of Rossi’s memorable career moments, each one is accompanied by a short video of Valentino reminiscing about the specific event; It’s a great addition as I knew very little about his career prior to playing the game. The Historic Events often strip races of the other competitors and focus on specific rivalries between just a handful of other racers. It will play out the last few laps of a race and will require the player to finish in first place, or keep the lead for a few minutes. These would likely be quite flat if not for Valentino explaining each one beforehand, the added narrative weight makes them exciting.

There’s also challenges included in the Rossi Experience, some mimicking Valentino’s real life records along with a weekly time that Rossi sets himself for the game. For those wanting to learn more about the Valentino, there is a Rossipedia available which catalogues Valentino Rossi’s career right from the start. To say this title is aimed at fans of Valentino is an understatement, so much so that people who aren’t into MotoGP might find it a little overbearing. Having said that, there are plenty of options on offer here.

Outside of the Rossi Experience, there is also the MotoGP career mode. Career mode lets players create a racer, choose a team and start their own MotoGP career. I was pleasantly surprised at just how much variation the career mode offers. There’s the obvious MotoGP races, but alongside that there is also motocross racing, rally driving and even rally drift events. This fluctuation from the core MotoGP stuff is excellent and creates an enjoyable experience. The main MotoGP roster is the end goal: players must work their way through the lower bike divisions by impressing sponsors and teams. The jump in power from the bikes as you progress adds a challenge as every class of bikes offers different handling around corners. There’s the usual “social media” stuff here, which serves no purpose other than filling screen space, but you’ll likely pay no attention to it whatsoever - unless you like to seriously roleplay your time with the career mode.

The MotoGP races are excellent, the tracks are filled with other bikers and maneuvering between them is a real challenge. The races are shorted by default, so rather than making players race 24 laps in a row, each race is condensed to only 3 or 4 laps. One of the most important aspects of a game involving motorsports is handling. In past Milestone s.r.l games I’ve found the handling can be a little off, never terrible, but never quite matching up to some of the more established titles in the genre. MotoGP races handle wonderfully, the bikes are responsive but challenging and offer a fairly realistic experience. The driving physics can be altered slightly to give hardcore players more of a challenge, although you might want to turn auto-brake and auto-turn off as soon as you start - I found they made driving far harder. The motocross physics are also pretty darn good as well, drifting around corners is easy due to how snappy and responsive the bikes are. I feel this is likely due to Milestones’ work on MGXP2. The only real downfall is the rally driving, it’s strangely poor compared to everything else on offer. The cars are prone to constant understeer along with incredibly stiff turning - fortunately it’s only a very small part of the game.

The presentation is mostly excellent, racers look like their real life counterparts; obviously not their faces, but the bikes and racers are covered head to toe in their corresponding sponsors. Graphically the game is nothing to shout about, it looks nice and runs well, but it just feels a bit bland. It’s something I’ve noticed with past Milestone s.r.l games, the engine seems to fall short on visuals, which is a shame. Especially when compared with some of the recent F1 games, especially F1 2015’s weather effects.

Multiplayer in previous Milestone s.r.l games was often lacking- a limited choice of options and modes made them quite dull. This has been worked on in Valentino Rossi The Game, all of the various vehicle classes are available to race with and players can host championships between their friends. There’s a whole chunk of multiplayer content for people to sink their teeth into. I also really appreciate the ability to vote on race tracks between rounds, something rarely seen during my various experiences with driving games.

I think the allure of Valentino Rossi The Video Game will come down to how invested the player is in MotoGP, for fans of the sports the level of content and detail on offer is impressive. For people like myself, the concept of paying full RRP for a sport you aren’t that interested in is a tough one. Having said that, the gameplay is fun and challenging enough that any fan of motorsports in general should be fine here. Valentino Rossi The Game is a game that far surpassed my expectations: previous Milestone s.r.l games have always been fairly good but never great. It has gone above and beyond to create an essential MotoGP experience, one that bike fans will absolutely adore. Slightly off car handling can stifle the gameplay, along with some iffy visual fidelities, but they are both vastly outweighed by how great the career mode is along with the Rossi Experience.