MotoGP 22 Review

If you have a look at the previous titles developed by Milestone, you’ll notice a trend: they’re all games that are grounded in realism and based around two-wheeled vehicles. With MotoGP 22, the newest entry in the long-running franchise, Milestone has given fans perhaps the most complete motorbike racing experience ever, pleasing veterans and newcomers alike with a slew of difficulty options and tuning, and enough content to keep you riding for a long time.

I’ve always found motorcycle simulation games to be way too difficult to play. Each time I’ve given one a go, I cause my rider to sustain life-altering injuries by flying off the first bend of a track. I was excited then to see MotoGP 22’s range of difficulty options and assists, and even surprised to see an option to shorten race lengths. Before going and tweaking any of these options, however, I decided it was a must to play through all of the tutorials, and was I ever glad I did!

This being a sim racer, you’re presented with a steep learning curve — especially for those that are new to the series — so you’ll want to spend your first hour or so getting to grips with everything on offer in the robust tutorial. I was naive to think I’d be able to do a quick time trial lap to get a feel for the mechanics then jump straight into the career mode; what a mistake that was! MotoGP 22 offers a deep tutorial to give everyone a fighting chance in this often unforgiving racer, and although completing it still didn’t mean my mastery of the mechanics, I was certainly a lot more confident in my abilities (the rewind feature for re-doing missed corners or crashes was still my best friend though) and decided to jump into a quick race before giving one of the main single-player modes a go.

Having more freedom to experiment with riding than I’d had in the tutorial, it was in this first fully-fledged race that I truly began to appreciate how well MotoGP 22 controls. Every slight tilt of the analogue stick results in an instant response with your rider shifting their weight (or popping a wheelie at 90mph, which just seems dangerous really), whilst tapping the brakes too early will kill your momentum as you round a corner and struggle to catch up to the opponents that rounded it perfectly. The game has a fantastic sense of speed, particularly on those long, straight sections which you can fly down at insane speeds!

Whilst jumping into a quick race was fun, it was the career mode where I spent the majority of my time, and it was one of the most comprehensive single-player modes I’ve seen in a sim racer. Choosing to start at the bottom in Moto3 (although you can skip straight to Moto2 or MotoGP if you prefer) I opted for the “Official 2022 season” mode, but others allow for shorter seasons if you prefer. Career mode isn’t just about winning races, you’ll also be managing your own team as you progress through the season, hiring and firing as you go in order to create the most cohesive team possible.

It’s such a robust mode, with so many nuances to dive into, such as your technical staff members giving you a series of optional tasks (for example, reach top speed, or complete a test lap within a certain time) before an event in order to earn research data, which you then spend on upgrades from what are essentially skill trees for different sections of your bike.

An objective-based story mode was another fun offering and sees you reliving history as you play out iconic moments from the MotoGP 2009 season as an assortment of legends — including Lorenzo and Rossi — accompanied by real-world footage from the events. It almost feels like a playable documentary, with some solid narration and specific tasks to be fulfilled in order to progress the narrative.

No matter which mode you play, MotoGP 22 has incredible presentation. However I’m not speaking about the graphics here, which are merely fine for the most part. Everything has seen an improvement — albeit a slight one — from MotoGP 21, although certain textures look rather flat and the lighting doesn’t quite pop as perhaps I would have liked, but perhaps I’ve been a bit spoiled from playing Gran Turismo 7. Human models haven’t seen any improvements, and still look a bit robotic, though you’ll barely see any without a helmet on so it isn’t that much of an issue. But what really caught my attention was how it captures the feel of a real event: the commentators discussing the upcoming race as you perform some last-minute changes in the pits, the roar of the crowd, and a sea of bikes revving their engines surrounding you at the starting line. I’ve never been heavily into MotoGP, but it was hard not to get amped up. And that was before the race had even started!

As this was reviewed on the PlayStation 5, a special mention has to go to the DualSense support found during races. The subtle shift of vibrations as you ride over a rougher area of terrain or the pressure on the left trigger when applying the front brake — I’ll never not be impressed at how it feels when a developer gets this right. And Milestone absolutely got it right!

If you have even a slight interest in MotoGP as a sport, then you should definitely go and pick up MotoGP 22. Longtime fans will know exactly what to expect, whilst those playing for the first time will be able to get to grips with the difficult gameplay thanks to the in-depth tutorials. The unimpressive graphics aren’t enough to dampen the enjoyment to be found in the slew of gameplay modes, with deep bike customisation to really get stuck into (or leave for the AI to handle if you’d prefer), whilst reliving historic moments from the sport. Sim racing has never been more exciting!