MX VS ATV Alive Review

MX vs ATV Alive is the latest motocross racer developed by THQ.

The previous title MX vs ATV Reflex had rebooted the franchise with a new dual-stick control system. This has been added in Alive and makes controlling so much easier and racing more exiting. Using the left analog stick to turn you must also do the same with the right stick to balance yourself. This allows you to turn corners more sharply and help to stable yourself from falling off your vehicle when making daring drops and tackling other racers. 

MX VS ATV Alive in so many words is the best one yet, but it wont satisfy everyone.  THQ have decided to release the game with a new price range but adding less content on the disk. There's no career mode here so if your looking for one I wouldn't suggest picking this up. Instead of a career you must play through a selection of single player races and and earn Driver XP to level up and unlock new items and tracks. There's 18 tracks in total, with four of them short tracks. You can replay the same tracks to build up your driver XP but there's other ways to level up aswell.

Alive is the best looking MX VS ATV game yet.

Freeride is back again but there's only two environments available. There a lot smaller than in previous MX vs ATV games and both feel quite empty with no collectables to find of any sort. The only reason for heading over to Freeride is for a break from racing or to increase your Driver XP by pulling of tricks. Alive also features multiplayer and this is probably what will get you your money's worth. You can race against other players or take your vehicle for a spin in online Freeride. Here you can earn challenge medals for completing stunts and simply show off how good you are.

Something new to Alive is the in game shop. Here you can purchase DLC for the game, adding even more content. From new tracks, Freeride environments, items and more. If your willing to pay out a ton of downloadable content, then Alive is probably for you. But it feels a bit pointless and I would suggest purchasing a full game instead, like Reflex.

MX Vs ATV is the best looking game in the series but that's not to say it looks great. It's more like a polished Xbox original game and feels very dated. I noticed many textures flickering through the environment and character models are very last gen. Sound is quite the opposite though and driving both the MX and ATV's have nice engine sounds and there's also a decent sound track to listen to.

Considering the new price range, MX VS ATV Alive is not a bad package and the levelling up system is a nice touch. But if your looking for a career mode and a ton of content on the disk, you should stay well clear of this.

Review by Gareth Smith