For the last few days I’ve been playing the beta for Blur, Bizarre Creations’ latest game. Blur is an action packed racing game that has players using power ups and mods to battle for 1st across the finish line. This game feels like a mix of great elements from Burnout, Mario Kart and Need for Speed. The beta includes 6 tracks, 4 events (game modes), 10 ranks and 12 cars. Blur drops the player right into the action with the cars already rolling and from then on the action doesn’t stop until the finish line is reached.
There are 4 events available in the beta: Skirmish Mode, which is a 2-10 player basic race, Powered Up Racing, which is a 2-20 player basic race, Motor Mash, a 2-20 player battle mode which awards points by damaging other vehicles, and finally Supercar Racing, a 2-20 player racing mode that only uses Class A cars. Blur also has you level up in ranks by earning fans, their version of experience, and with these levels you unlock more cars, colors and Mods. Every race in Blur is intense and has the player at the edge of their seat, whether you come in 1st or 8th place, it feels as if you fought tooth and nail to get that spot. It seems like you’d be hard pressed to have a boring race in Blur and when you do place in the top 3 it feels like you’ve survived an epic battle.
Cars in Blur are divided into classes, from A to D, A being the fastest and D being the slowest. While in the lobby for a race the class of car for the race is voted for along with the track the room is voting for the track, it doesn’t seem like you can choose them separately. Each car has very basic stats: Acceleration, Speed, Grip, Handling and Health. The only car customization I could see is that with most cars you can change the color but that could change in the full game.
A big part of Blur is the power ups you collect during a race and on every track there are plenty of them. Power Ups range from a big red homing blast, Shunt, which can flip a car over when it hits, to Lightning which puts three electrical storms in ahead of the person in 1st place. The good thing about power ups in Blur is that all of them seem really balanced so there’s always a chance for someone to dodge and evade another player’s power ups. Evading Shunt, the homing blast, isn’t exactly easy but when you pull it off you feel like a badass. Most Power Ups have an alt fire which allows you to use it in the opposite direction such as instead of leaving a mine behind, you can shoot it ahead of you and with Nitro instead of giving you a speed boost you can dramatically slow yourself down. The only downside is that the locations of the Power Ups are not randomized; they are in the same location every time so everyone normally goes for the same one or two at the beginning of the race.
A cool part of Blur is the Mods, which modify Power Ups during the race. Some Mods include; Bribe, which gives the player a random Power Up at the beginning of the race, Battering Ram, which makes your car do more damage when it hits another car and Safety Net, which converts whatever Power Up that hits you while your shield is active to be converted into a usable Power Up for you. The Mod Shop system reminds me sort of Call of Duty’s perk system where there are 4 basic load outs and then as you level up you unlock more Mods and you can customize them. There are 3 slots and each mod is specific to a slot.
Blur is a racing game with simple controls and driving mechanics but with Power Ups, Mods, leveling and the sheer intensity of the races Blur is looking really promising. The beta will be going on until April 4th and the game is set for release May 25th, 2010. If you can get into the beta I would highly recommend at least checking it out.
