Trackmania United

Review from AJ - Tuesday, 20 March 2007 @ 12:00am

Way back in 1990, I was addicted to a game called Stunts. Stunts was a very average racing game. But at the time it’s only real competitors were the hideously unplayable Test Drive 3 and the first real racing “sim”, Indianapolis 500. The thing that set Stunts apart from the other games at the time, was the unique ability to build your own race track. Not just any race track mind you, these were stunt tracks… as is fairly obvious from the title. Although the game featured some pretty major glitches, the fact that you could build some pretty way-out tracks meant that the game maintained its popularity well passed its expected use-by date. But unless you still have a 486 tucked in the corner dedicated to playing Stunts and Kings Quest 2, you probably haven’t seen anything similar since. If, like many people, you cheer when people even mention Stunts, you’ll be thrilled to hear about a game called Trackmania United.

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Trackmania has actually been around for nearly 4 years in various forms. The first time I played it was in the form of a pre-release demo that circulated the Internet in 2003. Back then the game was basically a set of puzzles with a fairly simple racing component. The game was essentially a track editor with a sequence of stages with nothing but a start line, a finish line, and a heap of obstacles between the two. The main challenge was to build a track (with limited pieces) to get from A to B, and then race that track within a certain time to move on to the next challenge. That was pretty much it. Simple, but stacks of fun. Of course, Trackmania United is quite a bit different from the Original, but still maintains that same spirit of puzzle meets racing.

Of course, when I say the puzzle challenges still remain, they almost seem to be tacked on in this latest edition of Trackmania. The focus of this title has definitely shifted towards the Race mode and the community… but more on that in a minute. Puzzle mode in the original game was quite simply amazing. When presented with what seems to be such a simple task, it is tempting to dismiss it as a throw away toy of a game. But the reality is that some of the levels are so fiendishly designed that they will have you scratching your head for hours. Whilst it is easy to build a track from A to B, and it is easy to race that track in 12.5 seconds, it isn’t until you realize that the target is set at an insanely low 4.8 seconds that you see the real challenge behind this mode. Of course eventually the “trick” to the puzzle will become apparent, and the 5 second barrier becomes attainable. Unfortunately, some of that magic seems to have diminished in this 3rd incarnation of Trackmania, but it is definitely a challenge all the same.

The other two modes in Trackmania United, which you will probably spend most of your time are Platform mode and Race mode. Race mode is pretty much as it sounds. You are presented with a track and a target time, and then it is up to you to try and beat that time. It’s just a time trial! Sounds easy enough….in the early levels at least.

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Trackmania United follows a very generous learning curve, which gradually introduces you to new levels of difficulty without ever leaving you hopelessly stuck on a level you can’t pass. Passing a level and doing well in it are two entirely different things, however. If bronze is ok with you, then you’ll quickly work your way through each level of the game. If however, you have the burning desire to pick up a gold in every race, then be prepared for more swearing than a sailor and a Tourette’s sufferer in a swearing match. Each track has been fiendishly designed to allow a reasonable driver a good chance of picking up bronze or silver, but makes getting gold require absolute perfection. Early on, they are easy, but as the tracks get longer and more technical there is more room for error and hence more room for making your neighbours blush at your colourful phrasing. The thing that makes all of this pain and suffering a sadist’s delight, is the humble Delete key. When things go awry, simply tap the Delete key and your car is automatically reset and ready to start the time trial again. No wait, no loading, no “ha ha, you crashed and you suck” message… just back to the start and ready to race again. This is what makes Trackmania turn good parents into neglectful parents. The good old, “just one more turn”, strikes again!

If ruining your home life isn’t enough, you’ll soon want to install Trackmania United at work and practice your driving skills during lunch or when on conference calls. Luckily Trackmania still runs beautifully in windowed mode making ALT+TAB’ing so much easier. Pretty soon you’ll work out that Trackmania supports LAN play, and then you’d best get your Boss to file for bankruptcy, because it’s all over for him and his business.

But what if you’re saying “racing games aren’t for me, I’m a platform gamer! I’m not happy unless I’m messing around on a platform of some sort!” (Yes I am aware no one would actually say that, but it is the best I can manage as a segue to the Platform mode…and yes I realize that most of you don’t know that “seg-way” is spelled segue… and no I don’t mean the two wheeled motorized transport device of the same name…and by two wheeled motorized transport device I don’t mean a motorbike, I mean the two wheel thing where you stand on a platform of some sort dammit!) Ummmm….. where was I? Oh yeah, Trackmania United includes a Platform mode, which is exactly what you think it sounds like. You’re in a car, and you have to negotiate a series of platforms, buildings, bridges in order to get to the finish line in the quickest time possible and with the fewest number of restarts. This requires some pretty cunning stunts indeed (don’t try and say that quickly). As previously mentioned, this mode will also induce copious quantities of swearing… do NOT play in the vicinity of small children!

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Of course I still haven’t gotten on to the best part of Trackmania United. The user created content is where this game really hits its stride. Communities and user content are like buzzwords in the gaming industry at the moment. I don’t know if developers just can’t be stuffed anymore, or whether it’s just a shitload cheaper than hiring level designers, but everyone loves user created content! Trackmania loves user content. You create and upload just about any creation you can come up with and allow other suckers to download it and race it. Pretty damned cool if you think about it…. For starters you get a heap of practice to ensure you’re number one when you put it live and secondly you essentially get unlimited tracks to race! Of course if you’re too damned lazy to contribute you can just be a content whore and download everyone else’s hard work! The difference with this latest edition of Trackmania, is that all of this is done within the game. No need to go surfing the web, or downloading toolkits, it’s all right there from the word go. Already the community is thriving globally with more content to play than you have cuss words spray! In addition to online content sharing, you can race online also. Unlike unfriendly racing like PGR3 or Burnout where racers are almost encouraged to take out the opposition, Trackmania has no collisions between racers.

WHAT???!!?!? I hear you squeal in a high-pitched “matt-like” voice! It sounds daft, but Trackmania’s online racing mode focuses on individual achievement, not on beating down your opponents. Consider it a co-op time trial. More often than not you will find people online are more than helpful in getting you to that gold medal. Online in Trackmania United has a “make lap times, not war” kind of feel, which is a nice change from the complete bastards playing Halo 2 or Gears of War.

The only other thing you need to know is the currency! Trackmania has always had a currency called Coppers. I have no idea why they call them that, I guess they played too much D&D when they were kids. Coppers are won by getting Bronze (5 coppers), Silver (10 coppers) and Gold (20 coppers). Coppers not only give you access to more tracks but are necessary to submit your high scores online.

Actually, it’s a little worse than that. You can play offline as much as you like for free, but should you want to try to get a high score online, you need to pay a fee(in Coppers, not real money) to even try! Initially, Coppers are pretty easy to come by, but as you move through the game and get less and less Gold medals, the Coppers can be a little sparse. The good news is that by getting good scores online you can win even more Coppers, hell, even logging in everyday gives you coppers! So you’ll never find yourself so broke that you can’t do anything, but heed the warning, don’t go trying for high scores online unless you think you’re up to the challenge!

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So after all this you probably have no bloody idea what this game is about. It has actually been one of the harder games to review. Not because there is nothing to say about the game, but because the game is just so inherently simple! There really isn’t much to Trackmania United past what you see on the box. But even its simplicity isn’t what makes it so difficult to review! What makes it difficult is that whenever I have five minutes spare to write this damned review I find myself drawn to have “one more race”, “one more race”. There is something just so completely and utterly addictive in this game’s design and simplicity that makes it almost impossible to put down long enough to review it. In case you’re wondering how I finally managed to write this review…. I uninstalled the bloody thing!

Which brings me to one final word of advice. I personally have not had any trouble with this game, but plenty of people have. Not for the game itself, but for its copy protection. Some boxed versions of Trackmania United feature StarForce copy protection, as far as I could tell the Australian version I have does not contain the evil malware drivers used in other versions, but it is confirmed present in other releases. I will not go into the technicalities of why this protection system is bad (some links if you are interested are here, here and here), suffice to say that a lot of people have had a lot of serious problems with it and are going to great lengths to promote a boycott of products that use it. Ubisoft recently announced they have ceased using it for this reason. I am all for protecting the rights of software developers, but I cannot in good conscience recommend a game which is known to support a copy protection scheme which treats its paying customers as criminals.

Summary

Trackmania United, simply put, is crack for video game addicts. Easy to play, but deceptively hard to master, this game would get the Pope swearing on Sundays… but in a good way. Just when you think you have the off line modes mastered, the online competition slaps you in the face and lets you know that you still have a lot to learn. Jedi driving skills are a must.

Pros

Gaming for those with goldfish attention spans. More online content than John Howard’s fansite. Friendly, fun community. Gaming for those with goldfish attention spans.

Cons

Puzzle mode ain’t what it used to be. Platform mode gets a little too tough a little too early. This mob use StarForce copy protection which makes them first-class assholes in my book.