PURE Astonishment

Published October 3, 2008

What do Gears of War®, Braid, BioShock, and now PURE—an ATV racer from Disney Interactive and Black Rock Studio—all have in common? They're the rarest of breeds, brand new franchises that achieve astonishing near-perfection their first time out of the blocks.

Yes, it looks that good.

The game's eye-popping visuals, spot-on control and addictive trick system are all so finely tuned you would swear you're playing another entry in a decades-old franchise.

If you can find it on a mountain or in the hills,
chances are you'll hurtle across it or soar
above it at breakneck speeds in PURE.

A PURE Foundation
PURE is an All Terrain Vehicle racer with the emphasis on all-terrain. You'll plow through gooey patches of thick mud that liberally spatter you and your ride, bounce through prairie grass, and skid through sand and tight-packed dirt. If you can find it on a mountain or in the hills, chances are you'll hurtle across it or soar above it at breakneck speeds in PURE.

While the game delights in these varied environments and the vehicles bounce, jiggle, and slide with a realistic heft, PURE is not a simulation racer. You'll find a raging undercurrent of arcade stylings coloring the game from the throaty roar of engines at the starting line to the breathless finish at the checkered flag.

• Pre-load: It's not enough in PURE to throttle into a ramp for modest airtime. Instead, you need to pre-load your jump—tilting back on the Left Thumbstick just before the ramp's apex and pressing forward just as you fly into the air—to attain such lofty heights as to share airspace with the helicopters that see fit to buzz the race course.
• Trick time: Of course, you need this massive air time if you're going to make full use of the game's trick system, which includes four separate tiers of available tricks. You begin with simple techniques which in turn unlock mid-level tricks, which lead to advanced tricks, and finally special tricks. Each successive tier introduces another level of jaw-dropping acrobatic insanity to the proceedings.
• Tweak and boost: Further defy physics by holding down LB or RB during a trick to "tweak" it to earn bonus points. While performing varied tricks increases the Thrill Bar to unlock access to more complicated tricks, you can also use the Thrill Bar to execute a high-speed "boost" if speed is of the essence.

Did you contact Air Traffic Control before you launched?

Despite its unabashedly arcade approach to ATV racing, PURE still strikes a needed balance between the incredible mid-air feats and speed, and the physics-born realism required to immerse you into the world.

Build Your Own
PURE also allows for a massive amount of customization, going so far as to let you custom-create several ATVs from the ground up, right down to shocks, sprockets, swing-arms, wheels, and engine, to name just half the available parts. All of these affect at least one of the game's five primary vehicle attributes: max speed, acceleration, handling, boost, and tricks.

Beyond the nuts and bolts that power your vehicle, you can also choose from various body styles, including nose-types, fender styles, radiator scoops, seats, and even handlebar grips. Of course, this aesthetic customization includes picking out color schemes for each available part and adding appropriate decals.

Hope those are sand-specific tires.

Race Types
The fine tuning found in vehicle creation would be nice in most games, but it's downright necessary in PURE. The three different race types each require a custom-tuned vehicle if you hope to find sustained success.

• Race: These three-lap races require a well-rounded vehicle as they test every aspect of your skill and ATV ability. You'll need max speed for the long straightaways, handling for the hairpin turns, good acceleration to come out of the turns, and quality tricks to build up your boost to overtake competitors.
• Sprint: These five-lap races require raw speed and lots of it. No need for fancy tricks here, just good lines and a wide open engine.
• Freestyle: In Freestyle, it's all about loading up on tricks. Forget top speed and, to some extent, even handling. Just pre-load off the ramps like a madman and bust as many tricks as you can. The key here is a gas gauge that slowly diminishes over time. If you run out of gas, the race is over. You can earn extra gas by nailing trick after trick, so the better you perform, the longer you'll race. There are also power-ups to find littered across the track, including point multipliers and even gas upgrades.

PURE is a remarkable first-time entry with some fresh new ideas. Combine that with a lengthy PURE World Tour single-player campaign, and buttery-smooth online play via Xbox LIVE® for one heckuva title from Disney Interactive and Black Rock Studio.

Article by Ryan Treit