Ureview by: Eraser
Ureview points: 28
Ureviewer since: April 2006
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Reviewed On: Monday November 27, 2006
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9 | Recommends product: Yes
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Introduction
Trackmania Nations (TMN) is a free racing game that can be played both online and offline. The game offers a great online competitive racing platform.
Gameplay
Trackmania Nations offers a few more or less unique gameplay approaches.
Tracks
First there's the type of tracks you find. In this aspect Trackmania Nations is no different than previous Trackmania games, except that this time all the tracks are built within a stadium complex. The tracks all contain a mixture of real racing bits where it's all about tight cornering, but many tracks also contain excessive stuff like loopings, extreme jumps and angled (vertical that is) corners. TMN offers 8 "pro" tracks which are more focussed on racing and less on the gimmicky stuff, but most of them will still feature a few loopings and such.
Nations
Another unique thing is the "nations" aspect of this game. When you first start it up, you create a profile and choose a nation. When you connect to an online server you are placed in a ranking system that ranks you among other players of your nation. Apart from that there's also a ranking that ranks each individual nation. Apart from the ranking the chosen nation will determine which flag is shown when you chat and which anthem is played when you win. People from different nations can play against each other on one server.
Pure skill
In most racing games you'll find a selection of cars to choose from. While you can choose the skin of your car in TMN (or draw one yourself), everyone drives exactly the same car. The game only features one (F1 racing car-ish model) but custom models are possible. However, speed, acceleration and handling are always exactly the same.
Additionally, while driving on the track you'll pass right through other people's cars, so there's no pushing each other off the track.
These two factors combined create a racing experience that's purely based on skill. Your car choice won't give you an advantage nor will other players interfere with your driving abilities. You can always take the perfect line in a corner at the highest possible speed. No one will ever be in your way.
Car handling
Car handling is excellent in TMN. The cars feel fast, manouvrable and taking the perfect line in corners is essential for fast times. Once you're driving against skilled drivers, making minor mistakes in cornering will cost you your first place.
Even though players can develop a high skill level in this game, it's still a very arcade type of racing game. The car is easy to push around corners, but pushing it well around corners is harder to achieve. That makes TMN a game that's suitable for both beginners and experienced players.
Race types
TMN offers two main types of races. In the first the goal is to get the fastest track time. You can drive the track which usually lasts from 30 to 2 minutes an unlimited number of times until the main timer hits zero. Usually you have 5 minutes to set a record time. You don't have to wait for others to finish the track before driving it again either, so everyone is driving through each other. It's a more individually oriented gametype.
The other gametype is a more classic points-scoring type of game where, after driving the track once, you'll score a number of points depending on your finishing position. After everyone has finished, points are divided and everyone is placed back at the starting grid, ready to race again. The first player to hit a set number of points wins the track.
Single Player
All the standard (non Pro) tracks can be played in single player as well. This consists of no more than getting an as fast as possible time on each track, scoring you medals (bronze, silver, medal and, for the very fast ones, platinum). Scoring medals doesn't unlock anything so in the end it's kind of pointless.
Graphics and sound
While Trackmania Nations isn't revolutionary in the graphics department, it is a very good looking game. It shows incredible detail in the car's model and surrounding areas.
Sound is good as well. The engine sounds powerful and fast. The turbines that accompany "boost tiles" (to make you go really really fast!) have a heavy hum and tires make a nice screeching sound when you're right on the edge of keeping the car under control in tight corners. Background music is enjoyable but you'll quickly find yourself turning it off to have a better feel for your actual speed. This is because in TMN it's sometimes a bit hard to visually determine how fast you're actually going. Experienced drivers will use the engine sound to determine their speed.
Custom Content
Trackmania offers a track editor, car (skin) editor and a replay editor. The track editor allows you to create custom tracks. TMN is pretty flexible in what it allows you to build. As long as you can cross all the checkpoints and finish the track is valid.
One nice aspect is that custom tracks don't have to be downloaded seperately by clients. Clients will directly download the (small) track files are hosted on a gameserver. It's also possible to add custom graphics and sounds to your track.
You can use the replay editor to direct camera positions and movements from pre-recorded replays or to create introduction videos for your tracks, which is shown when the track is loaded up. While none of the official tracks make use of this feature, it's a nice touch to add to your own custom tracks.
The skin editor can be used to draw your own car's skin. It's a bit hard to add detail to your own skin and you probably won't reach the level of the official skins (one skin per nation) with the in-game editor. It's also possible to draw your skins in an image editor like photoshop and import them into the game though. Skins are automatically shared among clients, so everybody can see your custom skin on a server.
Conclusion
Trackmania Nations is a brilliant racing game that offers a really pure racing experience. It's a content rich game considering it's free. Custom tracks will expand this game's life expectancy considerably, although many of the custom tracks you'll find online are too gimmicky to truely enjoy.
People have been talking about this game containing Starforce copy protection software. Don't worry too much about it, as it only contains an updater for it. If Starforce is already installed on your system, it will be updated. If your system is free of Starforce, nothing will happen.
Get this game for free from www.trackmanianations.com
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| Pros: Lots of action, competitive online play, versatile track editor, custom car skins, good graphics, true skill based racing |
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| Cons: Tendency towards excessively "freaky" tracks |
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