Posted February 07, 2010
1nsane is, as one of my co-reviewers stated, an obnoxiously difficult game to review. I picked it up for the handsome price of 1p + P&P off eBay some years back. I remember very briefly playing it and then leaving it alone for a number of years.
Coming back to it now, I can see why it didn't really take my fancy. On the one hand, the graphics are excellent for their time. The projected shadows look great, and some of the environments ooze atmosphere, especially the Sahara desert arena. The view distance is unparalleled by any game of its time.
The gameplay, however, is seriously lacking. Defenders of this game insist that the game is designed for multiplayer, and I won't argue with that. The single player mode is a joke. The CPU players seem to cheat by knowing exactly where to look for flags and zones even when it wouldn't have been marked on their maps. Try and grab the flag and you will notice that you take a speed penalty while you're holding it. No such problems for the CPU players, I'm afraid.
But all this hides a fundamental problem that plagues both single player and multiplayer. A gameplay should put some kind of skill to the test. be it reflexes, tactics or logical reasoning.. 1nsane's gameplay, sadly, relies by and large on luck. Pure luck. Winning a capture the flag or return the flag round depends largely on who the flag spawns nearest to. Destruction Zone matches finish up in a pointless scramble in the middle of the cross that take forever to resolve and are pretty random. The only reasonable game mode is, ironically, the standard track race mode which, by any standard, is done much better by many different games.
The much-praised physics are also nothing to get excited about. Part of the challenge of competitive off-road driving is being able to handle your vehicle on the rough terrain. In 1nsane, there is absolutely no overview. Bumps in the terrain are almost impossible to see, and your truck frequently flips over and slides around as if it were a toy car. You don't feel like you are at the wheel of a beast - you feel like you have a remote control in your hands.
Coming back to it now, I can see why it didn't really take my fancy. On the one hand, the graphics are excellent for their time. The projected shadows look great, and some of the environments ooze atmosphere, especially the Sahara desert arena. The view distance is unparalleled by any game of its time.
The gameplay, however, is seriously lacking. Defenders of this game insist that the game is designed for multiplayer, and I won't argue with that. The single player mode is a joke. The CPU players seem to cheat by knowing exactly where to look for flags and zones even when it wouldn't have been marked on their maps. Try and grab the flag and you will notice that you take a speed penalty while you're holding it. No such problems for the CPU players, I'm afraid.
But all this hides a fundamental problem that plagues both single player and multiplayer. A gameplay should put some kind of skill to the test. be it reflexes, tactics or logical reasoning.. 1nsane's gameplay, sadly, relies by and large on luck. Pure luck. Winning a capture the flag or return the flag round depends largely on who the flag spawns nearest to. Destruction Zone matches finish up in a pointless scramble in the middle of the cross that take forever to resolve and are pretty random. The only reasonable game mode is, ironically, the standard track race mode which, by any standard, is done much better by many different games.
The much-praised physics are also nothing to get excited about. Part of the challenge of competitive off-road driving is being able to handle your vehicle on the rough terrain. In 1nsane, there is absolutely no overview. Bumps in the terrain are almost impossible to see, and your truck frequently flips over and slides around as if it were a toy car. You don't feel like you are at the wheel of a beast - you feel like you have a remote control in your hands.
