With all the adrenaline filled dirty racers centred around ATV’s or otherwise such as ‘PURE’, ‘Motorstorm’ and ‘FUEL’ (there’s loads more honest) it begs the question what exactly Nail’d fetches to the table to make it worthwhile. All the expected features are here in the form of a campaign mode set around tournaments, simple free races, customisation and of course multiplayer. Yet again I must say that all these features are now run of the mill and what one would expect of such a game so there’s not exactly any bonus points won here.
Upon cranking up the ‘campaign’ portion of the game you'll notice that it’s standard fair here, there are multiple tournaments that you must work your way through and unlock to complete the game and you’ll be competing in standard races to ones where you have infinite boost or limitations. It doesn't really extend much beyond what you could come up with and that's a shame, there was definitely room for some really creative modes with the huge jumps it has and the speed involved.
The gameplay is obviously going to make or break the title and it’s a little strange. Nail’d gives the finger to real life and all of its physics in order to do whatever the hell it wants to make you go ‘awesome’ and it works at first but doesn’t have the holding depth. When racing along the ground the handling is ridiculous in the sense that it isn’t there due to it being to ‘perfect’, it’s one of those games where you can pull a 90 degree turn but not lose any speed or have any trouble doing so and to me it sucks away any challenge in the races. When not sliding around the floor you are instead being thrown into over the top crazy heights and drops and the game lets you ‘handle’ mid air for tricks and to brace yourself for a decent enough landing to continue. It may seem like a small amount of gameplay features but that’s really it for Nail’d and it’s a shame, sure you have a boost bar if you drive well but as I say it’s impossible to not drive well as the game is just too easy. It feels like the game is calling out to be put in arcade which is where it actually wants to live.
Aside from a slightly drab tournament based single player component there is of course the online which has a stupidly small amount of holding power. There’s no ‘competitive’ feeling and even when you win you don’t exactly feel satisfied but rather just ‘oh..okay’, the lack of features or twist on the tried and true just doesn’t do enough to make you come back for more and after a few races you’ll be quickly done with the multiplayer on offer here. It may seem like I’ve skimmed over this aspect but really that’s just how little you can expect to find from Nail’d’s online offering.
One thing the game has flowing for it are its looks, while boosting round the courses and flying through the air you want to be able to admire the view on the long drop down and for the most part you can. The vistas are inspired by a certain madness and I find myself often wondering how the hell this track came to be or what world everyone in Nail’d must live in if this is all fine and dandy. Some jumps you’ll hit then find yourself dodging out of the way of blimps and hot air balloons or on one jump you just literally freefall down the side of a mountain range (a seriously high one at that). I have to say though that the game gets confused on these jumps, I found myself ‘crashing’ in strange ways and strange in the sense that I’d just get respawned for no apparent reason.
All in all the one thing I found myself asking when playing this and consequently finishing it up was why Nail’d has come to exist. Developer ‘Techland’ had previously handled the Call of Juarez games and ‘Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood’ was leagues better than this fairly average ATV racer so why they jumped from western shooter to a relatively harder market is beyond me. Nevertheless diehard fans of this genre should lap it up as you’ll find some enjoyment here and at one point when boosting over a cliff with ‘Re-Education’ by Rise Against blaring it was hard not to feel badass. For the rest of you though you can safely move along there’s nothing to see here.
Gotta' Love It
- Madness, madness everywhere
- Sense of speed? Achieved
- Visual fidelity
- Done before? Yep, maybe better too
- Boring/bland/dull/whatever else a thesaurus can say multiplayer
- Little variety
Nail’d - 7
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