Alright, so Dirt Showdown non-online review: So, this is basically an arcade version of Dirt. The borrowed a track from Dirt 2 (and actually ruined it, in my opinion) and a track from Dirt 3. Nothing from Dirt 1, which, they really should have. It kinda feels like FlatOut in a lot of ways. But...not nearly as fun.
Let's start with the good: The licensed car selection is pretty decent with some good variety. And, there are some fun fantasy cars, too. Some of the tracks are fun and it's nice that most locations have 8 Ball and Rampage tracks. Knock-Out I think is my favorite and I really like the idea of being able to drive back into the ring after being knocked out.
And now for the bad: First of all, why is there health regeneration in this game? I don't understand. So, with the derby cars sometimes if you get really love in health and don't get hit immediately, some of your health regenerates. Not all of it, but a little bit. And what's worse is, the AI can do it, too. Maybe it's just 'cause I was playing on casual, but...it's a demo derby. Having health regeneration in a semi-traditional demo-derby kinda defeats the point of a demo-derby.
Secondly, I kinda understand the respawning, but I wish they had a Last Man Standing mode, at least.
Third, why don't they just call it "Demo Derby"? Why "Rampage"? Then again, Demo Derby could be licensed and I wouldn't want my name on this game, either, really.
While the AI in the Rampages does go after each other, there were times when it was pretty obvious that most were going after me. Which, I HATE it when all the AI team up against you. It reminds of the old Need for Speed games when the cops ONLY chased you. Yeah, 'cause there were 7 other cars that are speeding. It get's REALLY annoying REALLY fast.
And then there's the hit-detection. So...to make things "even" apparently, Codemasters decided that, the heavier the car, the less hits would register. The stupid van is the worst, though. Seriously, like 1 out of 4 hits with that thing registered. Which got so old, that I stopped using the stupid van. By the way, this doesn't really make it fair.
Again, it does feel like they tried to blend FlatOut and Dirt especially with their vehicle design and the respawning tires. But, one of the things that made FlatOut fun was that those tires could cost you the race, so you actually try to avoid them, but here, it just seem like Codemasters was showing off the fact they have tires that actually fly around. (To be honest, real tires on the track would effect cars a lot like they do in FlatOut.) I also have no idea why there were three types of cars. I can understand leaving out the real cars from the destruction, but why'd they separate the demo cars and the race cars? I mean, if they wanted to be like FlatOut, then why not let the two classes run together?
In the end, this odd blend of Gymnkana (which, those parts, are actually pretty fun.) and FlatOut-style arcade racing, just doesn't really well. The odd thing is, if they had done a Grid Showdown, and made the game a little more Grid-themed instead of Rally themed, I think it could have been a little better. And next time, don't dumb down the Ego Engine for anything. You have a good engine, and it's not on display with Showdown.
Gauntlet mode!
