Monster Jam Steel Titans Review
Monster Jam Steel Titans
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Developer: Rainbow Studios
Genre:
PEGI: E
Comments:
Monster Jam Steel Titans is one of the better Monster Truck games to ever land on consoles – the fantastic handling is the primary reason it stands so high above everyone else. While I had a lot of fun with the game, I let friends and family take their hand at the game, and it wasn’t as pretty. I came to a very real and quick observation: this game is too damn hard.
Monster Jam Steel Titans is the 5th entry in the Monster Jam franchise, which first debuted on the PS2 in 2002. There is a market for these games, whether the majority of people enjoy them or not – you don’t see 17 years of monster trucking if no one is buying the games. And to their credit, the development team has created better and better experiences each and every outing, and Steel Titans is their best work to date.
A monster truck isn’t a race car, and isn’t even a racing truck. They should – and do – handle differently than other vehicles you might use in a racing game, but far too often developers take standard driving mechanics and apply them to Monster Trucks – this doesn’t work. Steel Titans is easily one of the best handling Monster Truck games on the market right now, giving players full control over their vehicles, including one stick dedicated to the front axel and the other dedicated to the back.
Driving monster trucks in Steel Titans is likely as close to driving a real monster truck as I will ever get, and it is incredibly satisfying. Roaming around the somewhat open world, taking part in races, and doing rallies in stadiums are all loads of fun, that is until they aren’t any more.
And depending on who you are, that feeling could set it much sooner, rather than latter. Ultimately, Monster Jam Steel Titans is an incredibly difficult game. Taking the lead in a race, and holding a lead in a race, is nearly impossible, and that is even when you feel like you are throwing down the ‘perfect’ race. Even when I felt like I should be pulling away from the competition, they were always on my tail…all of them!
Thankfully, the game delivers a handful of great modes for you to engage with, whether destroying stuff around the world, performing stunts in an arena, or traveling free across the open world hitting checkpoints as you go. There is a lot of ‘stuff’ packed into Steel Titan, so finding something you enjoy will likely be fairly easy.
If you’ve been dying for another monster truck experience, then Steel Titans will get the job done. There are far too many glitches and annoying – but perhaps realistic? – driving mechanics that will drive non-fans up the wall as well. It’s a good effort, but perhaps a too realistic effort.
Trailer
Article By Adam Roffel
Adam Roffel has only been writing about video games for a short time, but has honed his skills completing a Master's Degree. He loves Nintendo, and almost anything they have released...even Tomodachi Life.
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