FreakOut Preview

Posted on February 7th, 2007 at 8:19pm by Pocketminx

Dust off your goggles, Tighten those Ski-boots, we now have fresh powder.

Freak out is a brand new Skiing game from JoWood Productions. The first thing I would like to say is "YES". Finally we have a Skiing game that gives you the adrenaline pumping speed of real skiing, combined with all the fun of the best computer games.

Some of the games produced in the past which have been about skiing, to be honest, have been pretty dire. The exception to this being the SSX Series, which on a technicality was really about snowboarding. For any of you who have played SSX this will feel like putting on a comfortable old pair of slippers and finding someone’s placed a whoopee cushion down one foot. It handles in pretty much the same way. The graphics on Freak Out I have to say are much better than the SSX Series, they feel a lot more polished. The characters look uber cool. The mountains of Freak Out are more off piste than the tracks on SSX. It also has a really kicking soundtrack!

I’m not saying Freak Out is the pinnacle of this genre of gaming though. It does sadly have some flaws. Or at least it does on my preview copy.

Firstly if you crash close to a big rock, when you recover, sometimes its impossible to get yourself unstuck. This can be really annoying and on the odd go I had to totally restart the level. Secondly in mission mode, some of the mission start markers are in totally the wrong place. Imagine heading for the biggest jump of the area. Thinking to yourself "Yes here comes some big air and some massive trick points" Only to be halted right on the tip by the mission tag telling you that if you jump this gap you will get masive points. This would be ok if you had time to react. Unfortunately all the speed and momentum you have picked up vanishes after hitting the tag, so 90% of the time you end up missing the jump. If the tag was placed slightly higher you could have made it. Maybe JoWood Productions have done this to add to the challenge? I on the other hand found it bloomin’ annoying.

On a plus though. If you play the other types of level. Be it freeride or multiplayer you will really really enjoy yourself. The game is fun and the controls are really simple to pick up. Even the complete novice will be doing amazing tricks and rail slides in no time at all. Unlike SSX, Freak Out is lacking any insane Uber tricks. But it more than makes up for it in gritty, cool, hip, fun gaming.

As I said earlier the soundtrack is also fantastic. Any true Snow fans, who grace the slopes of the world with their Ipod blaring. Will no doubt end up looking for these tracks to add to their off piste collection.

If you own a PC. If you like Skiing. If you wish their was a game that could give you the same feeling you get on the PS2 with SSX. Then cheer up my friend. I think you may have just found it.