The original MotorStorm was a visual treat, with its terrain and mud deformation technology, that paid particular attention to the details of crashing and smashing your ride is spectacular, slow-motion fashion.

It was one of those PlayStation 3 race titles that highlighted the capabilities of the system without drowning it in graphics too rich to detract from the goal of off-road racing. After all that romping through the mud, what was left? Well, how about a tour of an island featuring water, lava and jungle terrain. That’s what is at the heart of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.

While the dev team at Evolution Studios have included a few new vehicles this time around (there is now a monster truck class), what really is the center stone for this title are the 16 tracks, complete with alternative courses through to the end, as well as environment elements that could alternately be a benefit or hazardous to your vehicle’s health.

Included is more than a fair share of water. This can be a blessing or curse. Some of the water pools are too deep to drive through in the smaller rigs, but the benefit comes in the way that driving through them will cool your engine. A rock slope touched by water may prove a bit challenging unless you line up a straight course through it before you put your wheels on it. There is definitely some slipping that can take place. Because of the cooling effect, though, you can tromp on the booster and use it a bit longer in the water environments (remember they can cool your engine) than you normally would.

On the reverse side of that are the tracks that skirt areas where lava is prominent. Lava does nothing good, so it is best avoided.

With the original title, there were alternative paths through the courses, which really were quick turns around the environments. The tracks are a little longer this time out and there seem to be more opportunities to forge shortcuts and shorten the overall course length (not by much, but knowing where shortcuts are can help jump ahead of a pack, avoid potential pile-ups) and may give you just enough of an advantage to squeak out a win.

The game also allows players to use the shoulder buttons on the controller to attack vehicles around them. It’s not quite on the same level as the old Xbox title Arctic Thunder, but it can be of marginal benefit if you are sandwiched in.

In the original title, regardless of what you were driving (from motorcycle to buggy to big rig), it all seemed like the playing field was a bit on the level side. Not so with Pacific Rift. If you are in a smaller vehicle, the bigger ones will muscle you all over the track. Because the AI is very good, even in the single-player experience, you can expect to have to make changes to outrun them, rather than out-battle the bigger vehicles.

The game’s campaign mode is also very linear in that you have to unlock the next racing levels by finishing at or near the top (first three places) in the available events. While the game takes place during a festival on the island, the first game had a real alternative vibe to it that seems to be tamed down a bit here. You felt like you were part of a fringe crowd but here the emphasis seems to be more on the racing with less focus on peripheral elements.

The game disk sent for this review was for a debug unit. It did offer same-machine racing (with up to four players going head-to-head in a split-screen format), but while there will be online races as well, each time an attempt was made to hook up, it amounted to nothing. However, online features will include matchmaking events, leaderboards, downloadable content and detailed stats.

Graphically, MotorStorm Pacific Rift is a vibrant bit of eye candy. The environments are very nicely rendered and you won’t be struggling with the control elements. Again, the focus here is on racing and the dev team made sure that anything that did not put the emphasis on that was pared down. The soundtrack hosts much of what players would come to expect, with the roar of vehicles and a rocking soundtrack that will also allow players the option of creating a customized soundtrack of music from the PS3 hard drive.

Another new element is the photo mode, which will allow players to save an image at any point in the game to use as either a desktop background or to send to friends. And real-time track deformation is back, which is a nice detail.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift is not the jaw-dropping experience that the first one was. We have seen the very graphical demolition of vehicles as you miss the course and ram head on into a rock wall. It is still fun to see, but the core of this game are the new track elements in the location of this event. You don’t need the original to play this – it is a standalone title. And it still is a lot of fun to race against another human opponent.

Gameplay: 8.0
You power through a track, learn its secrets and then the next time, you dominate. That’s a decent formula for the single-player mode, but you can’t afford that luxury in multiplayer. The load times have been reduced, the controls are easy to learn and use and the action is very solid. This is, more or less, the same formula from the previous go-round, but the experience is much tauter.

Graphics: 8.5
The new locations are very nice, the vehicles models are solid and the animations are still first rate.

Sound: 8.0
A nice supporting cast member to the graphics.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.0
Same formula with some new features. It’s good, but it almost feels like they are on the tip of the iceberg of the next big thing for this title. However, the new features and courses are good.

Multiplayer: 8.4
Racing head-to-head with another player was delightful, especially when he was gloating as he neared the finish line only to be passed by strategic use of the boost in the last 50 meters.

Overall: 8.3
The game is entertaining and a visual treat. The development team did a good job building on the original title, tweaking what needed to be tweaked and leaving the core mechanics intact. If you are looking for a solid, off-road racer, this is a good bet.