Asphalt 7 Review: Bringing the heat to Windows Phone 8

Every bit the first non-Angry Birds Xbox game running exclusively on Windows Telephone 8, Asphalt 7: Estrus understandably had a lot of interest from gamers and some rather lofty expectations to live upward to. At present that the downloading issues that plagued final week's launch have been resolved, nosotros've been able to step into the driver'southward seat and take it for a spin. Is Asphalt 7 the best arcade-style racing game since Outrun or some other trip down a one-way road in the wrong management like its Windows Phone seven predecessor, Asphalt 5?

I'm pleased to tell you that Cobblestone 7 is not only the best racing game in the Windows Phone library, it'south one of the best games period. Head by the intermission to find out but how information technology impressed its way into my icy heart.

Don't sweat the simulation

Asphalt 7 is easily the most realistic looking 3D game on Windows Phone 8, not that there has been whatsoever competition then far. The generous assortment of xv tracks have place in various exotic locations, boasting a off-white amount of detail and gorgeous colors. If non for the slightly low resolution textures, you could mistake it for an early Xbox 360 game.

Realistic looks or non, this game focuses on fast-paced arcade racing over simulation. You lot won't exist manually shifting gears here. Drifting – a maneuver that tin can be extremely challenging in some racers is surprisingly easy to pull off. Just tap the brake push button while steering left or right and y'all've initiated the drift. It won't terminate until the driver steers hard in the opposite direction, brakes again, or commits the generally inadvisable deed of wrecking.

Of course, controls play a big part in any racer'due south accessibility. By default, the controls rely entirely on the accelerometer for steering, while pressing anywhere on the left side of the screen brakes and the right side activates Nitro. The standard sensitivity makes driving in a straight line kind of tough, perhaps simulating the experience of driving while fueld by mojitos. Adjusting the sensitivity sobers things up, just don't expect to pull off massive drifts with wibbly-wobbly controls. Instead, try one of the two all-touch screen control methods. These provide much more accuracy and make the game easier.

Asphalt 7 is a fast-paced game, and the Adrenaline system merely makes it faster. By collecting Nitro selection-ups, drifting, and performing diverse stunts during the race, you'll fill the Adrenaline meter. You lot can printing the Nitro push button at whatever time for a quick flare-up of speed. Fill the meter until it flashes and yous tin activate Adrenaline, the super-charged version of Nitro. The screen turns bluish and your car rockets ahead until the meter runs empty. That blueness reduces visibility – a slight trade-off, just it's more than made upward for by the power to knock oncoming cars and CPU opponents off the road merely past touching them.

Pimp my ride

Cars are divided upwardly into seven tiers, with each tier containing several vehicles. They're all licensed and include such luxury machines as Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Corvettes, and even a DeLorean. Each one tin can be viewed and rotated from the selection screen, where they await fantastic.

Vehicles tin be upgraded to ameliorate their acceleration, Nitro speed, treatment, and other factors. On peak of that, the game allows a off-white degree of visual customization. Yous'll have to opportunity to modify a ride's paint job and window colors too as select from an assortment of decals, all at no cost.

Rep, coin and stars

Unlocking those cars and upgrades requires a combination of in-game currency and stars. Winning new events in Career, completing single events in Quick Play, or placing in the top three in multiplayer games are all great ways to earn money. Multiplayer Elimination races provide the fastest payout, especially since an opponent disconnecting results in a win for the remaining player.

Stars prove harder to come past, but there are still several avenues to get them. Most Career events offer up to three stars for finishing in beginning place. Earn enough rep from participating in races and you'll level up, thus gaining one star. Leveling up unlocks new decals for customization. Levels also function as a general manner to tell how far the players you see in Multiplayer have made it through the game.

The other, most interesting way of snagging stars comes completing optional goals. Players e'er accept iii goals to work toward. Every fourth dimension you finish one, you get both a star and a new goal. A few examples: drifting X distance, completing Y events, renting Z auto, and winning a multiplayer race. There are tons of unique goals, then they tin can really add variety to the game across only trying to win races. If a goal seems problematic, the gamer tin e'er opt to pay in-game money to consummate it and get a new i.

On height of earning money and stars through gameplay, either currency can be purchased with real money via credit card or PayPal. You never need to practice so, merely it can certainly aid to get alee in the game faster. If I had to choose i or the other, I would definitely buy stars. Coin is easier to come by, and you need stars to unlock those all-important car upgrades.

Career

The unmarried-histrion Career consists of 13 cups, each with 4-xiii events.  Yous need to place at least third (thus earning i star) in order to pass an event and unlock the next i. The final race in a cup is the Title in which finishing in kickoff unlocks a new vehicle.

Asphalt 5 suffered from a handful of poorly conceived event types that could be tough to even figure out, let alone win. Mercifully, all of the event types in this sequel are logical and doable. The only one I don't care for is Paint Job, a race that subtracts time with each standoff. Merely on the whole, the difficulty is quite off-white. I did hit a wall at Cup 7 when playing exclusively Career – without some actress money and stars, my car couldn't keep upwardly with the competition. But hopping into Quick Play or Multiplayer whenever I ran short of money got me dorsum on rail.

Online features

Asphalt vii is the commencement Xbox Windows Phone game with true real-time online multiplayer. Oddly, information technology requires players to create and sign into a Gameloft Live business relationship rather than Xbox Alive. I described the process in detail in a previous article. Only let me reiterate that the carve up login was necessitated considering Microsoft does not provide Xbox Live developers with real-time multiplayer tools. For whatsoever reason, the big MS exclusively prefers asynchronous multiplayer on Windows Phone and Windows viii. Gameloft did the best they could under those circumstances. Users' accounts volition bear over to future multiplayer Gameloft titles like North.O.V.A. 3 and Social club & Chaos Online, so information technology's worth the minor initial hassle.

At the moment, I'm ofttimes able to go an online game going inside just a few minutes of creating a lobby. The game's toll and overall awesomeness pretty much ensure a decent number of potential players – hopefully the community sticks around in the long term. I did encounter the occasional hiccup, but in my scattering of hours played online, those were quite infrequent. I only wish nosotros could communicate in-game.

On top of multiplayer (which besides supports local Wi-Fi), Cobblestone 7 has a few more online features. There's a weekly challenge called Asphalt Academy in which players compete on a specific event and so get ranked globally. The game as well has a congenital-in method of sending Xbox Live messages for some reason.

Achievements

Gameloft's latest has several fun Achievements such as activating Adrenaline in a DeLorean. Oddly, that one doesn't fifty-fifty reference Back to the Time to come. Some users might have trouble with the globe-trotting Achievement, just it's easy once y'all learn how to become virtually it. There's too an Accomplishment for winning 3 online races, so I advise you become later on that at present while lots of people are playing.

The rest of the Achievements aren't too challenging – just fourth dimension consuming. Earning iii stars in every Career event and racking up $twenty,000,000 will take a while. Luckily the grinding system is pleasurable on the whole, so gamers shouldn't lose involvement before the 20-plus hours needed to reach everything.

Overall Impression

Asphalt 7 will make you forget the glitchy Gameloft games of erstwhile. The developer really went all-out on this ane, creating a game that feels equal to the robust iOS version in every mode. Four months later on the launch of Windows Phone eight, we finally have a game that takes advantage of the hardware and couldn't be accomplished with most the same fidelity on the previous Bone. If you like racing games even a little bit or just want to back up someone making a real, big-budget game for Microsoft'due south mobile platform, don't wait. Purchase this game.

Purchase it if your device can run it, that is. The game is an 878 MB file merely requires about 4.seven GB of free space to install due to platform restrictions (non the developer). It likewise requires a phone with 1 GB of RAM at the moment, merely Gameloft has promised an update that volition permit information technology to run on phones with but 512 MB.

Cobblestone 7 costs 99 cents. Become it here at the Windows Phone Store.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/asphalt-7-review

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