Snow Moto Racing Freedom (PC) Review

The first thing that's apparent about Snow Moto Racing Freedom, as you boot up the game, is how many modes it offers. The championship mode offers three sub-portions. The sprint and freedom league sees drivers race across open landscapes, navigating the terrain however they choose, while snocross offers more traditional track-based races. The single-event option allows for sprint, snocross, freestyle events, as well a leisure mode where players can roam through open environments idly. On the multiplayer side of things, there's local multiplayer for up to four players, as well as an online mode, which will throw players into lobbies of mixed events, also enabling them to create their own. Overall, then, there's definitely a lot of content packed into this snowmobile racer.

Handling, like everything else about the game, definitely leans more towards an arcade experience. Although the developers have touted their 'interactive snow technology,' which does produce some really nice trails and divots as drivers' paths cross, the overall snowmobile behaviour is floaty and difficult to anticipate. Collision with objects in the environment, which would almost certainly result in a brick-like thud in something realistic (or at least a hilarious clip for YouTube if you were playing something like Steep) here usually results in the player being thrown into the air rather unrealistically, only occasionally actually punishing a driver for not anticipating something. This is certainly okay for an arcade experience, especially as it can sometimes help players pave a better way to their next marker, but the other issue with collision seems to impinge on the fun quite a bit more.

Particularly when playing the sprint mode, where other drivers can be coming across your line in different directions, the collisions with other players are frustrating to say the least. Sometimes players put pressure on each other to pass through a gate first, and it's pretty much a lottery which one of you gets ploughed into the entry wall and hurled into the air. Likewise, when trying to edge someone out through a turn on snocross events, bumps and sideswipes often result in strange collisions that feel neither simulative nor acceptable for an arcade game. This is annoying, particularly since these small set tracks seem too tight already, making staying on track a challenge and a bit of a burden with other racers around ready to plough into you. Unfortunately, then, there's something about the physics that gives the overall experience quite a floaty, shallow edge, rather letting it down.

That's not to say, however, that the game won't produce a lot of thrills. It's particularly gratifying successfully taking a different route to a gate, which throws you several positions ahead. For example, boosting up the side of a mountain just to grab some air, and in the process flying over the top of the patch of trees everyone else has to go around. There's definitely something quite appealing about carving out your own path like this, particularly since the AI does present a decent challenge from the beginning. This sense of difficulty also ramps up quite nicely as the player progresses, though it must be said that besides less erratic handling behaviour, there isn't much to distinguish the various snowmobiles from one another. This seems like a missed opportunity, since new variations of vehicle in this type of game should be something players want to actively work for.

It also would have been nice if the vehicles sounded distinct, but, in fact, that's another element where Snow Moto Racing Freedom falls short. All engine noises seem to be the same, and don't rev and roar at the appropriate times, except for when unleashing the boost meter. This often makes it hard to tell how many fellow drivers are swarming. Granted, it might be a level of detail reserved for projects with a bigger budget, but there's no denying it seems a little lacklustre and definitely detracts from the experience, especially since arcade racers usually appreciate these small touches. A more realistic impression of whether your engine is struggling or not as it meets a stiff gradient, as well as being able to hear whether you're slipping or have traction in the snow, definitely would improve the overall sense of immersion.

Visually, Freedom certainly seems like a big step up from older projects. There's a really nice level of detail left in the snow, and lighting is fairly well done, with night-time races being a particular highlight where everyone has their headlights beaming down the slopes. However, considering the other winter sport ventures out there, such as Steep and Snow, it's also fair to say that this is not the best looking game of its genre. While the graphics serve their purpose adequately, one wonders, considering its arcade-centric slant, why courses and environments couldn't have been much more outlandish, with a much greater sense of visual contrast. It certainly seems like another opportunity missed to provide the title with some much needed character and proper identity.