TT Isle of Man
Available on Xbox One, PS4 and PC (Steam)
Developed by Kylotonn Racing Games
Published by Bigben Interactive
Having played various motorcycling PC games over the years including MotoGP and Ride, both of which were developed by Italian company Milestone, I was curious to see how TT Isle of Man would turn out, it being developed by Kylotonn Racing Games, the Parisian company responsible for WRC and Motorcycle Club. From the get-go, the differences between this game and Ride/MotoGP are fairly apparent with TT Isle of Man very much dedicated to providing a faithful representation of the Snaefell Mountain course and the riding experience whereas Ride and MotoGP allow you to get into the more nitty gritty.
Jumping straight into a Single Race on my first go of the game, I found myself unable to control the unwieldy bike I was straddling upon, flying into the road furniture at every opportunity. I’d chosen Hutchy and Ivan Lintin as my Supersport and Superbike riders (these are the only two bike categories as of writing) and on both I struggled to ride very far without coming off the bike. Despite the similarities to other racing games, TT Isle of Man is less noob friendly than Ride and where I could brake late and slide around corners in those games, TT Isle of Man will gladly fly me into a hedge.
TT Isle of Man isn’t ruthless though. It opens with a tutorial so you can get to grips with the acceleration, braking and camera angles available (first person helmet, cockpit and third person cam) as well as the option for manually changing gears if you prefer more of a race sim than an arcade experience. As I was struggling to stay on the bike as it were, I felt the best foot forward would be to allow the AI to change gears for me whilst I try to concentrate on avoiding the hazards of the road environment.
Deciding that I needed to hone my skills, I jumped into single player career mode which thankfully is a bit more forgiving. Career mode starts off with the player creating their custom racer who you can give a name and nickname to, a nationality and also choose the colour of the leathers (three areas of colour to select). As customisation comes, it’s fairly basic but enough to get you started and on your way. With the racer created, it’s time to choose a ride. To start off your career, you have the choice of a few Supersport bikes, one from each manufacturer such as Yamaha and I decided that mine would be a Triumph. A chunk of money leaves your account in exchange for your new ride and you’re introduced to your manager who finds races for you to compete in via the email messaging system within the game. With 9 fictional road races including Wales, Milford and sections of the Snaefell course, you must ride to win, be it staggered, timed racing or a multi-bike start, traditional race. Each race has a prize pot for first place and it’s in the interest of the player to do as well as they can, not just to earn money to buy better bikes but to also gain a fanbase which you’ll eventually be able to sell merchandise to and make profit from.
The career mode is pretty fun to start off with but it soon gets a little monotonous. I found myself simply going through the motions of racing, earning money and racing once again. You’re never really pushed to make progress which is something I quite liked about Ride 2 and MotoGP as it tried to get you to beat other racers with a reward and offers from other teams to move up the classes. Also the customisation of the character could be much better with sponsorships and choice of helmets and accessories, the latter of which is something Ride 2 boasted. Maybe the developers will add to the career mode to bulk it out and add the depth it requires as it’s not totally bad, just a bit lacking to truly make your character stand out from the crowd.
I’d love to say the game is perfect in every way but it isn’t. It’s a game with flaws or rather components we’re used to that are missing in this game. The biggie is a lack of bike customisation so you can’t actually buy parts or change tyres or suspension settings, you’re just stuck with the factory bike in its default mode. This is a niggle to many bike enthusiasts as a bike’s setup can change the handling, speed and turning of a bike so it would have been nice to be able to at least change settings for those players who feel comfortable in altering the gameplay that way. It would also have been good to allow players to buy new parts for their bikes with the money generated from the race wins. As it stands, the only money you pay out is for the fee to enter races and a maintenance repair fee for when you damage the bike. So, like me, if you crash now and then you might find yourself with a higher bill. Disappointingly though, even if you smash your bike into a dry stone wall during the race, you’ll find no actually damage to it and are still able to ride it as though it was never damaged in the first place. Whilst this is fine for those who like to race arcade style, I feel it needs to add damage elements into the game, even if it’s as an optional extra that can be turned on and off in the menu. In racing, crashes happen and not everyone can get back on the bike to finish the race and you shouldn’t be able to if you’ve crashed a dozen times. There should be at least a time penalty of more than a couple of seconds for repeat offences if nothing else.
The second noticeable exclusion is that of the weather setting. All bike games I’ve played allow you to choose the weather and although you have a choice of morning, noon and evening race there’s no option for sunny, dry, overcast or rain. One thing it does have though, which I thought was rather neat, is sun glare. We’ve all been there and thankfully we have tinted flip down visors when the low sun shines in our eyes during a ride out in real life. In this game, you too will experience sun glare and it’s a bugger at times to see where you’re going. I’ve never experienced this in a motorcycle racing game before and this pleased me to no end so to make the game better still, I’d like to see the developers add the extra weather elements now: the wind, rain and so on.
Though these things mentioned above obviously hamper the game, TT Isle of Man does trump its competitors in at least one part of the game: the handling of the motorbike. If you decide to brake late, you’re going into the crowd. If you ride over a curb at speed, chances are you’re going to loose control. The handling of the bike, whilst initially a nightmare for me, actually feels more accurate than Ride and MotoGP. In those games, I brake late and slide around corners without so much as a worry. In this game, if you try to do that you’re going to fly off. If you brake when going in a straight line before the corner and then accelerate out of it, you’ll stay on your ride and that is how it should be. I always felt like I was a crap racing game player in the other motorcycle games with my poor ability to stay on the racing line and my penchant for sliding around corners, Marquez style. In TT Isle of Man you don’t have a choice in the matter. You have to ride properly else you’ll crash and loose a valuable couple of seconds. I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve gone round a slight bend in the road too quickly and found myself ride straight into a wall or flown over a curb and gone straight into a lamppost. It’s not a great feeling but I’ve made sure to learn from my mistakes by memorising the course and learning to brake appropriately in good time to stay on the bike and get a satisfactory result. Likewise, it’s good to see the AI competitors also crash their rides so at least it’s not just me struggling with the course. You can even clip each other and although I’ve yet to fall off from that, you get a weird 3D blur effect to represent the clash which is a nice touch. However, I do think adding in better collision physics would enhance the realism of the game because anyone pushing or shoving on a road race like this should end up crashing.
For those who like to race others online, TT Isle of Man does have online multiplayer mode but unfortunately I couldn’t get anyone to play with. Instead of showing the lobby and races available to apply to, the interface just auto searches and tells me I’ve either been removed from a game (which never started) or there is none I can join. You can create your own game for people to join so that may be the next step to try as joining existing games seems to be an issue.
Having eventually got to grips with the game in career mode, I tried Solo Quick Race once again (there is Time Attack available too) and I’m pleased to say that I stayed on the machine much more and actually managed to get through the Mountain Course. As part of the Quick Race you can choose from established riders such as John McGuinness, the Dunlops, Bruce Anstey, Peter Hickman and others but no Guy Martin so there goes my dreams of helping Guy win a TT race. You can choose from a variety of road race courses, all of which are brilliantly put together with sponsorship boards, cars parked outside houses, road markings and signs, pedestrians and stewards at the side of the roads cheering you on and even ambulances parked behind the barriers. It’s the environments which really make the race come alive, especially that of the TT course itself. I’d never be brave enough to race the TT course but now I can at least pretend in this game with its ultra faithful representation of the mountain course. It’s so lovingly replicated, you can almost smell and taste it. Riding in sixth gear, you can hear the wind rush past you as your Xbox controller rumbles with the sheer speed. It’s an utterly exhilarating experience and I haven’t even picked my arse off the chair. Whilst I prefer to play the game in third person mode (don’t shout at me), I’m looking forward to mastering the on-board helmet or cockpit mode, viewing through the bike’s wind screen, to give an extra element of realism to my armchair racing enjoyment.
Where it really matters, the Isle of Man TT course, this game has nailed it. It may have its problems elsewhere in the game but it’s got it where it really matters. People, myself included, have been banging on over the years about wanting to be able to virtually race around the TT course and now we can. Hopefully all the other little issues can be developed and added to the game somewhere down the line to make this the ultimate motorcycle road racing game on the market.
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