Can Deep Silver nail this racer?
Around 6 months ago, I previewed Nail’d and while I did find some laughably bad glitches and exploits, I was impressed with the game as a whole and have been looking forward to the end result and to see if Deep Silver really have fixed all the bugs, so what was the end result at the chequered flag?
Nail’d has improved dramatically since I first played it and I can say that all the glitches are gone, including the ones that allowed you to boost over the mountains. You ride ATV’s over many treacherous tracks, without the help of an on-screen map since there are a number of routes to take to reach the end. Tracks are quite long and racing is insanely fast, sometimes so fast that it’s a bit disorientating…which sadly works against the game in the long run.
Across the tracks there are rings of fire that will give you boost to use if you pass through them. There are also a number of obstacles including moving trains that will cause you to crash, and that’s what you’ll be doing a lot of! Luckily, the game is forgiving and will respawn you after a few seconds and you’ll probably end up winning most races as the AI aren’t the most challenging opponents, which is a shame as you’ll breeze through the single player campaign in about 12-15 hours as you try and gain each medal.
Multiplayer consists of local and online races, but finding an online match is incredibly difficult. Is anyone even playing it online and if not, why not? It’s a damn good game and thanks to the achievement list, playing online is absolutely necessary for a full 1000 gamerscore…thanks Deep Silver! (Ending sarcasm mode)
The controls are basic and easy to get to grips with, even with the high speed of your ATV and the tricky courses; there isn’t much of a challenge. The tracks are great to look at and the dirt/water effects are impressive, while the vehicles are nicely detailed. The soundtrack has some good rock/heavy metal tunes to listen to and you can skip them with just a tap of the right bumper.
The Verdict
Nail’d has come a long way since I got my hands on it back in August last year and is one damn fast racer, but the lack of a challenge and the difficulty in finding online matches stop it from reaching new heights in the genre.
