For those who overlook the drab visuals and terrible first impression, Edge of Control still manages to be quite fun.
(-) abysmal first impression / sometimes clunky and unpredictable vehicle handling / ugly graphics and crummy frame rate / weak presentation
The off-road racing genre has been working its way up for a long time now. The ATV Offroad Fury series made waves at the last few years of the PS2's lifespan, and Motorstorm welcomed the PS3 with open arms for those who want some crazy off-road action. Codemasters has also developed a lot of noteworthy efforts of their own, which are good enough to guarantee a satisfied customer for any fan of the series or even anyone eager to try them out, like the stellar DiRT series and Grid. With that much history to compete with, Baja: Edge of Control is most definitely, at its very best, an undesirable alternative to what's been offered elsewhere. But if a player can look past the seemingly insufferable first impression and grainy, drab in-game visuals, the experience offered in Edge of Control has plenty to offer anyway and the game can be enjoyable despite it's shortcomings.
Edge of Control doesn't really do much to present itself. This is immediately noticeable when you first boot the game up, you'll be greeted with practically antiquated menus that while all functional, lack any spark to make the game appealing outside the core gameplay. This is important, too, because other games such as Dirt have put loads of time polishing the presentation up and therefore made the entire game better bit by bit. No such luck here though. But while that issue most likely won't come to the attention of the common player, it is important to know that there's a good chance you'll feel like snapping the Blu-Ray disc when you start your first race.
This is because the game's main focus, the career mode, is divided into eight vehicle classes, and you'll need to progressively win races and work your way to the higher classes. This certainly makes enough sense, and it's realistic that you'll start out with the weakest vehicles, the Baja Bugs. But these cars aren't merely less powerful than the stronger offerings which will surface later on, they're also very difficult to steer and avoid damage. Being forced to work with this unpredictable of a vehicle before even getting sufficient experience is borderline unforgivable, and it doesn't help that many of the other AI drivers just strut along with no hint of the same struggle that you're facing.
If you're durable enough to bear through that inevitable punishment, the game does give you more leeway later on. Gathering experience from your winnings will allow you to purchase more powerful cars, as well as give them upgrades, for horsepower, breaks, cooling system, plumbing system, tires, and the like, it also offers more esoteric options that only the truest grease-monkeys are going to appreciate, and they're practically essential for you to bear the test of the treacherous environments that are guaranteed to put an impression on your car. Upgrades are noticeable from the start of the race, and it's a great way to assist yourself when you're having trouble. And once you develop a comfortable fit and net some straight wins, you'll attract sponsors, which will give you extra money just as long as you display their logo, and it still be visible at the end of the race, not lost by the damage.
And after learning the ropes of the Baja Bug class, you'll work your way to the more advanced breeds of vehicles, which effectively change the game up and improve it in the process. You'll immediately notice a difference in vehicle handling when moving over to the spiritual bigger brother that is the Unlimited VW, and even better are the grand Open Wheel vehicles, which, at least compared to other vehicles, have monumental maneuverability and carry a great sense of speed. You're almost always facing other vehicles in the same class, so there's never an issue of unfairly surpassing the competition just because you have a superior ride. That ought to be the least of your concerns though, because Baja Edge of Control is exceptionally hard. The AI never lets out, even for a second, and even know its clearly a natural thrill to take large leaps on a desert bump then loudly thump to the ground, it does havoc on your car, and the damage adds up over time. The damage system never truly totals your car, but busting crucial parts in your car will lead to a major drop of performance which could be the difference from first to last place. You are allowed to get repairs when you go to a specific spot on the map, but there's little point in doing so unless everyone else is coincidentally going in for a repair as well, because catching up when they've all past you is never easy. In fact, the challenge can be just shy of sadistic at times. Taking all the intimidating turns and narrowly missing rocks in places where you could cut off corners all while battling the raging opponents getting closer every moment can take a toll on your logic, and sometimes later in the game races can reach a normal stretch of four laps, and there's only so much pressure the human mind can stand before they get exhausted and make a game-ending mistake in race. Having this kind of challenge will no doubt frustrate players, especially when the mistake was no fault of their own (which I'll touch up on that shortly), but the struggles will pay off in the end once you pile up your earnings.
Baja does a decent job on putting a realistic sense in the driving engine, needing to consider your car's balance during mid-jumps to avoid damage, and the ability to take sharp corners and even cut parts of the track to overtake when opponents crowd the sometimes narrow tracks. These cars were designed to take sharp turns, especially earlier in the game, which is heavily responsible for the terrible first impression. Sometimes the car will go off into a drift when you don't want it to, and it could mean you'll drift sideways and jump clear off the track. The fist class of vehicles are obviously the most difficult to handle, and while things do improve as you move up to the more advanced cars and spend some credits on upgrades, the issue never truly goes away. You'll still have occasional moments when you'll be wrestling with the clunky turning, even if you feel like you've mastered your vehicle of choice. Adding to this issue is the game isn't always clear on where the limits of the racing track boundaries are. You'll think that you took a smart turn and managed to step into the competition, but then you'll be penalized and spawned firmly in last place. It's also aggravating when you imitate the same technique as an opponent to cut a sharp corner, only to collide into a rock that you couldn't see. While the vehicle handling and track design don't get along nearly well enough to consistently play at your best, you still get a very realistic grasp on your car and you feel a lot of power behind these fancy pieces of machinery. But while the game offers more than enough challenge for people willing to play against other racers that actually demand their full ability, its a shame that the sometimes unpredictable vehicle handling and other annoyances seemingly out of your control have to contribute to that challenge.
For a game based on racing exclusively in a desert, Edge of Control offers a lot of varied landscape to race in. Not only are the un-apologetically hot trails of sand available, you'll also race in the mid-day closer to an amusement park, clear off into a border between a desert and a forest, and even across a country highway. This and the vehicle variety give Edge of Control a resistance against repetition, which is good, because the Career Mode is surprisingly lengthy. All eight classes have the same number of events, which start with racing cups, driving challenges where you concentrate on smoothly driving while avoiding damage as opposed to competing against other drivers, up-hill climbs included along with a race, and open class events which spread each player out but offers more classes in one race. It's no easy task getting a gold medal in each event, and even if you're just playing through at your best effort and not necessarily pushing yourself to do the best, it'll still keep you busy for at least a few weeks the first time through. And once that's done, you can replay races and tracks in arcade mode, free-roam at your own leisure on a colossal desert to practice your driving, and for multiplayer, you can have full 4-player splitscreen as well as online support for up to nine players. Most PS3 games these days put all the emphasis into online play and ignore splitscreen, and its good that Baja: Edge of Control still offers both.
Playstation 3 games are a nightmare to program, because developers really need to put endless waking hours in making sure the game makes use of all the power of the system. However, Baja: Edge of Control looks so jagged and dull, you'll question whether or not it was originally developed for the Playstation 2, then quickly ported over to the PS3. The game simply looks terrible, one of the worst looking games on the system. The racing cars look bland and uninspired, the environments are jagged and jittery despite not attempting to house and level of detail, and the entire game has a very unnaturally dark, depressing look to it. The game even uses the 2.5D billboard graphical technique commonly used in Nintendo 64 games, where blades of grass can be seen always facing the camera regardless of which angle you're turning. This could have been a bit tolerable for people who perhaps aren't putting graphics in their top priority if the game could lock a decent frame rate, but it chugs along every few seconds, which doesn't affect gameplay, but for a game this ugly a shoddy frame rate is unforgivable. What's borderline criminal is comparing it to the Xbox 360 version, which while it doesn't look great by any means, it sports more track and car detail, much brighter and crisper, and keeps a slick frame rate. There's no excuse to make a port this inferior for a system that has very similar graphical muscle.
Could this game compare to the ever-intensifying competition being offered by the other off-road racing titles? No chance. While it's true the game only possesses a few key shortcomings, they're severe enough to drag the entire experience down. The initial learning curve is insurmountable, making it very likely that the player will downright hate the game first time trying it out. And the severely dated visuals, especially compared to the 360 version, are also hard to tolerate and its likely to cause a few firefight among fan-boys for either system. But past these rather serious issues, Edge of Control does have a lot to offer that is largely good, and worth owning for any big fan of the genre, provided they need something new to play. It's not the best you're going to find, and you'll still wish for something more in the end, but it's a decent racer with a solid racing engine and a lengthy lifespan. For those who overlook the drab visuals and terrible first impression, Edge of Control still manages to be quite fun.