The deepest multiplayer in the series!
Time trials are still there although its not as competitive with Dev times as in Pacific Rift. Trophies are far easier for these as well because you literally have to do nothing more than post a time, and not even on all tracks. Pacific Rift was a far more difficult to platinum. Its as if Evolution was apologizing for that because Apocalypse is a very easy platinum.
So why the 9.0? The multiplayer returns big time and makes up for the single player short comings. Motorstorm didnt have a lot of tracks but they were well designed and addicting. I spent months racing almost every night. Pacific Rift tried to get fancy with the tracks and boost abilities, and it ended up fostering a lot of glitches, exploits and unintended track short cuts. Apocalypse addresses all these and more. The track designs are as good as any in the series. The constant destruction changes the tracks and gives a dynamic danger that you'd better be ready for. There are only a half dozen basic track locations, but those include several completely different track variations making for as many tracks as Pacific Rift included. Boosting has been limited and back to basics as well, so there are none of the exploits of Pacific Rift.
The vehicle selection has been expanded greatly this time. Apocalypse is the first to take place as much on city like streets as off road. As such, Evolution added street vehicle classes. Muscle Cars, Choppers, Mini Cars, Super Cars and Super Bikes join the cast from Pacific Rift. At first you might say that adding 5 classes to 8 is too much and overkill. I admit feeling the same, but each new class has been carefully and uniquely crafted to give a totally new racing experience. They arent just rehashed versions of old classes. Choppers and Mini Cars are now two of my favorites.
There is an unlock progression here as well. In previous games, vehicles and skins were unlocked in single player campaigns. Apocalypse does this in multiplayer only. You have 3 vehicles per class each with several attributes to level up like drifting, racers finished ahead of, racers wrecked, and time spent in air. Each has 3 levels and when you level at least 3 of them all the way, you unlock the next car. Each level unlocks parts and skins to customize the vehicles. Exchanging parts is appearance only and doesnt affect the performance of the vehicles, but Evolution didnt slack off on that account. There are tons of different looks that can be created.
Your driver can level up to 80 and that will take a loooooooong time. 40 gets you the final trophy for online rank. Each rank grants you some customization for your character and online avatar. No stone is left unturned in Apocalypse. Everything you do progresses you towards some sort of unlock...until you finally reach 80. Ive played this game for months and just crossed 50.
Overall, Apocalypse is a great racing game that unfortunately suffered in sales due to the timing of its release and the earthquake in Japan. The single player doesnt touch the previous entries, but the multiplayer is the deepest and best in the series by far. And that is where the longevity will be in a game like this.