MotoGP 20

Review

As a fan of speed, I was wondering how fast a MotoGP bike could go in a straight line? Well, the current record was set in 2018 at the Italian Grand Prix by Andrea Dovizioso; his top speed was recorded to be 356.4 km/h! How amazing is that? What is equally as astonishing is the protective gear these racers use; a suit made of cowhide or kangaroo, with airbags inside the suit across the shoulders, a helmet, and that’s it! So, what are you waiting for? You have a suit, a helmet and a bike; let’s get ready for MotoGP 20!

MotoGP 20 is a motorsport simulation developed and self-published by Milestone S.r.l. and released on the 23^rd of April 2020 on Steam, as well as on Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

As I haven’t played any of the Moto series games before MotoGP 20, this review will not contain any references or comparisons with any previous titles of the franchises. So yes, I am pretty much a novice on two wheels (at least in a gaming aspect).

The game has Career, Multiplayer, Historic and Quick modes. In the Quick mode, you can play all 20 races in different ways. You can launch one of the 20 Grand Prix, do time trial or launch a full championship with the class you prefer to play (Moto GP, Moto 2 or Moto 3). The Career mode gives you a choice of three classes with which to start your career as a rider, along with very cool customisation of your rider, including gear, bike and style of riding (New, Conventional and a few others).  Then when you’ve made your choices, you’ll need to employ a manager, along with technical staff, who you will assign to the research and development of your bike during the season ahead, including testing events.

In terms of difficulty, you have three to choose from: Assisted, Normal and Pro. If you select Assisted, you’ll have help with braking, trajectory aids and more, but only the trajectory aids will be active in the Pro difficulty.

As a newcomer to Moto GP, I decided to try several Grand Prix with each class of bike and start a career in Moto 3 for fun. As you start a Grand Prix, you can choose to do the full weekend, which holds 3 free practices, 2 qualifying sessions, a warm-up and the race (for which you can also specify the length).  Alternatively, you can turn everything off and jump straight into the race on the last spot on the grid.

It’s good to go through the entire weekend so you can learn the track, find the issues with the bike and report it to the engineers so you can change the setup, do the fastest lap and hopefully start on pole position.

You can swap views as you go around each track, which I find really helpful. I prefer playing with the Helmet Perspective, which I found easier for controlling the bike.  I found the Third Person view excellent to see how your bike handles when you brake, and when entering and leaving a corner. There are a few other views, but I used these two. After a few laps on these views, I could see what setup I needed to change in order to improve my time (a better rider would also have been helpful, but I’m stuck with myself).

After eight hours of gameplay, I am just getting the hang of The Moto 3; I’m doing ok on the Assisted difficulty and becoming daring enough to play on the Normal difficulty.  I am several hours away from feeling comfortable in Moto 2 and am a total novice with the Moto GP bikes!

It’s pretty much making sure you ease off the gas throttle at the right time and drop down the gears so that the engine slows down the bike, along with using the right pressure on your front brakes and entering the corners with the correct angle and a steady lean at a good speed. Easy to say, but very difficult to execute.  It’s a grinding game, and hard for a newcomer like me. It’s even more difficult on a rainy day!

Superb graphics and soundtrack. You can play with your keyboard, but the gamepad is the way to go. As mentioned previously, the customisation of the bike and the rider’s gear is fabulous. One thing that I cannot find is the ability to delete or add a new championship or career if you want to do so.  I had a few issues with the audio, too; the commentary before leaving and after returning to the pit stopped working!