I don’t know what I expected exactly, but it was a lot more than I wound up playing. Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska brags to be a realistic simulator, but realism doesn’t mean fun.
The gameplay is…realistic I suppose, but frustrating. When it is snowy terrain it’s harder to drive, which is understandable for real life, but why would that make Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska more fun? The car can get stuck to the point where you need to restart the level to try again.
In career mode, you drive to a yellow area, which you can reach while following the path or driving off the track. Your gas runs out as you drive and you must find gas containers on the pathway and stop to fill your vehicle up. If you tumble down a mountain or run into a tree you get damaged and need to repair by picking up toolboxes.
Your hunger level also slowly goes down and needs to be filled with food like hotdogs and pizza you pick up. But you need to stop your car in order to use them. For a game that prides itself on realism, I’m surprised they didn’t add first aid stuff to pick up as well. I mean, the driver gets hungry, but not beat up when rolling down a mountain? You also never see your driver so what was the point of adding the food feature? Apparently your hunger affects your driving but I honestly didn’t notice a difference because I found it hard to drive in general.
Freestyle mode is also driving to a yellow area, but your stats aren’t affected. The lack of stats is the only difference from career mode, as you can go to the same places and use the same cars. It’s more fun than career mode because you don’t need to worry about gas especially running out. But still, Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska is not fun and is more boring if anything. I did try to find fun by scaling up the mountains, turning my tires to try to climb up.
The graphics are good but look a bit unpolished and are choppy at times which is annoying. Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska has a day and night cycle which is a nice touch, and you can even turn on your headlights to help see in the nighttime.
Maybe this game just isn’t for me, but Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska is not enjoyable and no matter how realistic it strives to be enjoyability is more important. There isn’t enough to do that’s fun or even looks good enough to be worth $18.99. Even if it goes on sale I’d say it still isn’t worth it.
Review: Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska (Nintendo Switch)
Very Poor
Maybe this game just isn’t for me, but Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska is not enjoyable and no matter how realistic it strives to be enjoyability is more important. There isn’t enough to do that’s fun or even looks good enough to be worth $18.99. Even if it goes on sale I’d say it still isn’t worth it.
The Author
December 28, 2020
[…] is another one of those racing games that prides itself on realistic simulation. But, like Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska, realism doesn’t equal fun. I wanted to have fun, but the touchy controls prevented […]
December 28, 2020
[…] one other a kind of racing video games that prides itself on real looking simulation. However, like Ultra Off-Road 2019: Alaska, realism doesn’t equal enjoyable. I wished to have enjoyable, however the sensitive controls […]