Game Review: ASPHALT 9 #Get Asphalt9 from AppGallery #

Who didn't know Asphalt, it is a classic racing game back in the age of Symbian OS. It is amazing how this mobile game matured from when it was first released back in 2000 till now, the 9th series of the franchise. I still remembered the day I played Urban GT back in 2004 using the old N Gage, and 16 years later here I am, all screen control and fully matured: LEGENDS. I'll be reviewing the LEGENDS based on 3 aspects, The State of Art, The Gameplay, and Issue.

1. The State of Art

Gameloft is the best at providing us a great display and graphic, no racing game could ever beat it. The scenery is perfect and the senses of speed are visualized excellently. Let say you speed up, the environment is blurred accordingly, illustrating the fast movement. The camera movement also great, it didn't make me feel dizzy, it is smooth and legit. I even play the game at its highest graphic setting and surprisingly no noticeable frame drop was observed. Another best part of the game is the soundtrack and how they mimicking the car audio system . Immersing myself in the audio really makes me feel like in a real car, and its enough to set my mood in a real racing environment.

It is the 9th installment of the series and kudos to the team, the progressive in providing every detail of the visual effect is a jaw drop. The effect seems real, there is also a scratch mark left when you hit something and the fire spark effect coming out of it is impressive. I wonder how much effort they put in building this game, to make things look this good. Even though my 9X Lite was getting hots a bit playing at the highest graphic setting but it's doable. I noticed that reducing the graphic setting won't affect the visual aspect of the games, you don't even notice the difference. It is still eye-pleasing. There is one time when the car I drove jumped into a puddle (lopak air), the splash effect is amazing, I almost thought the water gonna come to my face. hahaha silly me. 

 2. The Gameplay

The game is pretty straightforward, I even gave it to my 3 years old nephew and he won first. Everyone can play the game, there are 3 types of control; Touch Drive, Tap To Steer and Tilt To Steer. The default is the Touch Drive, basically, the car runs on itself you only need to hit the drift button, nitro button, and choosing path when there is an option. this is the control where my nephew won every time I gave him the game. For most of the time, I just left it for Touch Drive, it is easier or nothing much to do, I just focus on the drifting and choosing the path with available nitro on the road, and let the system do its job. I did try the Tilt To Steer, and I think I'm not good at it, plus the game does not recognize the movement on time, there is a time it's delayed.  

By the time you started the game, you were given a Blue Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, from there you gonna build up your career, earn credits through racing, and unlock more cars. I hate to know that I can't even buy cars, cars only can be unlocked when you have a certain amount of blueprints for that particular car. That's means, you need to race more and win more races. The business of the game is when you can buy credits, to use in the game such as refueling or buy blueprints. When I said buy, I mean buy with Real Money!!   

The game also offered an online multiplayer. But yeah, it is lock until you reach 20 career flags. When I tried the multiplayer, the system will randomly group me into a race with available online players, worldwide. The multiplayer is harder than racing against the system, everyone is trying to knock you out of the race. haha. it is a nice experience for an amateur like me, I need to prepare more, upgrading my cars to the top rank. There is also a club feature that unlocks at 15 career flags if I'm not mistaken, to be honest, the club is not interesting enough to be talked about. It is good if members of the club can join a multiplayer race or there is merit for the club that we belong for winning a race or so, yet the club did nothing, a waste features if I can say so. 

3. Issue

I played the game on Honor 9X Lite with firmware version 9.1.0.287, no issue found, the game can be played very well, single or multiplayer - it is buttery smooth. Just the thing that I hate is the game can't be played offline, you need an internet connection to run the game. I just don't get it, why I need the internet when all the data already stored offline. This is means, you can't play the game in flight, or when you going somewhere, where the internet is limited. 

To summarise this review, I've concluded everything into three categories; Graphics, UI, Difficulty, and User Experience. We all agree that the graphic is the selling point of this franchise, it is excellent and mesmerizing, so I gave 5 stars, kudos to the graphic designer and the team, For UI, I only can give 3 out of 5, there are too many going-on within the interface, and its clutter, the unnecessary things like the club and few other info shouldn't be there. But I know, once you get used to it, you pretend that you don't see it and you started to forget. The difficulty, 1 out of 5. Too easy. For an amateur like me, I played for 2 hours and managed to level up to 4 and unlock a few cars. easy peasy. Lastly, I give 4 out of 5 for user experience, everything is fine but I hate the fact that the game needs me to be online to play it. Overall, it is a free downloaded game, nothing much to complain, I enjoy the graphic and everyone can play the game, it's proven, even 3 years old kid can win the race at the first position. hahha. Until then, stay safe and goodbye.