MONSTER JAM STEEL TITANS 2 Review: Improved Monster Truck Action

PC Review Code Provided by Rainbow Studios

When I first heard that Monster Jam was bringing out a second title to their first Steel Titans game, I was pretty excited and hopeful that it would be even better than the first. I have to say that Rainbow Studios and THQ Nordic didn’t let me down. Adding a few aspects to the game, tweaking the controls, and improving the physics from the first title, they managed to make Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 a more entertaining monster truck experience than they did before. However, it isn’t without fault.

Gameplay

When you first load up the game will have you go through a basics tutorial and here you can get the hang of the controls. As we saw with the initial Steel Titans game, controlling a monster truck isn’t as smooth as your typical racing game, and it was the same case with this title. Turning takes some real control practice and is best done by utilizing all four wheels to drive rather than just using the front two wheels. This also comes into play when it comes to the challenges like Demolition and Freestyle events.

As far as controls themselves go, you have the expected forward and reverse gas pedals, but when it comes to the difference between two and four-wheel control it comes down to the analog sticks (if you are using the controller). One analog stick controls the front wheels and the second analog stick is set on the rear wheels. You also can build up boost and use that to get your car moving forward quicker, but it is best used as a way to quickly build up momentum if you hit a hard turn or run into something rather than to make yourself get more air off a jump or get a faster pace in the midst of a race.

They did implement an open-world style setup again and this time the different areas all represent the different types of trucks that are available in the game. For instance, the starting area was a rural setting where you had a barn, a school-like area, and various town locations all placed in fairly separated locations and then the second area you open up is a dog park setting with multiple different dog house styles for all the different Monster Mutt car types. These areas open up as you progress through the career chapters of the game and it is through completion of each chapter that you unlock another monster truck to use.

One thing I found interesting is the way you improve the stats of the monster truck you use. One of the first ones you unlocked is Blue Thunder, which turns out to be one of my favorite trucks, aesthetically speaking. I ended up using this truck for the majority of my time on the game, up until I unlocked actual favorites like Grave Digger and Monster Mutt, and found that once the truck stats are maxed out the experience gained just goes to the next truck in line.

An improved aspect of the game, when compared to the first title, has to go to the game’s physics. In the previous game, the physics seemed to have less density in the atmosphere than there should have been and so air time was absurd. This time, there was only a little bit of light density in the atmosphere because it only felt slightly unrealistic, which was rather acceptable considering it is a video game. Realistic physics would have made the cars a lot heavier and some of the entertaining points in freestyle, racing, and free-roaming wouldn’t have been the same and so I think the physics were rather accurately set up to provide a semi-realistic entertaining experience.

Overall, the options the game provides when it comes to gameplay are the career mode, arena championships, free-roaming the open world, and multiplayer where you can go head-to-head with other players. While the majority of the game is facing AI in different challenges and events, one thing they added to the open-world aspect is the special events. The special events are basically hidden areas around that you can find and if you bring a specific truck to that area it will unlock an animation or ramp that lets you collect one of the many collectibles you can find.

Visuals

Graphically speaking, the visuals didn’t seem too different from the first title. It is obvious that the game always looked how they wanted it to. So expect a low detailed audience, semi-detailed world pieces, and detailed trucks and arenas because that’s what they provide.

Sounds

There is music throughout the game, as you would expect, but you can also use sound queues for the world event triggers as it gives off that unique chime. Otherwise, you got the sounds of a roaring crowd, and the revving engine will flood the audio, as you would expect.

Replayability

With multiplayer and multiple difficulty options, there is always room to keep playing the game. Improving your skill and taking the win at higher difficulties is a good way to challenge yourself through the career mode and arena championships. Since the game itself is a series of challenges and events, able to increase the difficulty to try and beat it on a harder difficulty is as much replayability you could expect from a monster truck game.

What Could Be Better

The AI itself seemed to be pretty lacking when it comes to being a challenge in certain events. It was almost like they were dumbed down to mess up on nothing and have near-to-no ability when it comes to recovery after messing up. I played the majority of the game on the Normal difficulty, but even on this difficulty, they should have been better.

Conclusion

Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 is an entertaining monster truck title! Having control of the official Monster Jam trucks is always a blast and going through the different events that we both imagined would be cool to see and get to watch take place live is nothing short of exciting. This title is definitely an improvement on the game series and is one I would recommend to racing and monster truck fans alike.