Review by: Tony Mitera

Though it is the continuation of the ongoing MX vs ATV racing series, Alive certainly doesn’t come across as such. Though a lot of the high-flying and muddy action shines through as you race around a track or across the open world events, the content comes at the pace of a drip feed. The racing mechanics are solid and the controls are largely agreeable, but you literally have to grind out races over and over to see all that the game has to offer.

The game doesn’t have anything in the way of narration, though the lack of such is no detriment. You play as a racer of your own creation, alterning the look of your equipment and vehicle before taking to the tracks and trying to get some podium appearances under your belt. As you complete races, you gain experience points for both your racer and vehicle to put towards equipment upgrades, with higher placements and difficulty levels getting you bonuses at the end.

Vehicles are easy to level up and only have a handful of levels to progress though. The parts you unlock automatically get equipped if they enhance performance, such as new brakes or a part that improves the suspension, while cosmetic parts await your selection before they make it onto your ride. Most parts can be colored via a color wheel with a decent number of selections on it, and between picking the ride’s overall paint scheme, as well as coloring individual parts, you can come up with an individualized set of wheels. The mechanic of swapping out parts is very simplified - you aren’t adjusting your gearbox by any means - but it does let you have some ownership over the look and, to some extent, the performance of your favorite selections.

Leveling up your rider is more important from a gameplay standpoint and takes far more time to do so. Levels come quickly at first, but that doesn’t stay the case for long, and when you do reach your next level it usually comes with purely cosmetic unlocks. Occasionally, you will unlock new skills to equip on your rider, which can give you slight edges over the competition, and can be mixed and matched to suit your racing style. The biggest reason to level up your racer however is to unlock new tracks to race on, and given that you only have four race tracks and three open world tracks at the onset, you’ll have to grind to get them.

Though performing jumps and tricks as you explore the open world events awards experience points, the amount you get pales to what you can pull out of a race. Even still, with only four race courses to choose from up until you reach racer level 10 you literally have the grind out races over and over again on those four tracks to get there. Though the four tracks are varied from one another none of them are especially lengthy, so even with consistent podium finishes at higher difficulty levels, the game makes unlocking new content a chore, with hours upon hours of monotonously racing the same courses.

There is a decent selection of bikes and ATVs to choose from, and they certainly handle completely differently. ATVs have a lot more power and stability but lack much in the way of handling, whereas motocross bikes can zip around but are vulnerable to loss of control on bad terrain. When you pick a vehicle of either type you can choose to race only against similar types or you can pick an MX vs ATV race where the field is composed of a grab bag of both. These races are certainly the most interesting, though ultimately the choice is purely cosmetic and there isn’t a reward or penalty for picking one over the other.