Vancouver 2010 Review

Is this trip down the slopes worth your time?

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics is a grand event, spanning weeks and bringing  a wide variety of nationalities together to compete in a number of sporting events. In regards to the official game, the genre alone should suggest longevity would play to its favour but whilst Vancouver 2010’s 14 events may sound like bounty of content the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

Of the 14 sports available, the majority  tend to blur into each other often making most of the Skiing and Snowboarding events feel like repetition rather than individual sports. Take a trip down the pipes in Bobsledding or Skeleton for example, and the experiences are not only near identical but also a little lifeless. Other events, including Aerials and Ski Jumping, require good execution, balance and quick reflexes but after a couple of rounds you’ll have few reasons to try them out again.

It’s not without its highlights but after a playthrough of each event, the lack of alternate tracks or routes offers little incentive to play them again. You’re left to simply repeat courses you’ll exhaust quickly during the Olympic modes. That might be how it’s done in the Olympics but there’s no denying that opting for realism over variety seriously harms Vancouver’s replayability.

Unless you invest hours into Vancouver 2010 (something the game doesn’t actively encourage) the task of relearning the individual control schemes can be a chore. Skiing and Snowboarding events are most common and to their merit offer the best controls. On the other hand, events such as Bobsledding and speed skating feature strenuous use of the controls to manoeuvre and gain speed.

The excruciating difficulty level can also be off-putting. Even when you have a good feel for how an event plays, you’re challenged with AI that, quite frankly, makes your best efforts seem like feeble attempts. Training mode is an option if you’re struggling although the Olympic mode allows you to take a short refresher session before an event making the training mode a little redundant.

In Olympic Mode you’ll pick a team and play through the Olympics by picking and choosing your events or simply having them randomly stacked. The Challenge mode is the most enjoyable part of Vancouver 2010.  By taking the sports you’ll already be familiar with and giving them unique objectives (like covering a certain distance in a downhill run or knocking down snowmen during Slalom) challenge mode manages to breathe some extra life into the package.

There’s a decent offering of these challenges in a variety of difficulty settings which easily provide a couple of hours on enjoyment. There are multiplayer modes (both online and offline) but unless you live to top leaderboards then it’s unlikely you’ll put much time into multiplayer.

Where the game itself might be lacking, the presentation in Vancouver 2010 is actually pretty good. Crowds look believable rather than a bunch of cardboard cut outs and some of the blurring effects as you speed down mountains look pretty good against what would normally be a rather lifeless winter wonderland. The soundtrack might not be in keeping with the theme of event, it’s made up mostly of Canadian punk rock provided by the likes of Sum 41 and GOB, but it does a good job and at least it’s consistent.

I’m not saying that Vancouver 2010 isn’t a good game. The bare bones hold the potential for something more accomplished; if only someone had added a bit more content and variety. Instead, Vancouver 2010 is an experience spread so thinly that it’s forgettable.