Blue Lagoon

It is in many ways a recognition to the many users who in this period of time have perennially populated the servers of the ManiaPlanet platform,

often offering its vision of the historic racer arcade thanks to an editor more and more refined, easy to use but characterized by instruments of great power and precision. All elements that return with arrogance in the new package, using as a glue the inevitable approach “easy to learn, hard to master”

that we will try and try again the tracks in search of the best time, first comparing with the records set by the traditional three medals (bronze, silver, gold), then with the ghost of the best players in the world. A mania, it is appropriate to say, that now feels the weight of years but has not yet lost its enamel.

ONCE AGAIN!

The single player campaign of Trackmania 2: Lagoon consists of a total of sixty five circuits, divided into five different categories as and when they are more complex: white, green, blue, red and black.

The more we advance and the more we need to make results, in the sense that the last tracks require a certain amount of gold medals to become accessible. Getting to that point, however, is quite easy and immediate: the very connotation of the game leads to launch at full speed on the tracks and instantly try again the stint in case of error, thanks to a couple of buttons specially designed to reset the entire race or partial; this is that you play using the directional arrows of the keyboard,

whether you opt for a controller, choosing the latter only recommended after adjusting until the sensitivity of the levers, since the steering tends to be excessively sensitive with the default settings . In any case, the setup of the setup is reduced to a matter of memory, reactivity

and perseverance: conquering a bronze or silver at the first attempt is not at all impossible, in fact it will happen several times; but to grab the gold you will inevitably have to familiarize yourself with the track, choose the best trajectories, manage the jumps so that the landing does not slow you down and obviously avoid plunging into space.

The characterization of the slopes does not find much more comfort in the new setting, which in the end is limited to the background to the typical action of Trackmania, but there are some elements that make a little ‘turn up the nose: on the one hand the improbable “rebound” that our car makes when it touches the water, almost

like a pebble, and that is placed as an integral part of certain circuits based on aerial maneuvers; on the other, the presence of unpaved areas with small but annoying obstacles on which it often happens to get stuck, sections in which our car, accustomed to the precision of the asphalt,

will unjustly make us suffer. For the rest, there are also the laps of death with magnetic sections or less (and automatic passage to the first person view), the “stairways”, the long thrilling serpentines suspended in the air, the “obstacle courses” and a great abundance of ramps from which literally take flight.

IN COMPANY IT IS BETTER

If the gameplay and the philosophy of Trackmania 2: Lagoon appear unchanged, the package tries to innovate on the front of multiplayer modes through the addition of a new option: Chase

.This is a team mode in which the players must synchronize their maneuvers, since the last pilot who crosses the first checkpoint must be the first to overcome the next one and the others will have to wait for it. A feature that is added to the already present and tested Round, Team, Cup,

Laps and Time Attack, although only the latter presented lobbies populated during our tests, perhaps a sign of a certain shyness towards the news or the failure to give up to well-established practices. We’ll see if in the coming weeks it will be possible to observe a change of trend from this point of view, but as an initial impact, seeing the new mode completely snubbed was not pleasant, indeed.