Monster Jam Showdown : Review
Monster Jam Showdown marks the first entry in the legendary monster truck series since Steel Titans 2, which was released back in 2021.
First of all - Showdown looks phenomenal. Milestone have really embraced the performance capabilities of the Playstation 5.
I have played for over twenty hours, and haven’t seen even a hint of a frame rate drop, even with multiple trucks, dynamic lighting and weather all happening at once, so a big pat on the back to the developers there!
The terrain deformation, truck damage and weather all look great - I was getting big Motorstorm vibes from the racing, which is definitely a good thing!
There are forty officially licensed trucks in the game to unlock, ranging from the ones you’d expect - Grave Digger, El Toro Loco & Megalodon et al - but, happily Milestone have included independent trucks such as Bad Company, and the latest version of 1980’s legend Excaliber.
A lot of the trucks also have multiple liveries (think along the lines of Monster Jam’s ‘Fire & Ice’ series) that can be unlocked by completing various challenges and races throughout the game.
There are set to be more trucks to come in upcoming DLC drops, so I am pretty interested to see what behemoths land in the game next!
Monster Jam Showdown takes a non-linear approach to the campaign mode; although unlike its predecessor, it is not an open world game.
I know some fans will be disappointed with this, but for me it’s no big deal really, as the different game modes make up for it.
I’m sure that Milestone could implement an open world feature in the future, as I have to admit - blasting around an open-world Alaska in a five-ton truck does sound like a blast.
Speaking of game modes, we are spoiled for choice. You have the standard circuit racing, head-to-head races, showdown events, classic Monster Jam freestyle events and much more.
My favourite has to be the circuit racing though, there is a sense of achievement when you manage to sling one of these monsters into a long drift, and come out of it on all four wheels!
The main ‘campaign’ took me around ten hours to complete - although currently sitting on twenty ish hours, I still have a lot to do - think along the lines of unlocking all liveries, special ‘emblems’ for completing certain tasks etc - so the replayablility is definitely there, I reckon I’ll need another ten hours to 100% the game.
My go-to settings were ‘hard’ AI difficulty, manual transmission with all assists off - I just can’t shake my sim racing background!
Thankfully though, if you have young children as I do, there is a ‘101 mode’ assist setting. This basically drives the truck around the track itself, auto accelerating and braking the vehicles, and helping the user with corners. My four year old loved this, and kept him entertained for more hours than I care to admit to.
I have had a little dabble in the online mode, although I have to admit I haven’t played many races - it has only just been released so most of my gameplay was pre-launch, but I have had no issues with connections, lag or anything you might expect from a new game.
Whilst the selection of trucks is impressive, I still feel that there is something missing from the Monster Jam video game series - truck customisation!
I think that it would be awesome to create and name your own truck, and I’m sure that this is something that Milestone could implement, given the excellent livery editor that they are responsible for in Hot Wheels Unleashed 2! Fingers crossed that we will see this added in a future update.
Another thing that has been dropped from the previous games is damage. Now, the superficial damage looks absolutely fantastic, with fibreglass body shells being cracked and smashed realistically, and scratches appearing consistently on areas of the trucks.
However, I have yet to see wheels coming off and engines being damaged. I’m not sure if this is an oversight on the developers part, but I feel that this is sorely missed!
Another feature that is missing is the interior view of the trucks - as a sim racer, this is usually my go-to view, and I am somewhat surprised that this has been dropped in favour of a hood-view, although I do understand the potential reasoning - I’m probably in a tiny minority that used that view!
Anyway, aside from these very personal niggles, I believe that Monster Jam Showdown is the strongest entry in the series so far, and I am excited to see what the developers come up with next!
Overkill Score - 8/10
Adam reviewed this on the Playstation 5 in August 2024.
Buy it from Amazon by clicking here!
