Summary
Whether you're returning to MotoGP or this is your first time, you will not be disappointed with your experiences along the way. Milestone has done an amazing job and has brought me back into my love of the franchise.
Developer – Milestone S.r.l.
Publisher – Milestone S.r.l.
Platforms – PS4/5, Xbox One , Xbox Series S|X,Nintendo Switch , PC (Reviewed)
Review copy given by Publisher
Before we get into the main portion of this review, I want to explain my history with the MotoGP franchise. I was a big MotoGP enjoyer in the early-mid 2000s during the PS2/PS3 era and slowly shifted interest after. I will not be doing any comparison to the previously released MotoGP 2024, as I have not experienced it, so I will be forming my opinions solely on this entry as its own entity, not as an upgrade/downgrade from previously released titles.
It’s no question that previous MotoGP games are very difficult to master, considering the mass difficulty to control a racing bike is hard to translate to any type of controller. This time, they may have made it possible for newcomers to enjoy. From my experience, getting a motorcycle simulator-style experience is very difficult to control because you rely on feel more than anything. But I found myself with a bit of persistence getting better and better and even finding it not too challenging to run laps in, offering a very fatigue-free experience as a casual player. The controls were intuitive, and I did not find myself changing anything from default; everything felt very smooth and natural for a racing game experience.
It’s no secret that games built with Unreal Engine 5 are beautiful, and MotoGP is not any different from the others. It’s visually stunning; all of the tracks have very good atmosphere and feel alive. Every motorcycle looks, sounds, and feels different from one another, giving you a different yet similar experience regardless of the manufacturer you choose to ride with. The sounds are very deep and impressive, giving you a very immersive experience when riding in a pack of racers.
This year MotoGP has introduced a more arcade controlling experience for those who want to take baby steps into learning the tracks and improve their control before they jump into career mode. They also introduced the use of motards, mini bikes, and flat track racing with 4 dedicated maps for racing, branching out of the normal experience to offer a look into other avenues of motorcycle racing. I had a significant amount of fun racing the mini bikes; blasting through corners on 50cc bikes was a fresh, enjoyable experience to goof off after some real intense racing. Hopefully they lean into this more and give us more experiences and tracks like this.
I spent some time playing the career mode, not expecting too much out of it, but I was pleasantly surprised that it’s actually fairly fun and pretty competitive. You get to choose between Moto 2, Moto 3, and MotoGP classes, allowing you to shape your experience to your liking. After you finish your race, you spend time with your tech engineers, giving you the opportunity to adjust the feeling and specs of your bike and how it feels, which feels like a more intuitive and well-designed feature instead of any skill tree type of system.
A big part of racing games all boils down to the AI experience you receive. Good AI means you have fair, close racing that gives you a real challenge, but dealing with bad AI is a nightmare. My experience with this year’s AI is fairly mixed; race starts seem to be a cluster of bad driving, especially heading into the first turn, leaving you playing motorcycle bumper cars in some cases. Find yourself ahead of the pack by a good distance? Don’t worry; the AI tends to rubberband a bit, which can be a bit annoying because in some of my races they drive aggressively and run into the back of me, forcing me to wreck. Not all AI experiences are bad; however, you can have a good and difficult race depending on your settings, giving you the challenge that you may actually need to battle hard to maintain or overtake a place.
The overall performance of MotoGP 25 was very enjoyable; I was playing maxed out on my 1440p monitor well over 100 fps without any hiccups or issues. Honestly, one of the more optimized Unreal 5 experiences I’ve had, although it’s still not perfect. Lower-end PCs should be able to handle an enjoyable feeling and looking experience without too much loss, of course depending on how old your computer may be.
Hopefully they fix some of the small bugs and random crashes you may experience in the early stages, that being one of the main downfalls but also subject to change. As mentioned before, the AI is my other real downside. I hope they adjust the behavior with updates so the experience can be more consistent, especially with how aggressive the AI can tend to be. Of course your mileage may vary here, depending on if they update and change anything before you purchase your very own copy of MotoGP 25.
The MotoGP series has a large history starting all the way back to the year 2000 and still gives dedicated enthusiasts a well-rounded experience, including paving a path for those who are new with their new assists. I look forward to seeing hopefully more updates in the future to push the experience even further. Whether you’re returning to MotoGP or this is your first time, you will not be disappointed with your experiences along the way. Milestone has done an amazing job and has brought me back into my love of the franchise.
