Among the crowded racing game market, the MotoGP franchise stands as a unique competitor against other officially licensed titles like F1 and NASCAR Heat because while cars tend to handle similarly regardless of car type, a motorcycle race feels fundamentally different from many other racers. Aside from developer Milestone’s Ride series, MotoGP is one of the only and best motorcycle racing games on the market, and over time, Milestone has nailed many of the fundamental gameplay concepts required for this type of game to feel and act the ways you’d expect. As such, MotoGP 24 continues building on last year’s entry to the franchise with some new gameplay tweaks that lower the barrier to entry for new players, but the lack of any remarkable new content also makes it feel like it’s retreading old ground.

Having had the MotoGP license for over a decade, alongside having developed the aforementioned Ride franchise, Milestone has pinned down the core motorcycle racing gameplay at the core of MotoGP 24. For years, it has been a tight, satisfying racing structure that lets you achieve the highest highs of motorcycle racing while having to overcome the inevitable lows of crashing, taking turns too quickly, and ultimately losing races. MotoGP 24 keeps the foundation that has been set through years of tweaking and refining the gameplay, and broadly it feels very similar to past games. The name of the game, like in real-life MotoGP races, is balancing speed with precise turns, ensuring that you outpace your fellow racers on straightaways without losing any ground by taking sharp turns too quickly. This is a concept that has been the franchise’s strong suit for multiple years, and this year’s entry continues that strength.

"MotoGP 24 keeps the foundation that has been set through years of tweaking and refining the gameplay, and broadly it feels very similar to past games."

On the track, racing feels smooth and steady with some new tweaks primarily aimed at allowing players more freedom in how difficult they want their experience to be. You can immediately choose difficulty levels from Simplified all the way up to Pro, and these options have material effects on your requirements for success. A Simplified experience feels almost trivial if you’ve played the game before, as it controls much of your movement and automatically brakes as you approach turns, and as you move up the difficulty ladder, you receive less automatic help from the game, forcing you to accelerate, brake, and turn on your own. For a race that can be boiled down to just a few key pieces, it’s good to have this level of flexibility in how much control you truly have, and while seasoned players of past games will likely jump straight to higher difficulties, new players will more easily settle in with a bit more help.

On top of the difficulty options, a major new feature for this year’s entry is adaptive difficulty, a feature similar to Forza’s “Drivatars” that reads your riding style and dynamically changes how AI racers perform, both in their riding styles and their overall challenge level. While this is an interesting system, it isn’t as impactful as the game makes it seem. Playing through multiple seasons of the Career, the main single player mode, I never felt like the other racers were ever getting noticeably better, even after I started winning or placing in virtually every race. Once I nailed down some of the tenets of performing well in these races, like braking before turns and accelerating out of them, the game became consistently easier, and I expected the adaptive difficulty to play more of a role in my experience. With that said, it’s an intriguing addition that will likely be refined in coming entries, and I’m excited about how this feature could look in future years.

Outside of the races themselves, another area where the MotoGP series really shines is its presentation, and this year’s entry takes another step forward in that regard. Visually, the game is as beautiful as ever, with varied, photorealistic tracks and a wide range of factors that can affect races, like weather and time of day. Even when racing on the same track, racing on a bright, sunny day or a rainy evening can completely change both how the race looks and how it plays. Raindrops glimmer on the camera and the track, and it’s much more difficult to make a tight turn when it’s raining than when the track is clear. When the skies clear, the game literally shines, and the hyper-realistic textures, as well as the refined sound design, take center stage. For any MotoGP fan, it’s almost worth the price of entry alone to see the 20-plus tracks in all of their on-track glory.

"Raindrops glimmer on the camera and the track, and it’s much more difficult to make a tight turn when it’s raining than when the track is clear. When the skies clear, the game literally shines, and the hyper-realistic textures, as well as the refined sound design, take center stage. For any MotoGP fan, it’s almost worth the price of entry alone to see the 20-plus tracks in all of their on-track glory."

Unfortunately, the majority of the improvements to this year’s game don’t revolve around the game’s content, as the various modes are broadly consistent with past years. The aforementioned Career mode is the centerpiece here, and it feels very similar to other Career modes in past MotoGP games. You begin as a newcomer to the MotoGP scene and work to develop your bike and win races, championships, and ultimately, the season title. You can opt for the full season or a shortened season, but both consist of playing through the practice rounds, qualifying sessions, and the race at each track for each Grand Prix. If you’ve played a MotoGP Career in the past, you will feel right at home here. The biggest changes come off the track, as you can now impact your relationship with your teammates and rivals, as well as more realistically see transfer rumors between teams.

Overall, the Career mode feels like it has only incrementally changed. It’s nice to have some further detail in the off-track relationships, but it’s hard not to compare this with games like F1 or even NBA 2K and MLB The Show, all of which have had more depth in their Career modes over the years and frequently include actual stories surrounding your character. While you’re greeted in your debut season here with some special remarks about your youth and inexperience, over time the campaign becomes solely about racing, racing, and more racing. It’s a streamlined approach, but it’s no more than a glorified sequence of Grand Prix where I would’ve loved to see some more detail in the presentation.

The rest of the content is relatively limited as well. You can, of course, quick play any track or set up your own championship with any combination of tracks. The multiplayer has taken a step forward as well, as you can now play local splitscreen on top of the expected online races, an appreciated addition to bring back a beloved feature from racing games of the past. Otherwise, though, there’s very little that changes how you actually interact with the game; instead, it’s merely a handful of modes that bring you to the same challenge of simply winning races.

"MotoGP 24’s sareer mode is slightly improved with some off-track refinements, and the additions to the difficulty options."

MotoGP 24’s sareer mode is slightly improved with some off-track refinements, and the additions to the difficulty options make it an easier sell for newcomers to the franchise, but few other improvements mean this is a game that’s better for players who have been away from the franchise for a couple of years. Come for the racing and stay for the beautiful visuals, but don’t expect any major updates over previous games.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.