If you came here for the spirit of discovery or if you don't know anything about motorcycle road racing, let us enlighten you. Run mainly in Ireland, this championship consists of a series of races which have the particularity of taking place on closed roads forming a circuit. Unlike MotoGP, the driving is therefore very tricky because the road surface is uneven, while the slightest departure from the road is absolutely prohibited because these races see the pilots rush at nearly 300 km/h on country roads and through small villages avoiding signs and sidewalks. Among these events, the best known are the North West 200, the Ulster Grand Prix and of course the most legendary of all: the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. Launched in 1907, this event takes place every year in June and in fact brings together 5 different races, plus an event reserved for sidecars and a race dedicated to electric motorcycles (the TT Zero). Most riders therefore take part in the five main categories which are Superbike (1000cc racing motorcycle), Superstock (prepared 1000cc series motorcycle), Senior (open to almost anything), Supersport (600cc) and Lightweight. (2 cylinders and 650cc max).
During this extremely dangerous event (225 deaths in 110 years), the pilots start one behind the other with an interval of 10 seconds, which actually makes it a time trial event. The great specificity of this race is its circuit, the Snaefel Mountain Course. It is a track of more than 60 km of which it is necessary to know each bump and each bend before being able to hope to win an event, the lap record being currently 16 minutes and 53.9 seconds, that is to say an average speed of 215 km/h. The good news here is that the developers at Kylotonn have worked very closely with many veteran pilots of the event, while the fact that this is an official game guarantees us a plethora of official content. From the menu, we realize that Isle of Man TT is going all out to seduce players with many reminders of the mythical race, like the loading icon which takes up the triskelion present on the flag of the Isle. The first disappointment is that the game is not so complete in terms of mounts, because the game currently only offers the Superbike and Supersport categories (sidecars are planned via an update), that's only 2 out of 5.
OLD BIKER THAN EVER
Fortunately, we find all the teams of the 2015 edition as well as the pilots with their equipment faithful to reality, while the motorcycles sport all the official liveries. You can therefore choose your mount from the offer of the largest manufacturers such as Honda, Kawasaki, BMW, Triumph, and even Norton. Only Suzuki is missing for an unexplained reason, so GSX-R enthusiasts will have to find their happiness elsewhere. Each motorcycle is superbly modeled, and we admit having spent a good time detailing each part of Ian Hutchinson's BMW S1000 RR as each bolt is present, while the textures are perfect, whether it is the rubber of the tire or carbon from the Akrapovic silencer. We can also embody all the greatest TT pilots with well-known names like John McGuiness, Bruce Anstey, Cameron Donald, Michael Dunlop, James Hillier, Connor Cummins and many others. The game resuming the stables of the 2015 edition, we also deplore the absence of Guy Martin who had skipped the event that year. The meticulousness is also required with regard to the modeling of the Snaefel Mountain Course since the 60Km of route have been entirely laser-scanned, while the developers have taken great care to reproduce the decorations with maximum precision so that we can have the same braking dens as in real life.
Released from the Mountain Course, the game also offers nine rather well-made imaginary circuits, some of which are even inspired by real events (the Triangle Raceway which resembles the layout on the North West 200), even if these are not as thrilling as the Mountain Course. The biggest surprise of the game, it is finally at the level of the gameplay that we find it. Indeed, while we expected lambda handling a bit like in the Ride series, Isle of Man TT probably offers us one of the most demanding experiences on the market. A real hyper-sharp simulation, the game clearly won't let you break records so easily. Mass transfers are well done, and the game's physics are particularly good. Here, there's no question of opening the throttle wide like a brute, otherwise you'll instantly go into reverse. We will have to measure each action, whether it is acceleration, braking or setting the angle. Indeed, the left stick controls the weight of the driver, and if the right-left is rather classic for turns, it will be necessary to couple these movements with the front and the rear depending on the wheel that you want to stress. . It will therefore be necessary to place its pilot in the micro-hair in order to be able to maintain the motorcycle riveted to the ground, while the many deformations of the ground add an additional challenge. Indeed, a bump quickly made us go wheeling, when we do not simply take off from the ground.
The biggest surprise of the game, it is finally at the level of the gameplay that we find it. Indeed, while we expected lambda handling a bit like in the Ride series, Isle of Man TT probably offers us one of the most demanding experiences on the market.
Do not panic for novices, a piloting assistance system remains in place and drastically reduces the difficulty. On the other hand, the pros will be able to opt for the manual gearbox and a minimum of electronic intervention, and thus face an extremely difficult challenge. As far as the program is concerned, the game offers us classic modes with single player races, a very classic multiplayer up to eight players and a career mode. The latter puts us in the shoes of a road racing driver who has to finance his season with his results. We will therefore have to carefully manage our budget and choose our racing schedule, while taking care to avoid falls, which blows up the maintenance budget of our machine. Without much interest, this mode has the advantage of gradually immersing us in the bath, while allowing to get used to piloting. Unfortunately, the AI proves to be quite disastrous during peloton races because it does not deviate one iota from the trajectory, and if it sometimes makes piloting errors, it is extremely aggressive, not hesitating to crash into often the player. Too bad, especially since some machines require a lot of skill before letting themselves be tamed, like the brutal Suter MMX 500 with its V4 2T. Like any 2-stroke engine, the engine is very hollow at low revs before becoming incredibly aggressive at the edge of the red zone, to the point of quickly causing the rear wheel to spin. The slightest contact is then fatal, and as the game is demanding, no rewind is available to catch up with the fall.
Finally, we must also mention the seductive technique of the game with quality graphics, despite some clipping problems, particularly on the vegetation in the distance. Nevertheless, there is nothing to hinder the immersion, especially when you go in cockpit view (in bubble view rather) through Sulby Straight and the light pierces the Manx bocage, creating a nice strobe effect. We also appreciated the various animations such as the backfires on the exhaust with a big yellow plume when downshifting and blue Bunsen burner cones when accelerating. Similarly, when the bike lays down too much, a nice shower of sparks will inform us that we have started to file the end of our footpegs. We take this opportunity to specify that we can choose to run at dawn, during the day, or in the evening in order to take advantage of different luminosities. No night racing is available, with Superbikes and Supersport having no headlights, while Manx country roads are unlit. The game does not offer weather either, the event being systematically canceled in case of rain. So logical.
