What you've got here is a fairly well-paced, but fairly unadventurous racing game. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with it - aside from the rather pointless damage system - but in an era of video gaming where the processing power is increasing exponentially, and everyone expects just that little bit more from their games, for a racer to really do well it needs to do something to distinguish itself from the competition.
The Burnout series has its crashes, the Gran Turismo guys have their quite scary, attention to detail, Need For Speed has police chases... Off Road has cars that look like Land Rovers and Fords, but don't actually behave like the real thing, some inoffensive gameplay, and not much else. It does have a budget price tag though, so it's worth a look if you don't set your expectations too high and just want a simple, easy-to-get-into racer to keep you occupied while you wait for something better to come along.
Mygamer writes: "Most racing games are based on the diversity of tracks, depth of gameplay, and the amount of cars that can be chosen from for any given race. Ford Racing doesn't have this problem, mainly because it only has vehicles made by Ford, also because said vehicles are only the ones recommended for Off-Road driving. Added on the top of this problem are many others that make Ford: Racing: Off-Road never really jell as an experience.
The lack of a diverse amount of cars can cripple any racing game. So when Ford's game only has a small handful of selectable cars, less in total than many racing games have to start, it makes this (at best) middle of the road racing game fall flat. Instead of finding interesting ways around the lack of cars currently produced for Off-Road action, like going back through the vaults and using the company's impressive backlog, or pulling out zany future concept cars, Ford simply puts forward what it currently has."
Ever wanted to race those big old 4x4s? No probably not, but Ford and Land Rover obviously want to big up their brand names, and a good way to do that is to show how cool their cars are in a video game. Eighteen vehicles are at your command over desert, water and ice environments.
With $10,000 in the bank, you must first enter the showroom to choose from one of four vehicles. The rest of the cars are unlocked depending on how well you race and how much money you win. Once you've picked your Ranger, Bronco, Defender or Escape, you are given no less than five (yes, five) modes of play.
GI.net: "I am not a big fan of racing games. Sure, just like everyone else, I do enjoy them from time to time. And if you forced me to choose my favorite racing game of all time, that game would not be Mario Kart. This is not to say that I have not greatly enjoyed the series, but the high honor of my being my favorite goes to F-Zero on the Super Nintendo. I remember the first time playing it, being blown away at the graphics, the tight controls and, of course, the major almost overwhelming sense of speed. It was awesome. The racing game sent to me this time is Strategy First's Ford Racing: Off Road for the PC. So, is the game worth your time? My response is highly mixed but ultimately falls into the not-so-much category.
Installation of the game was rather painless as it quickly installed itself onto my computer. No crazed crashes or difficulty. And as an added bonus, the disc is not needed to play. However, the game does not come with a hard-copy manual. Instead, it is on the CD itself. For the record, while I do not hold that fact against this game, if a game comes in a box, there should be a hard copy of the manual - since it is not a downloaded game from the Internet. Or at the very least, it should include a quick sheet of controls."
