If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, by rights there should be a considerable number of employees at EA Canada blushing with modesty. Pure is hugely derivative of seminal trick snowboarding game SSX and its increasingly gravity-defying sequels, and while this lack of innovation means that ultimately Black Rock Studio’s title will never be held in such high regard, its strict adherence to the formula has not gone unrewarded. The pleasure of launching into a panoramic, dolly-zoomed abyss and triggering an implausible series of aerial gymnastics is as primal a thrill as it ever was, and that’s no doubt the purity to which the title refers.

For all its inherited unreality, though, there’s a pervasive feeling that Pure lacks adventure. The circuits are neatly sculpted, altitudinous and objectively stunning, the camera swoops with dramatic urgency and lashings of motion blur, but the overall style and presentation hovers nervously behind the established extreme sports aesthetic – rather than the stark caricatures you’d expect to see hurling themselves off mountains of this size, the cast is a dishearteningly bland collection of baggy-trousered clones.

In its mechanics, Pure is extremely competent. An extensive career mode, accessible handling and a no doubt anarchic 16-player online offering make this a realistic threat to MotorStorm’s subgenre dominance. While there’s inevitable repetition throughout a full campaign, there is a remarkable number of different locales distributed across the calendar, all of which are worth working toward simply to absorb the next example of graphical excess. The tiered trick system and boost management will also require some sustained attention – to describe it as sophisticated would be a reach, but balancing the risk and reward of the increasingly elaborate tricks adds a pleasing tactical layer to the otherwise knockabout racing.

Pure is a technically capable and viscerally engaging pastiche of EA Sports Big’s glory days, but some will question what it could have become had Black Rock displayed the courage to completely abandon reality. Perhaps it would have felt no less second hand in its successes, but healing the underlying thematic disconnect might have removed those niggling impurities that remain.

7/10