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| Difficulty: 3 | Learning Curve: 4 | Published by: sjohn | Date: 2006-09-27 |
| Gameplay | | 8
| Graphics | | 7
| Sound | | 9
| Value | | 8
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Written by Josh Lowensohn
One of the difficult parts of reviewing a game is finding the right time to step back and stop playing it. With bad games this is usually easy, as the thought of playing it any longer is nearly unbearable. For good games, it’s simply a matter of the approaching deadlines that requires turning off the machine. Eden Games’ Test Drive: Unlimited (TDU) has been one of those titles that’s pulled me in instantly and not let go. I’m a sucker for RPGs and a marginal fan of racing games, and somehow TDU has mixed these two aspects very well. Flaws aside, TDU is a step in the right direction for racing games and will appeal to even casual racing fans with its innovative premise.
Mmm real-time reflections
TDU drops you right into the action, letting you pick your character and quickly select a vehicle from the airport car rental. A small bit of cash will give you that car for a limited amount of time, allowing you to get to the real estate agent and buy a house to get your virtual life started. This is an easy process at first, since you begin the game with $200,000 which should let you buy a house and an F-class car to get around in. Real estate offices are scattered throughout the island and offer you different properties that have varying garage capacities and convenience by location. Getting some of the really great ones is an expensive affair and obviously can’t be done until you’re a seasoned vet.
TDU is a great car game in the sense that you’re almost instantly in control of a vehicle and remain that way for the entire experience. Load times are pretty much non-existent and you can drive all over the island without any interruption whatsoever. Right away you’re introduced to the game’s GPS system, voiced by the female voice actor Eden Games has used for nearly all the games’ women. This is just a small caveat, but with this game’s budget, there’s no excuse for not having more variety in the voice acting dept. The GPS is quite helpful and can be programmed to create a route anywhere you choose to go on the island’s map. You’re provided with directional arrows along with voice cues telling you how far your destination is and giving you a few seconds before you’re supposed to take the turn. The system isn’t entirely intelligent however (mostly since it follows the conventions of reality) often times forcing you to travel the correct way on one way streets and not cut through forested areas and dividers. Luckily you can keep a close eye on the GPS route in the mini map, which traces your path in a small green line. Often times I found myself just cutting through areas and shaving miles off my trip.
Cars are divided up by performance and categorized into groups from A to G. A class cars are obviously the most expensive, and usually unobtainable early on in the game as accumulating $500,000+ doesn’t happen without some work. Opportunities to net cash are littered across the island and are given corresponding icons for races, timed runs, multiplayer challenges, and my personal favorite—deliveries. While racing around is fun and all, some of the quickest money you can get comes by delivering things for people. Deliveries are split up into two categories, packages and vehicles. While delivering packages, you must lay low and not attract attention to yourself. That means not hitting other cars and getting to the destination within the often short time limit. The other courier task you can do is returning cars to their rental officers. Doing this is both rewarding and frustrating as you are docked in reward money everytime you go off the road or damage the vehicle. This wouldn’t normally be a problem, however these return missions cover large distances and you must deal with considerable traffic on the way. Driving on the opposite side of the road is often the quickest way to deal with this traffic, but lends itself quite handily to getting into costly head on collisions or getting run off the road. Getting the cars there completely unscathed nets you a perfect score, and often a generous bonus which is usually about a third of the total reward.
What to do with all this money you ask? Well, your funds are often allocated to purchasing vehicles in the island’s multitude of showrooms. You’ll find pretty much nothing but super cars in manufacturer’s showrooms, but there are also variety showrooms in every main city that provide you with an ever-changing supply of classic and exotic cars. When you run out of room for your purchases, you’ve got to make sure you’ve budgeted for a new dwelling to increase that necessary garage space. You’ll notice right away you can’t immediately access the motorcycle showrooms until you’ve “discovered” all the automotive showrooms first. This takes a little bit of time, but if you make a concerted effort to drive all the way around the outside of the island, you’ll unlock them. Upon purchasing or test driving a motorcycle you’ll find out why they keep you from using one right away—these things rock. Like in real life, they’re much cheaper than cars and pack a mean punch when it comes to top speed and acceleration. In one of my first impromptu races with another player, I made the mistake of going up against an A-class Kawasaki Ninja in my B-class Ferrari. While you’d think it would be a pretty close match, I got absolutely obliterated on the straight-aways.
Multiplayer in action
Speaking of which, the multiplayer element in TDU is done in a really cool way. Other players in your “area” of the island show up as names with distances. These are other players driving around, and once you’re close you can talk with them, give them some playful bumping or even challenge them to a race. Doing to lets the person who is challenged pick the route using a fairly versatile menu that comes up, zooming out the map and letting you pick the finish marker from where the challenge was issued. You can set the stake of the race, adding to the potential payout for the winner. If you’ve downloaded the demos off XBOX Live Marketplace, you can have a go at this without having to purchase the game. It’s a nice little touch and gives the game a feeling of life and freshness every time you come into a new town. It’s also cool to ease drop on other player’s conversations. Keeping the game paused while checking my e-mail one evening, strange voices cut in:
Random 1: Hey dude, what’s up?
Random 2: Not much, just got a paint job…
Random 1: Oh wow, that looks awesome!
Random 2: Yeah, I’m gonna go do that 1 mil race again, I need some more garage space.
Random 1: Cool, I need a faster car.
Friendliness aside, the multiplayer system is somewhat flawed. It’s not easy to get into races with other people if they’re not in the same location. I often found myself getting to the yellow multiplayer race starting points on my own and attempting to start the race only to be told that nobody was doing that race right now. You can host the race, but then you have to either invite players to it or hope somebody comes along to go against you. Because of my lack of experience I often found myself getting booted out of game lobbies I got into with no warning or explanation. While it’s a cool concept to move away from boring menu-driven match-up screens, relying on random people to be around is just a pain.
The races themselves are the standard fare—usually a mix of either laps or distance races that vary from scenic to contained loops. Often times, you must have a certain class of car to compete in these races, so importance is placed on having the right kind of vehicle for the job. Luckily, if you enter a race with the wrong type of car, you have the option to select on of the cars you own to use it instantly. After the race, you’ll still be in that car, which is realistic but often annoying if you’re competing in the lower-class races. A.I. opponents can be devilishly good in the higher classes, but even early on, having a junky car means you have to outsmart the machines and be smart about the race. Luckily, if you totally botch a race you can retry it or just keep the money and compete again, attempting to place higher. Re-starting the race is speedy, and the option to do so is really great in some of the more frustrating match ups. This is just a little thing, but to me nothing is more irritating than long load times before a race and Eden Games has done a great job at minimizing them almost completely.
You will quickly find it’s important to maintain your fleet of vehicles. This can be done by selling some of the earlier cars you’ve purchased or tuning them to improve their specs. You can also purchase custom cars, which can be pricey but have really great specs. The level of individuality is great, and unlike say something like Project Gotham Racing 3, you’re not going to see an island full of people racing red Ferrari F50 GT’s. There is a tuning shop for each make of vehicle scattered around the map, and visiting these places will give you access to upgrade kits. Tuning motorcycles can be quite enjoyable, as you can bump your weakest specs near the max and improve the little things like handling and acceleration. A tuned A-class vehicle is even more fun, pushing the top speeds to unbelievable levels, often sending you way off the road if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are also paint shops where you can customize your ride. These must also be unlocked, but are well worth it if you get tired of the sonic yellow you chose at the dealer.
Once you’ve got your dream machine, you’re going to need some music to set the mood as you drive up the massive coastlines or go head-to-head. TDU features a variety of radio stations that are controlled with the d-pad. While it’s not intuitive, it gets the job done, although I would have preferred to see them implement some GUI similar to Project Gotham 3’s because TDU’s scrolling text doesn’t work when you’re station hopping at 180 MPH. Like a good XBOX 360 game should, TDU integrates custom soundtracks as their own radio station, and track names pop up at the beginning of every new song. The same menu that controls the music also controls your window position (which is fairly useless, but a nice touch of realism), GPS and nearby players.
Graphically TDU is a mixed bag. While the draw distance and car models are fantastic, there’s still a ton of jaggies on nearly everything. The environment is a huge and lush locale, however nearly everything looks the same. For a place known for its beaches, Oahu’s beaches look nearly barren with no realistic sand or surf. Would it really have been that tough to put some kelp in there for good measure? Character models are all eerily similar, and movement is completely unnatural. There’s also no option to create your own character by body type and face, which is definitely a disappointment. However, this only matters so much since at it’s core, this game is about the cars and that’s where a great deal of attention has been spent. Vehicles offer a variety of views, the most exciting being the driver’s view. Each interior is very well detailed and changes the sound experience completely. There’s also a “hood” view, which gives you the point of view of a bug stuck on your windshield.
Sound in Test Drive is spot on. Like previously mentioned, the included soundtrack and radio system aren’t necessarily bad, they just get old fast. Sound effects however are just fantastic. If you were missing the powerful sounds of your favorite cars in Project Gotham 3 or Ridge Racer 6, be prepared to get a full-on automobile-auditory-experience. Engines sound great and the screech of tires and whooshing of nearby cars or objects is thrilling. Instead of getting drowned out by music or other sound effects, the engines take over (as they should) and let you know full well how nice your car is. High performance A-class cars and old muscle cars are really a treat for your ears.
Final Verdict:
A few issues aside, TDU is a really solid title and a great new way to enjoy racing games. Gone are the tedious environments where you feel like you’re on rails (because you were) and welcome to a place where you can race the way you would if this was the “real world.” It makes sense to cut through parking lots or center dividers to shave off some time, and frankly who wouldn’t drive through the woods when you’re getting chased by police in a $700,000 sports car? TDU offers a lot to be done and the promise of future content, and at $39.99, it’s not breaking the bank. If you haven’t seen this game, or want to get a taste of it, do download the demo off XBOX Live Marketplace, as it gives you an hour to bum around one of the cities and try out some of the challenges. You also get to try out the motorcycles, which are a ton of fun. Recommended to casual racing gamers and hardcore enthusiasts alike, don’t miss this one.
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