Building off the successful installments of the past
while adding some new underground street-racing elements, Infogrames’ reborn
Test Drive is a solid and entertaining racer that offers some seriously fun,
arcade-style racing. The game’s solid engine allows for both day and night
racing through the streets of San Francisco, London and Tokyo. The title’s
above average graphics, solid controls make for an enjoyable experience. A good
selection of vehicles and some cool modes make this a solid package. The Laser
takes a spin and discovers if the newest Test Drive has what it takes to hang
with today’s biggest titles.
The long-running Test Drive series has been reborn once again after an extended
hiatus. This time, Infogrames has revamped the game almost entirely and given it
more of an edge seemingly taken from the movie The Fast and The Furious. It’s
not a bad effort, but Test Drive seems a little rushed and lacks the polish of
other Xbox racers. While in the past, the series has tried to be a simulator
with arcade elements, now this has changed to emphasize the action with the sim
elements and car-nerd aspect of the series nearly eliminated. Another major
change is that the "Test Drive" is a codeword of an elite, underground
street-racing adventure giving it a kind of "Fast and Furious"
atmosphere. This new approach works well and helps to establish that this is
going to be a wild ride, so don’t expect a dry driving simulator. While it’s
not entirely original, it is a lot of fun. The game has dozens of courses and
the action takes place in San Francisco, New York and Tokyo. Test Drive’s
overall feel is similar to Project Gotham Racing with a more arcade-style feel,
though it doesn’t have the same polish or realism as that impressive launch
title did. This is pure racing in a stripped down form which makes for an action
packed-racer. In addition to the rival drivers, players will also have to avoid
oncoming traffic, which makes things even more exciting. Several modes are
included in Test Drive, which allow you to play as either a street racer or even
as one of the cops where you can chase down the racers and arrest them. There is
also a navigation challenge offered, where you to follow the onscreen arrows on
the courses, which is trickier than it sounds because when you miss a turn, the
game automatically ends. However, the biggest new feature is the underground
mode where you are put in the center of the action, at the behest of a
mysterious English benefactor. This is pretty cool and gives Test Drive a
contemporary edge, without becoming excessively violent or dark.
Even
though the different play modes are seemingly standard on the surface, each race
has unique objectives, some of which aren’t as simple as they appear.
Basically, you race for position and have to reach each checkpoint before the
timer runs out. Along the way, there are ramps which have the dual benefit of
allowing you to jump ahead of opponents while gaining a few seconds of bonus
time. The courses can be difficult, with some sharp, unexpected turns. These can
be hard to anticipate especially the first few times, but none of them seem
excessively long or difficult, so they don’t dissuade you from replaying them
after failed attempts. The rival racers are fairly aggressive on the street, so
don’t expect to sit on a lead. You’ll have to battle for every position
fiercely but the good news is that the AI controlled players occasionally mess
up and smash into something, which is something you can easily use to you
advantage.
In the underground mode, there are 10 races in each city and once you meet the
requirements, you move on to the next one. However, in these levels you’ll
have to avoid the other cars, and the police. A collision with the police will
cost you time but there’s an onscreen radar detector, which helps to let you
anticipate where the police are. Another cool feature of the game is that it’s
not all street-to-street, standard racing. There are also some interesting Drag
Race sequences where you can battle head-to-head with another racer. This is
quite challenging because you have to you the manual transmission, which means
one wrong move seals your doom. However, once you get the hang of it, the drag
racing can be quite intense. The most singularly weird element of Test Drive isn’t
the actual game, but in its load screens. While it’s being published by
Infogrames, it’s been labeled as an Atari product, which apparently has become
that company’s brand label for its ‘extreme’ sports titles. This leads to
the oddity of being able to play Pong in between races. This just doesn’t seem
to fit the dark edge of the title at all. Since beating the computer apparently
has no effect at unlocking anything, playing the first electronic game between
rounds is disconcerting.
As you’d expect, Test Drive features a nice lineup of
tricked-out sports cars from the state-of-the-art
to vintage muscle cars to choose from. There’s a
decent selection at the beginning depending on which mode you choose but more
become available as you progress with 16 available in all. However, those
expecting a realistic simulation of these will be disappointed since Test Drive
takes a distinctly arcade approach. This means that the physics are exaggerated
with huge crashes, giant jumps and more. Luckily, the cars don’t show damage
which means you can mess up multiple times without fear. You can however,
upgrade your cars to increase performance but don’t expect anything too
detailed.
Test Drive controls well and takes good advantage
of the Xbox controller, with all operations easy to perform on either the
standard controller or the new smaller one, though as a racer, it benefits
immensely from the standard controller’s comfortable shift buttons. The
responsiveness of the vehicles is tight and responsive with cornering and
braking easy to perform, you can even perform the occasional power-slide if you
have enough skill. The course designs are decent enough with plenty of jumps and
turns to keep you challenged throughout. Crashes and getting turned around in
the wrong direction aren’t fatal because you can recover from them easily, and
this forgiving nature makes the game more enjoyable. From a graphics standpoint,
the game doesn’t take advantage of the console’s processing power, and it
definitely looks a little rough around the edges. There were some disappointing
technical flaws, such as occasional jaggies and some pop-up that made the fact
that this game is coming out on multiple consoles all the more apparent.
Additionally, the car models lacked in detail and paled in comparison to the
beautiful vehicle designs seen in other Xbox racers. A high-octane soundtrack
featuring aggressive hip-hop, metal and techno tracks set up an appropriately
underground feel to the title, but none of the songs were really that memorable.
The voice acting however, was another story entirely, with characters that
espoused cliché upon cliché and were really grating, especially the obnoxious
California surfer dude character. Developers should really come up with more
original characters one of these days.
While
there are some cool elements, there are also some bad moves mixed in, making
Test Drive a mixed bag that will appeal to some gamers but will also turn off
others. Its simplistic controls and exaggerated physics make for an enjoyable
arcade-style racer that won’t tax your patience. While Infogrames has not
aimed to make Test Drive the deepest racing experience ever made, the quick
learning curve allows you to jump right in. Test Drive’s attempts at catering
to the contemporary edge gamers want these days seems half-hearted and is more
annoying than anything else, more because it detracts from things. The graphics
are decent but you can’t help but to feel that you’re playing a quickie port
of a PS2 game, not something optimized for the Xbox. The multiple styles play
enhance the experience and make for a well-rounded package. Highlights, as
mentioned earlier, are the challenging drag race and police chase modes. The
deeper underground mode gives the game a little more depth, and increases the
replay value somewhat. Despite all these missteps, this is a solid game for what
it is, and if you don’t expect that much beyond simple racing, you’ll have
fun.
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