A giant sized scoop of monotony. Destined for the bargin bin.
I think that the extre development time had killed any chances of Juiced being competetive in the market. By the time that they have gotten it released, Need For Speed: Underground and Midnight Club III: DUB edition have been released, and they just make Juiced to seem inferior in every way.
This is the storyline: You are new to the street racing scene, and racer TK is offering you to race him in one of his cars for a wager, and you have to foot the bill for any damage. You race him, you win, you pay the Maaco bill, and you are on your own to buy your first car.
Now you have TONS of first cars to choose from. but unrealisticly, you can buy discontinued cars new, and buy cars that aren't sold in the USA. Though you can get a bargain by buying a salvaged car, you will mostly choose something like a used Civic, as it is one of the only 5 cars available at the start. Then you go racing. And thats it. There is no plot from there. This game is boring and forgettible because there is no real way of progressing in the game. Your goal is to get full respect from all of the team leaders. But respect grows so slowly that this is a monotonus process. The only thing that keeps you playing is that you can unlock cars and parts, but this is barely enough of a hook to keep you playing this boring game. But, after you unlock the best car, the Dodge Viper, this game just dies.
The games AI is so bad it is laughable, and has to be the dumbest AI I have ever esperianced in a game, period. The only AI that I can think of that is worse is the AI on Big Rigs, because ti doesn't do anything. The AI drive like they are drunk and high at the same time. They can't keep the car straight to save their asses, and are constantly swerving and crashing. This gets extremely frustrating in team races. Even if your driver's skill is at the max, they still drive like they are steering with their knees while they are on their cell phone and eating a Whopper at the same time. And when they crash, instead of basing out in teh road, ripping a 180 and getting back into the race, they just back up ten inches, drive into the wall again, back up, drive into the wall again, back up, drive into the wall again, and so on and so forth. eventually, they will get into the race, though they will be in dead last. While this is positive when the computer does it, it just frustrates you when one of your drivers does it. The driving charastics are real dumbed down too. Just so sum it up: This is no Gran Turismo. The rear wheel drive cars spin too easilly, and the cars drive in a point-and-shoot manner. The driving takes getting used to, as when you are new to this game, you will spinning out and crashing every turn. But once you get used to it, it will be REAL easy to comprehend. The only thing I advise you is to always, and I mean ALWAYS, ignore the cars braking guidelines. They are ALWAYS wrong. ALWAYS. They will be telling you to brake miles earlier than you need.
The Car customization is too shallow too. The box claims that it has a deep car customization engine, but this is a lie. The game's car customization barely scratches the surface compared to NFSU and DUB edition. In fact, you can only choose three body kits, a few wheels, limited colors, and just some crappy "flame" graphics. The AI also have no creativity at all also. Their cars often just consist of just their "team" paint job and rims, and a rear spoiler, adn thats it. There is no real variety in the cars you race. it is horrible. The car models aren't anything to write home about either. They are low in detail compared to NFSU and DUB edition, and their paint jobs look streaky and some areas look flat and unrealistic. Overall, Juiced is a big dissappointment, and is not worth your time or cash. Take the cash you had to buy juiced, and buy Need For Speed: Underground or Midnight Club III: DUB Edition. Both offer more exciting driving, both offer storylines, and both are addicting and fun games while juiced is a giant slab of monotony. Its sequal sounds like something competitive, so I believe that this franshise has potential. But for now, juiced is no more than a bargain bin special. Although it is good to kill time with, that gets old too. in fact, I haven't played my copy in about a year. And I have found something better to fill my time: My copies of Seinfeld seasons 3 and 4 on DVD.