Impressive, relaxing racing game
Positive
- 1000 miles of Hawaiian roads and highways
- A large amounts of races
- Lots of cars to buy and rent
- Great graphics and environments
- No loading throughout the island
Negative
- A large island with really nothing to do
- No car damage?
It was first released on the 360 on September 2007. Test Drive Unlimited is an open-world racing experience which is really entertaining and beautiful. Though it looks simply, Test Drive Unlimited can be loads of fun. There is no story but this island is worth exploring.
As Gamespot said there are over 1000 miles of Hawaiian roads and highways. Yes there are so many roads that take some very long time to cross them all. The design of the island is impressive. From a hugh island you should expect a good amount of races. And you guessed right. There are a very good number of races. These races include time challenges, races and others.
At first in the game you rent a car and after you win a race you will be able to buy your own. Renting a car is very worth it. Rent a powerful and fast car for just about 3,000 credits for 30 minutes, 30 really minutes. You can pay 6,000 for an hour. Great. Test Drive also lets some upgrades. What can be a great racing game without this? You won't find one shop which sells all the cars. You have to find the company to do so. For example Ford. You also need to buy a house and store your vehicles in. You can sell and buy new house throughout the game.
There seems to be some needing less driving, well sort of. Though this is somehow rewarding. When you're free roaming or driving anywhere, even in races, on the top left of your screen you should notice a bar which when driving increases. Get a good amount and you will be rewarded, a car. I suppose these are the master points, which are a good thing for exploration.
The graphics in the game are great, the whole island looks fantastic. There will be some cops around and will chase you if you either hit another car or do something illegal. Though they are not exciting, easy to evade. I only played the game a few hours but I don't think there is car damage, that's bad. Ok, the island is enormous but there isn't any engaging storyline or really reason to play it. Though the exploration is good. There isn't much to do on an island with only races, seems somehow wasted. But good thing that there are absolutely no loading times when driving through the island. Only loads before races or when entering shops, but very short load times.
There are soundtracks to be found. Some sort of music which is nothing special but fits the game. Voice acting is no where to be found except for the cops or the GPS or whatever it is, can be disabled which tells you directions and how much left to reach your destination.
After all Test Drive Unlimited is a beautiful and unique racing game. You should try online as well. I didn't write it because I'm not really interested in online, I'm just at the beginning. Though the game isn't so hard. Every racing game fan should give TDU a try, also those who are looking for a relaxing racing game with no trouble at all, Test Drive Unlimited should suite you well.