Test Drive Unlimited isn't as limited as it's predicessors - but is it a game that you'd want to buy? Read on...
Platform: Xbox360
Reviewer: Ian
Date: 19/03/09
The test drive series has been around for many years now and the latest in this series, test drive unlimited, marks the series' first outing on the next generation console market.
The basics of the game are fairly unchanged from the previous generation titles with the typical aim of the game being to complete a number of races and challenges which range from car delivery missions to down-to-basics racing. Winning races or completing certain challenges earns you money to spend on new cars or houses (garages to keep the cars in, each house has a set amount of space for cars so you'll need to buy enough houses to keep all those cars in). Other challenges, or missions, earn you tokens which you can spend on clothing and accessories – this allows you a mild amount of customization for your character which isn't really needed for the game but it's a good marketing tool for the clothing brands involved.
Set on the idyllic island of Oahu your given (relatively) free run of literally thousands of miles of roads where you can drive around as fast as you like with virtually no boundaries. However, if you do decide to slow down and do some 'Sunday Driving' you'll be able to admire the view of the island, the developers have clearly made a good effort to make the environment appealing for games, although it's not a hugely beautiful game to look at as the likes of Forza or Grid but this is a fairly early game after-all. There are a few frame rate issues that don't ruin the game play but they do let it down and will cause some nasty breaks in the graphics for brief periods, having said that, these are very few and far between.
Car enthusiasts are well altered for here with a vast selection of vehicles to choose from (around 90 for the initial retail release), all of which are rated by 'class' with 'G' being the worst and 'A' being the best, this is based on the performance statistics or, to quote a certain Jeremy Clarkson "POWER" of the vehicles. Each car (and bike of course) is very detailed, switch between the various camera views available and you'll be able to get a close up view on the vehicle, here you can admire the smallest details right down to the badges on the cars, although not photo-realistic they are still very appealing. Switch your camera view to the 'head-cam', the now common place view for every driving/racing game and you'll be able to view the interior of each car, you're even able to move your head around a slight amount to take a further peak at the passenger seat and the interior of the doors. Although many of the interiors don't look very 'polished' or well finished there are subtle touches that will make you smile such as the dashboard dials actually keeping real-time speed & revs or even the character of the game actually moving this right arm to change gear within the car, although not new to the genera it's surprising how few games actually include these small touches. This detail is also followed down to the bikes that are included within the game and you can even change the colors of your bike leathers and crash helmet by spending your hard earned tokens in clothing stores.
Although the cars you can buy, rent or test drive are fairly well designed from a graphical point of view the AI cars are the complete opposite and are a letdown in the game, they look a lot like the box like cars you'll find yourself staring at in a 32-bit game – this seems to be a typical oversight for game developers who ignore these small details, some would argue it's not how a game looks but how a game plays though.
That brings me onto the game play. Each car has specific handling characteristics with the American muscle cars feeling chunky and heavy to drive and the smaller, lightweight cars feeling much more agile and looser to drive. The vehicles in Test Drive Unlimited handle as you'd expect them to but your left wanting a little more realism at times. Take a Ferrari Enzo around a corner too quickly and you'd expect to find yourself spinning out of control and slapping yourself on the forehead for even assuming you could have made it yet you'll simply leave the road and hit a building or one of the AI cars, no 360 degree spin, no squealing of the tires, nothing that you'd really expect.
Something that should be raised as a fault in the game is the AI of the cars that act as the general public, the AI is quite dim-witted at the best of times. Part of the game consists of delivery missions where-by the object of the mission is to deliver a car from point a to point b without going off the road or hitting anything along the way, granted there is no time limit to this but the AI cars have a habit of turning into junctions as your driving past them or switching lanes so that they hit you which causes you to lose money for that mission as the game sees it as you hitting something. Fair enough you can just hit restart and start again but that's very frustrating when it's the third time on the mission that takes around 3-5mins at a time, it just makes the game frustrating and is something that spoils the realism the developers were aiming for. The AI acts typically selfish within races, trying to push you off the road, slam into you or spin you, which is fine, it's a typical way of making a game cheat to make it harder for the player to win but it is such a bias game in this respect that the frustration continues to mount as the AI cars are like 10ton weights against your feather like car.
Regardless of this the racing element of the game is fairly good but it's also very tiresome and the whole concept seems a bit thin. There are a lot of races within the game that span the majority of the island but there is no real change from one race to the next except the route you take. The side missions will probably keep you ammused more than the racing, one such mission involves giving supermodels lifts from one part of the island to another, if you get there within the time limit and without hitting anything you'll earn yourselves tokens to spend on clothes (Atari being ironic?). Yes it's an open world driving/racing game but it's lacking that 'WOW' factor.
The online play for the game has a lot to be desired though. There is the option to form your own club (or join an already active club) which allows you to invite friends along to join and use as a gaming lobby fro setting up races etc.. otherwise you can head to the online diners which allows you to enter time-trial like events where you can attempt to take on other players best times for set courses around Oahu. The final way of taking part in some online racing is by flashing your headlights at fellow online players but with the strange way the online servers work it is sometimes impossible to find another online competitor and really lets down, what could have been, a good way of meeting like minded people within the game.
Test Drive Unlimited is certainly worth picking up and playing but it hasn't really got the long term appeal of other racing games avaliable – having said that it will keep you hooked, if only to afford that dream car of yours!
Overall - 7/10
Graphics - 7/10
Game Play - 8/10
Online - 6/10
* The above review is based on the honest opinion of the author only.