Test Drive V-Rally

"So dissapointed..."

Intro: It all started at Best Buy. A $20 game that had what looked like Gran Trismo 3 graphics and according to the back of the case awesome real-time damage with great gameplay. So I took the chance once again with infogrames and was disappointed. Note that I had read a few reviews and they were all above 8.0. So were does the game flaw, lets look at the breakdown.

Graphics:8
The visuals of this racer are pretty good, but they have a few annoying flaws. The car models are excellent and highly detailed, especially when damaged. The car physics are awful. When you flip or crash it's like hitting a pillow, your car sinks into the solid force. That is ridiculous. The courses however are very stagnant. They use horrible 2D sprite designs for the trees and fences and anything in the background. The courses aren't very creative either. You'll find yourself driving over 80 tracks of frustrating turns and tedious straight aways. Nothing very inspiring . Also the framerate stays very constant, so no complaint with this.

Audio:8
The music in the game is very hard-rock with all the hard electric guitar sounds and drums but the music isn't adrenaline rushing and variety of the music tracks aren't great. The sound effects are very good, however a little off when collisions do occur. The voice overs are very annoying since the only voices you hear are the English guides that sit next to your character.

Gameplay:5
This is were the game limps. The tracks are very lame, long, and boring. The cars are very soft when it comes to crashes and the game restarts you before you even hit the ground. I like watching my car get obliterated but I can't in this. The opponent AI isn't great either. Their idea of AI is increased speed over yours even if your using the same vehicle. That isn't AI. AI is strategic thinking that the COM does to win over me. Vanishing Point is an excellent example. Test Drive:V-Rally doesn't. The menu screens are another problem that lives in the game. The font size is eye-straining small. You practically need a magnifying glass to see it. The variety of cars aren't that impressive either. I don't know about you but are 1970 model rally cars that special to you? Those shouldn't be bonuses. The different game modes are very stale and boring. The only positive thing I can really pick out is the well made track editor. I love developing tracks for my hunger of challenge, not impossible challenges. The control scheme is pretty good, not the best but good. I should call upon one last thing this game doesn't have a traditional 2-player head to head battle mode. You can do a 2-player time trial but you can't duke it out for first.

Difficulty:8
The game isn't hard to learn but is very difficult to master, especially when your opponent has some kind of invisible rocket pack attached to the back of the car. The tracks are very unfair at times and cane be extremely frustrating.

Replay Value:2
After beating the game once through, I didn't want to play it again. It wasn't a fun and enjoyable experience like I was expecting and there was no reason to play it again. Maybe if I get really board of PS2/GC I might come back but I doubt that will ever happen.

OVERALL:6
What more must I say. It disappointed me a lot and infogrames has fumbled again. End of story.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/02, Updated 02/08/02