Vanishing Point

"A great game if you sink enough time into..."

Vanishing Point is Clockwork's attempt at an arcade racing game for the Dreamcast and Sony Playstation. The game certainly isn't groundbreaking by any means, but if you're anticipating a fun, challenging racing game with tolerances against a few annoyances and issues, Vanishing Point would be a fine title to add to your collection.

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Graphics - 8 out of 10
Vanishing Point clearly looks nice in the graphics department. The car models are superb in detail and the car's finishing casts off a great deal of reflection in the environment you're driving in. The game's multitude of tracks are a mixed bag, some tracks looks notably intricate and realistic, while others (most particularly the first cluster of initial tracks) appears muddy, dull, and lifeless. The game has an incredibly smooth framerate which doesn't seem to bog down whenever other cars are in your viewing zone or when you reach a complex area on a track.

Sound - 7 out of 10
The sound department is well done but it's not terribly interesting or unique. You have your generic and contemporary racing sounds such as the sound of your engine rumbling, wheels skidding, cars crashing, thrown in with some rather simplistic dings and alarms that the game uses in menus and between races. The musical scores aren't particularly memorable however they're aren't terrible, either.

Gameplay - 7.5 out of 10
Vanishing Point plays like any other arcade styled racers but has an interesting twist to it that separates it from the general mix. The game doesn't have any centralized car opponents, but rather the opponent is a predetermined time mark you have to beat. To eliminate the emptiness feeling of purely racing against the clock and the similarity to a time attack mode, Vanishing Point throws in a good degree of live traffic to up the challenge and provide some complexity to the gameplay.

The core of the game is centered around its tournament mode, where you select your desired car and settings and initiate in a three heats race, where each heat consists of two or three tracks with a gold, silver, and bronze reward. As you progress through tournament mode the races begins to ramp up in difficulty however more vehicles and tracks will be unlocked. Oddly enough, the introductory races in Vanishing Point are seemingly more difficult than some of the later races. This is primarily due to the game's two handling crippled vehicles, The Ford Mustang and the Ford Explorer, both of which will be the only vehicles you get to choose from when you start the game.

Controls - 7.0 out of 10
Controls in Vanishing Point although good, aren't perfect. The main issue lies in how hypersensitive the controls are and how simply easy it to skid and slid abruptly during a race. Luckily, the game features an unlockable Garage Mode which allows you to manually fine tune and tweak your desired vehicle, although this does not entirely save a vehicle's crapstaticular handling.

Replayability - 8.5 out of 10
The majority of the game's contents are locked in the beginning, requiring you to play through the game's tournament mode for quite awhile in order to unlock all the game's vehicles and tracks. In addition, as the tournament mode becomes intensively difficult and more challenging, you would be either retrying races or practicing very often. The addition of two player modes also ups replayability as you'll be able to race against a friend.

OVERALL - 8 out of 10 - GREAT

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/13/03, Updated 11/30/07

Game Release: Vanishing Point (US, 12/21/00)