"Quite possibly the worst "street racing" game ever."

I'll start off by saying I've played just about every game in the "street racing" genre, from the original Midnight Club games, the first NFSU, all the way up to NFS Carbon.

I decided to try Street Racing Syndicate. The first thing I noticed was the lack of manufacturers. The only ones available are Lexus, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Volkswagen, Subaru, and Mazda. Either the developers couldn't get other manufacturers on board, couldn't program that many cars into the game, or are just plain pandering to the ricer crowd.

The second thing I noticed was the lack of any tuning. You cannot adjust anything on your car, suspension, nitrous, etc. You just throw parts at the car.

The worst part, however, is that no matter how much you upgrade your car, your opponents always seem to have cars just as good as yours, even if the pre-race report shows that they aren't. I started off with a '99 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T, as it had the most power of any of the available starter cars. After a few races, I had it up to 620 HP or so. For some reason, my opponents, who had cars in the 200 HP range, had no problem keeping up with my car. If you made a slight screw-up, your opponents would either pass you or be right on your tail. I don't know why they bothered with an upgrade system, because it doesn't seem to do anything to improve your car.

The graphics aren't bad, but something doesn't seem right. The cars are faithfully represented, but something about the scenery feels fake and almost cartoonish. The road always looks wet, like it had just rained about 3 seconds before you got to that point on the road.

The whole girlfriend thing is kind of weird too. The dialogue is straight out of a bad racing movie (The Fast and the Furious), or a bad porno. To meet one, you go to the point on the map, and complete a ridiculously easy challenge (most are checkpoint races that only go around the block a couple times). From that point on, the girl can ride along with you to races, where she acts as the flag girl. If you win a "crew meet", the girl gives some sexually suggestive dialogue, but not much else. Again, pandering to the young male ricer crowd.

All in all, this game is just a cheap copy of the NFS street racing series. Don't even bother renting it.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/04/07

Game Release: Street Racing Syndicate (US, 08/31/04)