Sega GT 2002

"A great racer that is worth taking a look at."

First of all I never played the first installment of SEGA GT on the Dreamcast, which is good because it won’t influence my review of this game the two games. Some people often compare this game with Gran Turismo 3 for the PS2, but I never played it so I won’t be comparing the two games.

I received my SEGA GT 2002 with the purchase of my X box. I sat sown and started playing this game right away and I was hooked. I really don’t play racing games that often, but I have already spent 30 hrs. on this game and I still enjoy this game and most likely will spend another 20 hrs on it because it is just that good.

Graphics: 10/10

The graphics in this game are outstanding. Everything from the cars to the environments looks great. The cars are very detailed and the lighting effects on the cars look good. The environments look detailed and gorgeous. The only thing that I have a problem with is that there isn’t any damage to the cars when they crash or they don’t flip over. The cars basically drive around the track like bumper cars, which is that they stay to the ground and bump off everything; the other cars or the wall. It also would have been nice if they added smoke roaring from engine when it was being pushed to hard or exhaust coming out of the muffler.

Story: NA

There isn’t really a story to SEGA GT 2002 because you just race and earn money, enough said.

Gameplay: 9/10

The gameplay is about average for a racing game. You race your car around on a track and try to win. Earning money is the key to all the races. If you place first you earn a lot of money and as you go on down the list you earn a little less money, but this is were the tricky part comes in to play. During the race there is a damage meter that tells you how much damage that your car has taken. The further that the meter drops the more damage the car takes and this can really hurt your pocket book. Everything that you bump brings the damage meter down a little and at the end of the race the total amount of damage that your car takes is subtracted by the total money that you make thus giving you less money for you hard earned race. When this game is first started you are given just a little amount of money to buy a car, and there are many cars that can be bought, it just depends on the amount of money that you have. At the beginning there aren’t many cars that you can afford, maybe two or three at the most, but you by one of these cars and use it in races, but you’re not going to when much with that car until you get it upgraded using the money that you make. It takes a couple of races and then you can get it upgraded, and then winning the race is a little bit easier. After you make so much money you can buy a better car and start upgrading it so you can make more money, and then buy another car, and so on and so on. It depends on the type of race it is that determines the amount of money that you win.

There are a lot of good game modes that you can enjoy. The official race is you go through the stages and take a driving test (which can be a pain) they were the hardest race that I played. There are four driving tests and each one you have to race around a course and try to lap it in the time they give you which means that the run must be almost perfect. Each time you do something wrong like hit the wall or go off the track they take away from a performance meter, and if the meter drops down all the way you fell. There is an event race that lets you race a track and earn money and the further that you go in official races the more money the event races are worth. There is a time attack mode and a mode that allows you to play against someone else and a Chronological race mode that lets you race cars from the past.

All the cars drive differently and that it depends on the kind of car you have, and there are a lot of cars and more become available when you beat curtain races within the official races. You can win cars and you can also try to sell the cars that you already have for about whatever amount that you think that it is worth.

I think that the controls are perfect for this game, which needs no improvements.

Sound: 10/10

I give sound a ten because of the ability of using your own soundtrack. This is one of the biggest reasons I like this game. The music and sounds that are on the game is mediocre, but it is nothing special that couldn’t be found in any other racing game. It also lets you change the music during gameplay, which is a nice feature.

Replayability: 6/10

This game is an addicting game that will take a while to master, and to get all of the cars unlocked. I am almost finished with the official races, but there is still more that I can do. I like the Varity of cars and think that trying to play a lot of them could be a good way to replay the game. As with most game once you see it all, there really isn’t much to go back for, and with only a small handful of tracks than I believe that you wouldn’t want to play this game through more than twice, but going back and trying to beat your best lap is fun for a little while. Personally I would want to try new racers after playing through this game.

Overall:

If it wasn’t for the gimmick of upgrading your car and earning money to buy new cars along with the graphics than I say that this game wouldn’t have lasted as long. The game falls short in the selection of tracks about 6 or 7 at the most, and some are just longer versions of the same track. The only reason that I got this game is because that it came bundled with the X Box, which who could pass up a free game. I’m glad that it did come bundled with the X Box because I would have overlooked this game otherwise since it is $50 to buy it separate.

Rent or buy:

Unless you buy the special X Box set than I would rent this game first. I wouldn’t want to hand over $50 for this game unless I really liked it, which I do, but I would have rather waited for the price to be dropped first to about $30 because there are other $50 dollar games that could be more fun to play than this game, which I really believe that its addictiveness is what makes it fun. Even if you like the genre I suggest that renting this game is the best approach to see for your self if you like this racer.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/02/03, Updated 02/02/03