Project Gotham Racing

"Big, bold, brilliant and on budget. Buy!"

Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast was a unique concept in racing- as the adverts said ''It's not about how fast you drive, it's about how you drive fast!'' Gimmicky propaganda aside, MSR had some serious flaws. Have these been ironed out for its Xbox sequel?

Graphics: 9/10
Stunning. Gotham is one of the most detailed racing games ever seen, and even more incredible is that this was an Xbox launch title. The cars have a high level of detail, right down to your driver's head inside, tilting with the force of each turn. The environments they drive around are realistically modelled cities (think The Getaway on PS2, only in a good game.) and could nearly pass for the real thing. My only criticism is that they are a little bland at times, just like real life. One of the things that sets Gotham apart from other racers is that the cars have real reflections on their surfaces. Unlike Gran Turismo, where the reflections are over-the-top and unrealistic, here you can actually see the backgrounds reflected in the cars. It looks great, and can only be done on Xbox (or so Microsoft would have us believe.) Whether it can be done on other consoles or not is a matter for debate, but it looks fantastic in Xbox. The whole game runs at a blistering 60 frames per second, with no slowdown whatsoever. Gotham is a prime example of how next-generation games should look.

Sound: 7/10
One good thing about MSR was its superb soundtrack, thanks mainly to Sega sound guru Richard Jacques. For Gotham, Microsoft have enlisted the help of famous artists such as The Chemical Brothers, Saliva, Sir Mixalot and many more. The end result is a mixed bag, in which at least some of the songs will appeal to everyone, but the rest don't. Thankfully, there is an option to load your own music straight from the Xbox hard drive. There's nothing like racing around cities to your favourite CDs! 
Sound effects are standard racing game fare, although the cars do sound like real cars and not the lawnmower-style noises that plague inferior games.

Gameplay: 8/10
There's something about racing games that just screams 'boredom.' At the end of the day, you end up driving a car around a track with only two possible ways it will turn, and there is little or no variation in the gameplay. More cars and more tracks can stave off the boredom, but only for so long. Thankfully Gotham is a fundamentally different game, which is what sets it apart from other racing games.

Instead of the usual 'get car, win race, get bigger car, rinse, repeat' cycle of racing games, Gotham revolves around the idea of Kudos. Kudos is respect, or in game terms, points earned for being cool. You earn Kudos by doing well in races, and driving stylishly. Skidding around the track and driving around on two wheels will earn more Kudos, but bouncing around the track like you're driving a souped-up dodgem makes you look like a fool and your Kudos score will reflect this.

What makes Gotham different is that Kudos is essential to completing the game. You will encounter a series of challenges, like standard races, one-on-one races, speed and style challenges and so on. Depending on how well you do, you earn Kudos which unlocks extra cars and levels. You can make the challenges harder to increase the rewards, or lower them if you're crap. This Kudos Challenge makes up the main game and is consistently entertaining as no two challenges are the same.

To add to the feel of real street racing, Gotham features four accurately modelled cities- Tokyo, San Francisco, London and New York. These cities are divided into three unique areas. For example, you can drive through San Francisco's Pacific Heights (scene of many a classic car chase) or London's Trafalgar. Even if you don't live in these cities you can still recognize famous monuments in them. The attention to detail is incredible, right down to the rails, telephone wires and curbstones on the pavement. Of course, you won't notice these much when you're whizzing past at 120 miles per hour.

What would a racing game be without cars? Gotham has some of the most desirable sports cars around. From the Ferrari F50 to the Nissan Skyline and Opel Speedster (aka the Vauxhall VX220) they are all very expensive and very fast. Unfortunately, some of the cars' handling is a little suspect. Most have great handling- it feels realistic without being sadistic, unlike the Dreamcast's Ferrari 355 Challenge. A couple are nigh-uncontrollable and skid all over the place like a turd down an oily slide. Luckily the garage from MSR has been abandoned, and you can pick whatever car you want.

In gameplay terms, Gotham is everything MSR should have been. The handling is much improved. The Kudos system is about as good as it will ever get (until Gotham 2 that is) now that the awful 'negative Kudos' has been removed. The Kudos Challenge is a lot more fair.

One of the features I found particularly nice was that if you don't want to plough through the main Kudos Challenge, you can opt for a Quick Race against the computer or an 'Arcade Race' which involves getting as many Kudos as you can in the time limit. What makes these good is that you can unlock extra cars and circuits, so there is actually a point to playing them. Plus any Kudos you earn is added to the grand total and helps to hold the whole game together.

One aspect I haven't touched on is the computer AI. Gotham's is among the finest yet seen in a racing game- the computer will barge past you in an attempt to win the race, not sticking to linear patterns. The only drawback to this is that races can be over for you quickly if just plough into the computer cars, because they can recover from spins a lot faster from you. The AI, and the game in general, is challenging without being unfair. No task in the game ever feels impossible.

Multiplayer options are a little thin on the ground- up to 4 players can race for either the traditional 'first past the finish line' victory, or a battle for the most Kudos. Of course you can race on any course you like. Although the options are limited, the actual racing is as good as the main game and playing 'Winner Stays On' is highly addictive. Gotham's single player game is good enough not to need a multiplayer mode, but it wouldn't be the same without challenging your friends. You can always compare Kudos totals too, to prove once and for all who is the coolest driver. (Lord Alan will not take any responsibility for people who re-enact this in real life.)

Lastability 9/10
Dozens of tracks and several game modes to play your way through. Add the ability to replay challenges to get more Kudos and you have a racing game that could last a lifetime. That's not even counting the great multiplayer modes. It's hard too- because you can't just drive as fast as you can, Gotham requires more skill than racing games of a similar ilk and because of this requires a bit of patience to get the most out of it. The learning curve is quite steep too, which is worth taking into consideration.

Overall
MSR was a collection of great ideas waiting for a game to be in- Project Gotham is that game. It is big, tough and utterly brilliant, and definitely worth a place in anyone's games collection, especially now that it's out on budget. Or you could wait for Gotham 2, which will have online play over Xbox Live too!

87%

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/03, Updated 04/27/03