Street Racing Syndicate

"This game is just bad.. Please Just pass on it."

Lately game companies been pumping out racing games like there is no tomorrow. I wish they would just take the time to make them good. This seems to borrow heavily off of The Fast And The Furious, which by all means if you like that type of scene then you will love this game.

Graphics:(1) There is nothing special about the graphics at all. I swear, Need For Speed Underground and this game are identical twins. This game pulls off the same wet look as NFSU. The road details are horrible. For example it looks like the road is moving and not that car, this is something I despise in games. Traffic on the road is badly detailed, the models on the cop cars look just like regular skins, for example if you ever played Rainbow Six Three, you would have seen the type of models they used for RS3 cars are basically the same models for cop cars in this game. The only thing I can say is, it's pretty detailed in the dealership. If you are looking for a heavily graphic racer just wait for Forza.

Sound:(1) This made me laugh a bit. Cars sound like lawn mowers, I really wish all game developers took the time to get each car sounds correct. It got to the point where the car was so annoying to listen to I just shut the sound off. The music in this game is terrible, this is something that also makes or breaks a game. I don't even know if the artist in the game, actually are licensed or not, the soundtrack consist of rap,punk and techno none of it is catchy you will find yourself just playing the game with no sound at all. I would also like to mention that there are no custom soundtracks I guess namco was lazy and decided to rush the game with horrible music and sloppy car sounds. Hopefully if they do make another one they will implement custom soundtracks.

Gameplay:(2) The controlling is ok, I've seen better and I've seen worse. Cars handle relatively well. The cars are very controllable at high speeds. Braking is pretty realistically done. There are a couple of camera views including hood view which is pretty good feature, not to many racers include hood view. The only thing I wish they would have put in is in car view, it would have made the game perfect, in the sense of camera views. Customizing your car isn't really in depth, you go to the warehouse purchase parts such as intercoolers,turbos,brakes,tires,body kits etc. This game is based off who has the fastest car. Same with online play, everyone is going to have a Skyline and you will only be racing Skylines. Which in turn this game is going to be very boring online. Pink slip races people try to crash into you, so that's just the equivalent of stealing some ones cars. Game becomes very repetitive, race race race buy faster car and race race race again rinse and repeat. This game brings nothing new to the racing formula at all.

Replay:(1) There isn't any replay at all, unless you want to spend all the time you spent doing it the first time around. Then I guess you could call that replay, there isn't anything special you get, it's by far the worst waste of time. There isn't really much to say. I'll put it plain and simple. NO REPLAY!

Story:(1) You know, if there was a story I wouldn't be complaining so much, but alas there isn't one. You got it. NO STORY AT ALL. They start you off in the beginning with some race you and your boy have to win, after you win the race and get the money. Guess what? The story ends. So this game only consist of racing for money and respect, which in turn (as I stated above) you will find yourself in the rinse and repeat action. For a game that has no story and no foreground, I honestly do not know why Namco would licenses something like this.So if you are looking for a racing game with a story, go and play Toca Race Driver, because you wont be finding anything remotely close to a story in this game.

Final verdict:(1/10) Do yourself a favor do not rent this game,and certainly do not buy. You will only be wasting your hard earned money. Hopefully no one will ever produce such garbage again. If Namco decides to make a sequel for this, I would advise then to put in a story mode and at least a graphical update. this could be possible the worst racing game in history, and yes I've play Auto Modellista.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/04