Test Drive Unlimited

"Luxury and Speed in Paradise"

After going through a number of different incarnations, the Test Drive franchise lay dormant for years. Now it has been resurrected on the next-gen format and it is clear from the get-go that the developers had big plans.

GRAPHICS
Cars look absolutely magnificent on the outside. By using the driver camera, it is possible to further immerse yourself into the illusion of driving one of these cars. However, the realism is thrown off a bit by the fact that the instruments don't work on some of the cars, and interior materials such as leather don't always look right.

On the environmental side of the game, things get pretty ugly. While it's hard to expect too much from a game that tries to recreate an entire Hawaiian island, as well as being budget priced, I still can't help but feel a little disappointed. Everything past the road is an ugly mess, with two dimensional trees and bland textures everywhere. Personally, I can't see why valuable disc space was wasted on dozens of square miles worth of empty land with no roads. Had the island been streamlined the graphical quality of the game could have been much better than what it is.

SOUND
TDU has a realistic radio which has a number of different selections, from rock and alternative, to electronica and all the way to classical. While the songs for each station are fairly limited, each one is pretty good and fits the overall mood of the game quite well.

GAMEPLAY
This game manages to carve out a unique niche for itself, which is rare in the gaming world. Instead of being confined to tracks or claustrophobic cities like many racers, this one puts you right in the middle of a tropical island. Over the course of the game, you'll move all over the island of Oahu making money to buy better cars and bigger houses.

As for the cars, most of the big names are here. Lamborghini, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and a great number of others are present. While there is a great variety of cars and motorcycles to choose from, there are a great many holes in the line-up. For instance, Porsche and BMW are nowhere to be found. Plus, some of the best car companies have incomplete car lists. For instance, Ferrari and Lamborghini are missing some of their signature models (such as the F40, the Countach and the Diablo). While this problem has been apparently been remedied via Live DLC that doesn't do much good for the Liveless (me). And having to pay for cars that should have been in the game to start with doesn't get me excited either.

Of course, you've got to have a garage for all these cars and that's where real estate comes in. Each house has a garage that will hold a set limit of cars and once it is filled, you'll have to sell some or buy a new house. Houses also serve as the basic hub for the game. Not only do you store cars there, but it is also the place to check your progress and change your driver's appearance.

There are numerous race types across the island such as circuits, sprints, time trials, speed races and transport. While most of them are pretty standard, the latter two bear a little explanation. Speed races can come in two different flavors. The first is just to get your car up to a certain speed, then end the race. The only problem is that these races are usually held on heavily trafficked or extremely curved roads. The other speed type is similar to NFS speed races, where you pass a number of checkpoints; your speed is registered and averaged out to a whole. Unlike the NFS games, here there is no set path and you can pick which checkpoints you wish to hit first.

Transport races come in a number of different types, such as models, hitchhikers, vehicle transport and courier. Each of these is fundamentally the same with you trying to get something or someone to a set point. Each one has a small quirk to set it apart from the others, but despite that they're so similar they all become a drag after a while.

The actual racing is interesting enough, but there seems to be a few flaws with the driving physics. While it is so imperceptible it may take a few hours to even notice it, it does affect gameplay. Sometimes it can be something simple like a car not taking a turn like it should, or a car suddenly losing traction and flying off the road. As the game rolls on it becomes more of a problem because of the higher-end cars you'll be driving. Another of these subtle flaws is with the transmission. This seems to be a uniform problem, no matter what car is being driven. At times, the shift doesn't actually register, or it registers late. While this isn't so much a problem while shifting up, it becomes immediately noticeable when shifting down. This problem borders on being ridiculous when you have to put your car in reverse, as it can take upwards of five seconds for it to actually go into gear. It may not sound like much on paper, but if you've just spun off the road and everyone else is going by at two-hundred miles an hour it is a lifetime. However, these problems can probably be avoided entirely by switching to automatic transmission, but that sort of sucks the fun right out of the game.

In the case of motorcycles, it is probably best to avoid them altogether. While they suffer the same basic physics and transmission problems as the cars, these problems are exaggerated by the fact that motorcycles are inherently more unstable than cars. There is also no way to lean over and take a sharp turn, which means that the motorcycle will plow straight into a barricade and turn the driver into a human missile.

During the game it is likely (and probably unavoidable) that you'll come up against the cops. They can be called in for numerous reasons, such as reckless driving or a hit and run. No matter how they arrive, it is immediately clear that they are really annoying. While they aren't especially smart, they make up for it in dogged persistence. They'll try to ram you and they'll set up roadblocks. To make matters worse, if you hit another car, or another car hits you, your wanted level goes up. In effect, this means more police and more roadblocks. It wouldn't be so bad if there was some convenient way to shake them off, something similar to Grand Theft Auto's Pay and Spray, but no such mechanic exists. Instead, the wanted levels have to fade one their own. It also seems that this isn't a matter of time, but of distance driven, so if you want to lose the cops you have to stay on the roads and not just hide out. At times it is easier to just pull over and take the ticket, but the prices become astronomical in a hurry. Price factors include everything you hit as well as a loose approximation of your skill, called driver level. The good news is if you're completely broke they just put you in jail for thirty seconds and you're free to go!

THE VERDICT
While the game has its fair share of problems, it allows the player to experience something truly unique in the gaming world. How many other games out there allow you to take a Koenigsegg all the way to its top speed on a winding backroad? That was a good enough reason for me to buy this game.

HIGHS
- Lots of cool cars to choose from
- In car camera actually works well

LOWS
- Transmission problems
- Physics are slightly off
- Numerous missing manufacturers and incomplete car lists

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/08, Updated 05/05/09

Game Release: Test Drive Unlimited (US, 09/05/06)