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Test Drive Unlimited Review
Jon Wilcox
12/09/2006
TVG drives the open roads of Oahu and asks whether developer Eden Studios could be Atari's saviour...
It's been a tough life for Atari in recent times; in fact it seemed that the publisher was staring into its darkest hour earlier in 2006 when Chairman Bruno Bonnell announced that it would be selling off IPs and internal studios. But with the release of Eden Studios' Test Drive Unlimited on Xbox 360 (PS2, PC, and PSP versions are due before the end of the year), and the forthcoming 2007 reawakening of the Alone in the Dark brand, things may be on the way back up for the outfit...
Set on the third largest island of Hawaii, Oahu, Test Drive Unlimited is the first ever MOOR (that's Massively Open Online Racer for those of you unfamiliar with the Atari-trademarked term). What this means in English is that the game features about 1000 miles of open roads that weave their way across the island from the spine-like mountains down to the capital Honolulu, ready for players to explore and compete around as and when they wish. Hopefully that fact alone will help put into context the scope of sheer gameplay that Eden Studios has distilled into a single videogame. Forget about selecting a specific race from a list and entering it, Test Drive Unlimited allows you to literally drive to the location of the race or a manufacturer's showroom - even if it's on the other side of an island over 44 miles in length! Scope, scale, and ambition are the three key words in describing Test Drive Unlimited - but aside from providing a whole island and a network of roads to explore, what does Unlimited have to offer in terms of gameplay?
Over 140 vehicles including supercars and superbikes, are available to take for a test drive in the game, from the likes of the modest offerings from Ford and Audi, through to the sporting juggernauts of Ferrari, Kawasaki, and Lamborghini. Each of the manufacturers has its own garage located in Oahu, where gamers can drive-in, have quick look under the bonnet, and take for a quick spin around the block before deciding whether to make a purchase. Whilst Test Drive Unlimited doesn't have the breadth of cars on offer compared with PGR or Gran Turismo, it does have sufficient depth for players to enjoy. Not only that, but the cars are replicated to great effect, as you'd expect from a next-gen title; care and attention has been made not only to the exteriors, but also to the interiors too...perhaps it's for this reason that damage modelling disappointingly hasn't been added to the licensed vehicles? (it's worth noting that the generic AI-controlled cars and trucks of Oahu do feature damage models). Besides buying cars from dealerships, Test Drive Unlimited also has a 'Trade' function that allows players to buy and sell cars in a wheeler-dealer Frank Butcher sort of manner to other gamers, offering and expanding the sense of community that runs through the game.
In any racing title, one of the key features is the handling of the vehicles; too heavy, and the experience is sluggish; too light, and it's like racing on ice. With every iteration and build of Test Drive Unlimited, including the two demos released over Xbox Live Marketplace, the handling has improved. Arguably sluggish to begin with, the cars now zip through the island with joy, though there remains a definite weight behind them that strikes a solid balance. Furthermore, each of the cars feel different; there's a uniqueness about them that we now take for granted in contemporary racing titles.
If there is one disappointment, it's that the same can't be said for the handling of the motorbikes in the game. It was always going to be a tall order for the developers to create a title that would replicate the sensations of driving a car and riding a motorbike - even Polyphony Digital couldn't do it in Tourist Trophy - but travelling on two wheels in Test Drive just doesn't feel quite as real as it should. For instance, leaning into corners feels too linear, as if the rider was merely tipping their head to one side; of course the incredible acceleration that you'd expect from a superbike is evident, leading to some altitude-attaining leaps over the brows of Oahu's ridges and hills, but on the whole the motorbike side feels a little too artificial.
However, Test Drive is more than just taking a ton of cars around a tropical island, it's about competing in events, both single and multiplayer, in order to win more money with which to expand upon our virtual car collections. In a game as expansive as Test Drive Unlimited, it would be all to easy for the gameplay to get repetitive thanks to a samey objectives and challenges - though this is one pitfall that Eden has avoided with ease. Variety and depth are there for everybody to see and experience first hand, with short, mid, and long-distance events to take part in. From the standard "first to finish" races, Unlimited breaks out into a number of different race types including Speed Camera, Time Challenges, Hitchhiker/Top Model events (where players have to drop off a passenger with a certain time limit and keep their driving skills as high as possible), and lengthy Drop Off missions where time isn't a factor - but the condition of the car by the time they reach their destinations is.
Far from being the sort of menu-based selection system of Project Gotham Racing, Test Drive Unlimited follows the likes of EA's Need for Speed Underground model of enabling player to drive to the location of an event through the use of waypoints. Not all of the missions are visible at first, but the strong sense of progression continues as more and more are unlocked throughout the player's experience.
One of the first and arguably one of the best online experiences on the original console, Project Gotham Racing 2 set the standard for others to follow in terms of lobbies, leaderboards, and quite honestly, Xbox Live. Bizarre Creation's follow-up on Xbox 360 pretty much offered an 'as expected' experience, and it's taken until Test Drive Unlimited for a serious contender to emerge. Like the Single-player game, Multiplayer waypoints are scattered across the island that act as track-specific 'lobbies', with both Player and Ranked races available. And like the solo events, traditional races are joined by the likes of Speed Camera objectives, so there's a range in the sort of gameplay on hand. But multiplayer in Test Drive Unlimited goes beyond a traditional set up; as they drive around the roads of Oahu in Free Ride mode, players will be given real-time positions of other gamers, which allows them to head over and issue Instant Challenges for a race. Once a challenge has been accepted, players can then plot the course out onto the map very quickly, with the race following a matter of second later. Adding the functionality really expands upon freedom of the game for players, an unpredictability that really hasn't been seen in multiplayer games before.
The integrated multiplayer modes are quite frankly genre defining, prompting the use of the Massively Open Online Racer acronym by Atari. Seamless by its very definition, Test Drive Unlimited's multiplayer experience is integrally interwoven into the very fabric of the game, there's no such thing as 'Single-player' and 'Multiplayer' modes in the traditional sense.
With such an open environment to play around in navigation is key. For Test Drive Unlimited, Eden uses 'GPS' technology that charts routes between the player's position and every key location and challenge in the game. As in real-world systems, GPS in Test Drive Unlimited is accompanied by audio-based directions such as "At the next intersection turn left" and a number other such lovingly crafted phrases. Destinations are easily plotted through the Google Earth-like map integrated into the game, so you'll never get lost either. Working like GPS, the navigation system works out the shortest route, and takes into consideration one-way systems, etc. In other words, it'll audibly remind you if you go down a street in the wrong direction.
There's a strong sense of progression about the Test Drive experience; not only from the point of view of the different class of cars, something that's been done frequently in a number of racing franchises, but also from what is probably the best example of integrating Achievements since the launch of Xbox 360. Dished out in a well thought out learning curve, progress is measured in a number of different ways from the number of cars owned, miles driven, and the number of different roads that have been explored. Regarded as everything from Rookie to Champion (and everything in between), a player's status is directly linked to the number of Gamerscore points earned.
With the integrated online leaderboards of the single-player events, coupled with the infinite possibilities of multiplayer, longevity is one concern that, well, isn't a concern of Test Drive Unlimited. Guess that's where the name comes from. Players can also form their own Car Clubs (for a virtual price), and also exchange new routes by using the various Diners throughout the island. Atari has also promised that Downloadable Content will be supported for the game, which we'd guess will come in the form of new cars, so the lifespan of Test Drive Unlimited may very well be just that - Unlimited...or at least until they decide to do a follow up.
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