Genesis ~ Test Drive 2 Review

Overview

Before such classic racing titles like the Need for Speed and Gran Turismo existed, we used to have the good old Test Drive series. The Test Drive series is just a boy racer game. Taking a fast, expensive and exotic super car out on the road for a test drive shall we say? Since the series revival in the form of Test Drive 4, it's been crap since then. The Duel is the second in the Test Drive series, so let's take it for a test drive then.

Gameplay

The basic aim of this game is to beat your opponent car to the finish line on various stretches of road or stages, a lot like the first Need for Speed. It's in the name: The Duel, how appropriate. After you've raced on all the stages, the racer with the lowest time wins. Simple right? Well almost. You've got some civilian cars in the way and the . COPS!!!! But hey, it's not that bad. The cars you have to choose from are so fast, a cop outrunning you shows how much of a wanna-be boy racer you really are. The Lamborghini Diablo, the Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 959 are the beauties you can choose from, complete with their own stats and acceleration graph. Crashing into other cars, roadside objects or falling into the water means you lose a life, which in turn means you can die! Let not forget you can run out of gas, where gas refills are made at the end of each stage, but only if you want to (you'd be stupid not to). The overall gameplay is all quite nice but is a little ruined by two things. The steering is probably too slow for my liking, maybe because that damn slow steering wheel gives an illusion of a grandma behind the wheel. And the framerate is fast, yet choppy and not fast enough, with 250kph being more like 100kph.

9 out of 10

Graphics

The game is played with you sitting in the cockpit. Each of the cars has its own dashboard, complete with speedometer, rev meter, and gas meter. Quite neat actually. The scenery not counting the backdrop afar consists of dull objects like road signs and trees, with no guard rails present while you drive through the mountains.

4 out of 5

Sound and Music

The car engines don't sound as intense as they should be, with the skidding sounds being far too repetitive. The 3 tunes you can listen too on the road are definitely not of the boy-racer type, being more suited to a nice casual drive along the beach. And it seems you can't turn it off either. Nice crashing sounds and police siren whirls though.

3 out of 5

Game Design

Playing the game on the lowest difficulty level with automatic shift is too easy. Put it onto manual shift for a more genuine satisfaction, but remember that your engine will blow up if you go crap on the gears. Challenges involve being on the correct lane when civilian cars come into view, braking before sharp corners and not being an old grandma when the cops are tailing you. The road even elevates up and down providing some realism. The stages don't seem to increase in difficulty, they all look pretty much the same to me.

4 out of 5

Longevity

If you drive conservatively throughout the game, you can complete it in about 20 minutes. Would you want to do it all over again? Most likely not.

2.75 out of 5

For: boy racing, nice cars, cops, neat dashboard, manual shift is cool, your engine can blow, some good sound effects.

Against: frame-rate not fast enough, steering sucks, some dull graphics, can't switch music off, some bad sound effects, 20 minutes of play, 2 hours before complete boredom.

I had a nice test drive indeed. That's probably what's wrong with this game. It's all just nice, lacking the raw grunt and testosterone level that most boys want.