Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Test Drive

Written by John Scalzo on July 25, 2002

Full Review: "Driving Mr. Clark" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

I honestly have no idea how to start this review. Do I ramble on about the fact that ever since The Fast and The Furious came out that street racing is everywhere? Do I express my joy at seeing the word "Atari" emblazoned on a video game box again? Do I talk about the actual plotline that the fine folks at Atari Games gave to a racing game? Or maybe I should discuss the obvious influences of Ridge Racer and Cruis'n USA on this latest edition of Test Drive. Then I figured it doesn't really matter where I start, because I still have no idea.

You slip into the faceless shoes of Dennis Black, a low level thug that is a fairly decent street racer. He has been tapped by Donald Clark to join a secret society of underground racers. They take part in "Test Drives" throughout the city and in his most recent race Clark broke his legs after a particularly nasty crash. This is where you, as Dennis Black, come in and pinch drive for Mr. Clark.

Aside from the new and different idea of creating a story for a racing game, Test Drive plays a lot like many racing games that have come before it. It looks and feels a lot like a cross between Ridge Racer and Cruis'n USA. Atari probably could have called it a sequel to either one of those series and no one would have knew the difference. This is not completely a bad thing. Ridge Racer V was a decent little racing game that was plagued by a lame, rushed feel because it had to be out for launch. And Cruis'n USA is just fun and anyone that tells you otherwise is a dirty, dirty liar. Test Drive borrows elements from both of these games, polishes them up for the next generation, and adds jump ramps, because everybody loves jump ramps. It takes Ridge Racer V's control scheme and makes it good. Control is spot-on instead of spotty like in RR5. It also uses Cruis'n USA's reckless driving philosophy. You don't drive around telephone poles, you drive through them at high speeds. Don't go around other cars, slam right through them. Watch as they fly all over the screen and bounce on the road. It's wild and over the top, but fun. And isn't that the way racing games are supposed to be?

You'll spend most of your time in the Underground section of the game working your way through the street racing story, but Test Drive has a lot of other options to play with. In addition to being able to do all of these things in Underground mode, you can tackle single races one at a time in Circuit Racing (laps), Linear Racing (dash to the finish line), Drag Races, the Navigation Challenge, and my favorite, Cop Chases. If you get tired of running from the cops in Underground you can don a shield of your own and take down a bunch of street racing punks yourself. It was a nice touch including the police in the Underground mode, added a great bit of strategy to listen to the radar detector and keep from getting pulled over. But making Cop Chases a totally separate gameplay mode where you can go after others was a stroke of genius. The other modes are fun but Drag Races are too easy, and Linear and Circuit races lose a lot of their appeal when you're not trying to qualify for the next race in Underground. Give me Cop Chases or give me death!

All of these gameplay modes tie in to Test Drive's biggest flaw though. It's rubber band A.I. Much has been made of Test Drive's rubber band A.I. and none of it was an exaggeration. It's frustrating, you can be running a flawless race, but hit one obstacle near the end and you won't qualify. Or you could be going at the exact same speeds my Grandma drives and all of the other racers will slow down and keep pace with you. You can come to a complete stop and all the other drivers will too. That's just unacceptable in a racing game. There's no room for error, either the other drivers or the race clock will bite you in the ass. Last place is always within striking distance. This isn't a constant problem, oftentimes you won't even notice that this is going on, the heat of the moment and all. But after losing a qualifier spot again and again after running a perfect race can get on your nerves. Don't get me wrong, I like Test Drive a lot, every fan of racing games should give Test Drive some playtime, it just bugs me.

Graphically, Test Drive makes up for it's biggest flaw. The tracks and the cars are rendered beautifully and show the strides that developers have made with the PlayStation 2 hardware since it's launch. Lots of tracks (although some fall victim to the RR5 practice of counting mirrors and alternate routes "new") and lots of cars populate Test Drive. Cityscapes, countryside, day, night, sawn, dusk, Test Drive has a laundry list of environments that all feature high detail and just enough little touches to impress even the most jaded graphics-whore. There is an occasional bit of slowdown here and there, and sometimes levels that include both city and country aspects include some bad popup. Nothing too distracting, and actually quite rare, just noticeable when it happens.

Incredible sound gives Test Drive the total package in the audio/visual territory. The soundtrack took plenty of inspiration (and even a song or two) from The Fast and The Furious. A lot of rock and rap and all of it is great. I am half tempted to go to Best Buy right now and see if all of Crud's songs are as good as "This is Not Reality", their contribution to Test Drive. Throw in some Moby, Saliva, and for the rap fans: DMX and Ja Rule. Like I said, incredible. The music does sometimes drown out the race noises, but those are also solid enough to shine through in the quieter moments of the soundtrack. I love the radar detector.

The story is also stronger because of the sound. The plot is advanced through "Vidi Mail" conversations among the drivers between the races. The good voice acting gives each character their own distinct personality. The only one that came off kinda flat was our monotone hero, Dennis Black. He's just got this generic tough guy drawl that would be perfect for an Ah-nuld movie but out of place among a bunch of street racers.

One final little bonus is Atari Games mining their video game past. You are given the option of playing Pong while waiting for the game to load. One player, two player, or just watch the computer go at it. Pong never gets old. This option was obviously used to cover up the very slow loading times, but the old schooler in me was hypnotized by Pong. Pong man!