R: Racing Evolution

Written by Adam Woolcott  on February 19, 2004

Full Review: Damn you, 76!

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Since the days of the PlayStation launch some 10 years ago, Namco and Ridge Racer have been one of the largest names in racing games. Known for its arcade-style play and great speed, the series has maintained a strong following for years, through 5 installments (with R4 being the sharpest release in the series). However, after the disappointment of Ridge Racer V, the first RR game on PlayStation 2, Namco has gone another route with racing games, putting Ridge Racer VI on hold and giving us R: Racing Evolution instead. Adding real-world cars and tracks instead of fantasy creations, and making it skew towards the simulation side of things, Racing Evo ends up being a decent attempt at sim-style racing that's not without flaws, but mostly is an enjoyable experience. Ridge Racer it's not, but R: Racing Evolution is a good racer that will tide a racing fan over for at least a little while.

The main attraction that gave R: Racing Evolution its early buzz was the Racing Life mode. Effectively the story portion of the game, Racing Evo puts you in control of Rena Hayami, an ambulance driver just going through the motions. One day though, Rena is taking a certain Stephen Garnier - a former racing genius away from the sport - in her ambulance, and she impresses him so much with her ability to drive the ambulance fast and so skillfully that he decides to get back into racing, with Rena as his lead driver. After this introduction, you take Rena through 14 chapters of Racing Life, as she climbs the ranks and gives Stephen something to be happy about. The RL mode takes you through traditional races on circuits, street courses and oval tracks, tournaments, drag racing, and rally racing, covering the gamut of racing styles. There's only one small problem - it's way too short. 14 chapters seems like a lot, but with only a race or 2 per chapter, it ends almost as fast as it begins. And with an ending that seems like you've just ran into a brick wall, it feels aborted and not even complete.

Thankfully, there's other modes of play to tackle, that will occupy time. In addition to basic Time Trials, Arcade races, and Multiplayer action, there's Event Challenge that will last a while. Using RP (Reward PointsЕmoney in Racing Evo), you buy entry into a series of races on each of the tracks in the game. Using different car classes for each race, you take on a set of opponents for each event, and winning nets you more RP. With it, you can enter more races, buy some upgrades for your stash of vehicles that you earn, or buy a car for a certain class. It's all a bit strange at first since it's not right out there explaining itself, but spending time with the game will unlock some knowledge to handle Event Challenge. It's pretty lengthy as there's plenty of events per track - but given that Racing Life was the main draw, it's a bit disappointing that this secondary mode of play carries more depth to it.

As for the tracks, Racing Evo has a nice set of familiar locales. You can race both Suzuka East and the full Suzuka track (and by now, if you've played most racing games, this track should be second-nature to race on, since it's used so many damn times), Phillip Island in Australia, Monaco/Monte Carlo, and Greenfield (known as The Driver because the course outline, from above, resembles someone driving), along with 3 rally courses, one being a SS track, and 2 point-to-point editions. On these tracks, you can race one of a large selection of cars from different car classes, including some classics like a Dodge Charger, or newer cars like a Viper or NSX. While you're stuck to using certain cars in the RL and EC modes of play (thus lacking a choice, really), the time trials are perfect spots to test out the different rides.

With track designs based on real-world circuits, it's purely up to the gameplay to keep it all together (since famous tracks are famous for reasons, like being good and fun to race on). Racing Evolution manages to be fun despite its few hassles, especially with some creative aspects thrown in to create amusement. In this game, you can actually listen in on the conversations of your opposing drivers, seeing where their heads are at as you either pass them or trail slightly behind them. Usually it's just complaining about #76 (Rena) passing or being aggressive (granted, I don't mind swapping paint with these dopes, so that's a personal thing), but sometimes they'll talk some trash about not letting you pass or even threatening to pass you by mentioning how they're almost in your draft, to dart around. It adds a touch of trash talking realism, though I doubt these guys can hear themselves talk trash on the track. But that's not all, as there's also the Pressure Meter.

The Pressure Meter is the main way of toppling stubborn opponents. Under each racers name, there's a small bar that slowly fills up as you trail behind them. For some racers, it fills very slowly, as they're not easily intimidated, while others fill up immediately because they're nothin' but sissies who probably cry to mommy every night. What happens when this fills all the way? I'll tell you what - if you keep the pressure on, and fill that small bar totally red, they're 99% guaranteed to make a major driving error and let you pass them. You'll be cruising behind them, minding your own business, and when it fills all the way, they'll spin out in a corner or drive off the track and slow themselves down thus you may easily pass them. While the AI is also strong and pretty difficult most of the way on upper difficulty levels, this system of pressuring opponents is very realistic and cool, letting you not only win with skill, but you can play СThe Intimidator' like Earnhardt and psych opponents into screwing up - as well as gives R: Racing Evolution a wrinkle in its gameplay that no other racing game can offer at the moment.

The lone major gameplay flaw is still a big one - handling. While not as awkward as, say, Auto Modellista (which of course felt like racing a baby stroller across a 10 foot wide sheet of ice), the cars in R: Racing Evolution feel a bit awkward and flaky most of the time, demanding extreme precision to master each one. At first, the cars practically float despite feeling heavy, and it's easy to misbrake and cause a major error on your part because of it. And since many cars feel very different, it takes time to learn how each car handles a situation, or you'll end up blowing a race pretty fast. Learning the nuances and quirks of a car is the only way to grip the game's unusual-controlling vehicles. The idea of learning different cars is fine, but they still all feel a bit off, and this will definitely turn off some people. Despite pushing itself as a sim, there's still enough RR roots here that either you'll be pleased about it, or upset that they can't let go of the roots of that franchise.

Despite that annoying hassle, which can be dealt with over time (but be forewarned, changing to another racing game can cause you to struggle next time playing this, due to the curve of remembering the strange handling), R: Racing Evolution is a fun racing game that might be not totally what was expected, but the cool twists with the chatter of opposing cars and and creative Pressure Meter give the game depth that it can claim as its own, and makes the handling a bit more forgivable when there's enough enjoyment here to actually want to master it rather that needlessly complain about it.

Graphically, R: Racing Evolution is nice, though still quite dated. While the cars and some tracks are very nice looking and detailed well, the majority of the game looks like a 1^st generation PS2 game, rather than a 3rd generation one. Many tracks are bland with little detail and generic environments, and the amount of flicker and jaggies are reminiscent of launch PS2 games, most notably Ridge Racer V and Moto GP. Mind you, the game doesn't look awful, but when there's 3 year old racing games like Gran Turismo 3 that look light-years better even today, it's disappointing to see such little advancement with the PS2 hardware. Thankfully, the good gameplay effectively cancels out the graphics being a bit uninspired, which is more important anyway.

The audio is trademark Ridge Racer - jazzy, lounge-esque compositions along with some techno beats round out the musical selections for races; nothing surprising here at all, and it all sounds fine, even if it's still a wee bit out of place. But then again, after 6 Namco-made car racing games, is it still so out of place? Otherwise, the game is rounded out with solid sound effects on the tracks, be it tires screeching around corners or engines revving, and of course, the idle chatter and voice acting is around too, and actually is done quite well and never gets hokey or embarrassing either. The manage to paint the story of an up and coming racer very well, and convey some of the plot twists in ways that don't make the game seem cheesy whatsoever. And props must be given to that.