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ATARI have little planned for the latter half of 2006. With
only Neverwinter Nights 2 and
Test Drive: Unlimited showing real aggression within their market
placement, it’s quite apparent that the publisher is planning a
quiet Christmas. Test Drive: Unlimited comes to UK shelves
under a certain scrutiny – mainly concerning it’s “budget”
price offering in the US whilst retaining it’s full RRP in the UK.
However, those in-the-know will have realised this ill-advised move
has more to do with production values and quantities as opposed to Europe
getting the rear-end of a good deal.
The title presents an aspiration that many developers in the
coming generation of videogames consoles will strive for. Test
Drive: Unlimited features a Persistent Online World for the
player to drive through, along with everyone else. Not only does the
racing world of Test
Drive: Unlimited exist entirely online, but, also, it’s
founded deeply in reality. The Hawaiian
island
of Oahu is the setting for the title, and, although never having
visited it personally, it’s quite easy to observe the astonishing
attention to detail developer Eden Games has managed to orchestrate.
More than one-thousand miles of actual road have been mapped
into the game, creating an environment featuring a multitude of
possibilities. Winding caverns, straight-runs beside the beach,
downtown grid-style cross-junctions and even sprints through
mountains play a part in the Xbox360’s most exhausting Racing
title. Pre-determined Races create the Single-Player experience, as
well as being offered in Multi-Player; whilst players can also
execute an Instant Challenge to any other drivers they see along the
road with them.
A large variety of Race Types are available in the
Single-Player; from basic Point-To-Point and Circuit Races against
AI opponents, to Time Trials, seemingly unscrupulous  Package
Deliveries, Hitchhikers and Car Transport Missions. The basic Races
are quite self-explanatory, whereas the Package Deliveries require
you to arrive at a destination within a stringent Time-Limit, and
the Hitchhikers put the further restraint of driving carefully
in-place; i.e. no driving off-road, and minimal collisions. Car
Transport Missions are the most original of the Single-Player
offerings, and also that which will no doubt frustrate the player
the most. Whilst offering a large cash prize – which gains a
fifty-percent increase should the car arrive without even a minor
collision – the player must drive a Non-Player Character’s car
to a set destination, without bumping, scraping or even getting mud
on the car. Offering a great sense of intensity, it clearly won’t
be long till this type of exercise becomes a staple in the
Free-Roaming Racer genre.
The progress through the Single-Player is denoted through a
variety of factors; the most commendable of which being the
Achievements System. As a player continues to complete the Missions
– in whichever fashion chosen – more  Missions will become
available. Once a handful of Missions have been completed, the
player will Rank-Up, allowing for even more Missions to become
playable. The vehicles are assessed in a Class Structure – ranging
from A to G for cars, and mA and mB for bikes – and each of the
Missions varies from being limited to a single Class, to openings
for multiple Classes or even your choice of Class entirely. The
Achievements System works in harmony with the in-game shenanigans
and is often a much better assessment of your progress. As well as
the usual selection of off-beat Achievements, such as driving for
over thirty, two-hundred, four-hundred, one-thousand and
five-thousand miles, trading a vehicle online with another player
and buying a Tune-Up Kit for a vehicle, the system denotes
progression through both Single and Multi-Player activities at se
stages throughout the title. Collecting but five Gold Cups will
unlock your first Single-Player Achievement, followed by another at
ten, twenty and forty first-places – each corresponding to your
Rank.
The Multi-Player aspect of the title is, of course, given the
subject matter, a huge consideration to the games playability. Given
the time in which the title’s review was scheduled, it’s a hard
task to assess the eventuality of the title’s Massively Open
Online Racing tag-line; however, it is quite easy to
establish how well it’ll work with even only a handful of
competing petrol-heads. There are multiple aspects of the
Multi-Player game in
Test Drive
: Unlimited, the first of which follows the basic principle
of the Single-Player. Missions are viewed on the Map Screen as
orange circles, as opposed to those of the Single-Player which
appear as blue circles, and challenge gamers to gather for
pre-determined Races and other Missions. These Races are
well-plotted and enticing without any noticeable instances of Lag,
however, they’re clearly not as popular as the other couple of
options. Instant Challenges can be issued by any player in-range of
any other player online. An Instant Challenge, executed by flashing
your headlights  with a press of the A Button, allows the player to
plot their own Checkpoints for a Race. Each player must make their
own route to each Checkpoint – in any fashion they so choose –
and the winner will walk away with any money the players bet on the
Race, as well as a great deal of pride.
Two
other Race Systems are available in Multi-Player; Club Races and
Custom Challenges. The Custom Challenges are more of a
competing-issue as opposed to a direct competition, as players can
create their own Challenges, and upload them to the Drive-Ins
situated throughout
Oahu
for other players to compete in – earning you a small amount of
cash each time. Club Races are a very interesting option, but one
which offered the most difficulty in reviewing before the title’s
UK Release Date. Once having joined or created a Club, other Clubs
may challenge you and your peers to compete in Club Challenges which
operate similarly to the Single-Player Missions, only, of course,
with the AI controlled cars replaced by human entrants. No Lag is
noticeable in any of the Multi-Player options, nor in the
game world when looking for another player or Mission. Local players can be heard talking over the Xbox360 Headset,
offering a great deal of smack-talk until they realise you’re
currently driving a Ferrari Enzo, and high-tailing it in the other
direction in their Nissan S-Tune before you yourself issue the
Instant Challenge. Any Instant Challenges can be refused, but expect
it to be considered un-gentlemanly to do so.
The
cars themselves are another incredibly impressive feature.
Containing over one-hundred-and-twenty-five vehicles off-the-bat,
more are promised to become available later through download options
on the Xbox360LIVE! Marketplace, similar to Project Gotham
Racing 3. The vehicles handle extremely realistically, with
a great deal of variety between Classes. The emphasis here is on
realism; in a similar fashion to Gran Turismo, each of the
vehicles handles accurately. An absolute distance is put between Test Drive: Unlimited
and the likes of Juiced and the BurnOut
series. Whilst the title benefits from the traditional Motion
Blur when picking-up speed, the adrenaline rush is closer to the
side of “I’m going to die…” as opposed to the
Arcade-inspired thrill of “Whoa! I’m gonna do some damage
here!” even though the game lacks any Damage Models for the
licensed vehicles.
The
title sparkles with a sheen of a developer confident in their
product. The Map Screen is simply inspired – allowing a player to
zoom-out to the extent of accurately depicting the whole island, and
zoom-in to the point where the building locations mar the view,
before plummeting directly to the back of your vehicle when having
chosen a destination for your GPS.  Each of the vehicles, although
lacking Damage Models as mentioned above, sparkle and seem to fit in
their environment with less of a break in suspension-of-disbelief
than any other Next-Generation Racing title yet seen. The avatar
options are limited, and some may find disappointed when compared
with the scope of the rest of the game – the player must pick from
one of several pre-designed Character Models, but then may customise
the avatar, to a limited degree, in-game. The environments are all
modelled incredibly well, ranging from deserts to forests, mountains
to valleys, tunnels, towns, bridges and outposts, the sheer scale
and attention to detail is simply astounding – especially when
coupled with the fact that driving continuously around the island
will never trigger a Load Time. A few Draw-Distance issues are
apparent, but only mar the experience slightly.
The
sound quality is also excellent. While the selection of licensed
tracks my not be to everyone’s taste, big names such as Queens Of
The Stone Age, Placebo and Pharell Williams headline a selection
well crafted for a title which, in all honesty, players are expected
to use the Xbox360’s Custom Soundtrack feature within. The sound
effects of the vehicles are clearly top-notch, and have been
recorded and calibrated with the utmost attention to detail and
clarity.
Test
Drive: Unlimited is a genuine work of videogame art. While many
may think that the more realistic approach my not offer the drop-in,
drop-out addictive nature of more easy-going Racers, it becomes
clear after just twenty-minutes with the title that it’s
impossible to put down. The sheer scale of the island and variety of
the Missions will see players devoting months to the title, before
even an uttering of the Multi-Player aspect comes into play. While Project
Gotham Racing 3 established a taster of what the Next-Generation
can offer the genre, Test Drive: Unlimited decisively
destroys it, and rebuilds it in a fashion more suited to the
Xbox360’s features. One of the strongest titles yet in the
Next-Generation line-up, Test Drive: Unlimited knocks all of its competitors for six,
reaching the genres Pole Position with ease.
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