A Must for any Racing fan that owns a 360.

I have never been a huge fan of the Test Drive Series mainly because I didn’t like how past games handled. One example is when I went of road and while trying to get back on road a small tree or pipe that could easy be run over would normally prevent me from continuing the race. This happens with most racing games including the ever popular Need for Speed series however with Need for Speed there are a variety of cars that you can modify so it offers a variety and Test Drive didn’t really offer that kind of variety. However this all changed when Atari released the newest addition of the Test Drive Series, Test Drive Unlimited.

 

 

The main story of TDU is to win races and collect as many sports and exotic cars as possible. At the beginning of the game the player can choose a character that can be later modified with clothes, hair, and face. There are a variety of missions that the player needs to complete while playing the game. To continue the story the player must follow different races earn money and buy the required cars needed to enter more races. That and the player must also Drive through the entire Island of Hawaii. However in order to move on the player will also need to earn a lot of money to modify or to purchase a new car. There are extra missions through out the game which will give you extra money.

 Before buying a car you will need to purchase a house or a building to store your extra cars that you are not using. After purchasing a better and bigger place as you progress through the story you can go to any dealer and purchase a new car. One major advantage of TDU is that you are not limited buy unlocking cars just like in other racing games. Of course if you have the money then you may purchase it however if you don’t then you need to keep winning more races and complete more missions to earn more money then you can purchase it.

 

 

 

 The extra missions include from driving Models to their destination to delivering packages such as cars and mysterious boxes. These missions can give you tokens to buy new clothes or loads of cash needed to purchase cars. The Missions that require you to drive are time limited so it is best if you use a fast car such as a Mercedez Benz and above. The Driving missions are not time limited but they are long and can take up to and more than 20 minutes to complete a single mission. Depending how good of a driver you are it can take longer to finish these missions, not to mention that you will loose points if you get off road. Loose enough Points and you will loose the event, thank God for retries.

What really amazed me is that the cars actually rounds up mileage. This can affect the car in many ways because if you are trying to get rid of it the more miles it has the less the buyer will give you. This however does not necessarily mean that miles in the car are the same as miles in the Island. The entire Island is measured in miles and kilometers depending on the settings you put it in, however one mile in the game island is somewhere about 5-10 miles for a car.          

 

  

There are over 200 cars in TDU with more cars available for download on Xbox Live, some are for free others will cost you a certain amount of points. Online Multiplayer on TDU is truly the next generation of online racing. You can engage in online races and or when you’re just cruising you can see other people cruising all around Hawaii and you can either choose to challenge them and just keep cruising along. Overall I would say that TDU is basically an MMO of racing games. The only downside to all of this is that the game is very limited on car upgrades. At most there’s about only 1 upgrade per car which includes visuals and performance.  Cop chases where not the main focus of the game but it is there. A cop chase is activated whenever you crash into another car. Just like in GTA cop chases are categorized by the level of stars you’re at. The more you crash into other cars the higher the wanted rating goes up. What really sucks about this feature is that it only takes one car crash to activate a cop chase and one crash after another for the wanted level to rise. What I mean by that is if You crash 3 times then you will have a 3 star wanted level. 

 

 The cars in TDU really look amazing graphically, as well as the surrounding environment of Hawaii. The maps are nicely done when in Map mode; you can actually see all the detail in the whole Hawaiian Island as well as the surrounding water. The highways and roads are highly detailed if playing in full HD. Because the cars are as real as they can get while driving at fast speed you can actually feel the sense of speed not to mention that you can also feel the huge crash coming after you loose control. Yes the game really gets you involved enough to care about your cars. Since the games main focus is on cars, the developers didn’t really focus on the characters. Most of the characters where recycled and used so many times that you’d think everyone in Hawaii was your brother and sister. 

 

 

 While the cars and surrounding environment are beautiful in many ways the car handling could have used a little work. The cars are really tight that you loose control real quick and in some races if you get off road you need to get back on road before the timer runs out and forces you to loose the race. The game is not a simulation because even simulators like GT and Forza have a lot better handling. The controls don’t really affect the gameplay much, all I’m saying is that there’s always room for improvement. Driving Motorcycles can be a real pain because the camera moves with you instead of just staying in one place. The best way to drive a motorcycle is to switch to first person view.

 

The sound effects are some of the best I’ve heard and I couldn’t expect anything less from a racing game but they are out there. When drifting you can actually hear the tires paving the road and when you crash you can hear everything breaking, on the other car of course you’re car stays as beautiful as ever. The soundtrack sucks but that’s why you can always download your music onto the HDD or you can connect you MP3 player via the Xbox USB and listen to your own tunes.

Closing Comments:

With over 200+ cars from some of the best racing cars out there TDU is simply one of the best racing games out there. It does have its flaws but they are so small you probably won’t even notice them or they have simple fixes. For example the soundtrack is lousy but you can add your own sound track. Online Multiplayer is also a great addition to this game you can cruise around and see who’s on and you can race up to 8 people on a single track. I wouldn’t be surprised if GTA IV borrows some elements from TDU.

  

Game Play: With so much going on the game handles great with little flaws. Takes some time to get used to the different cars that are available and takes some time to figure out what to do next but once that’s taken care of there’s nothing stopping you from collecting all the cars. 8/10

Graphics: Visually one of the best games out there. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if GTA IV Borrows some elements from this game.  9/10

Controls: the controls are real tight when driving cars and driving a motorcycle is a real pain.  6/10

Sound: Great Sound effects on all cars and environment, Music is bad however it does play along with the game while you’re at your house or driving someone. 7/10

LifeSpan: with over 200+ sports and exotic cars, hundreds of miles of landscape exploration, online multiplayer and content download TDU offers hours and hours of game play fun. 10/10

Total Score = 80% = B