With Test Drive Unlimited finally being released for the Xbox 360, the sandbox just got bigger. A massively open online racing title, or MOOR, "open" references the sandbox style of the game, allowing for some truly open-ended career building options the likes of which haven't been seen in an otherwise pure racing title.

Test Drive Unlimited takes place on Oahu - one of the Hawaiian islands - and features over 1,000 miles worth of road, painstakingly digitized for the game based on real data about the island. As such, the island is huge - Oblivion-level huge, much more so than Grand Theft Auto and much larger than Midnight Club 3, a fellow racer that Test Drive Unlimited owes much to in many other respects. Essentially, the island holds 220 different missions that players can partake in, including races, speed challenges, time attack challenges, and various other miscellaneous objectives. To accomplish these objectives, players can obtain over 90 different cars and motorcycles (with the promise of more as downloadable content in the future). Players can also purchase a variety of luxury homes - there are over 50 of these on the island - and can store their cars in these locations.

Customization plays a large role in the enjoyment of this game as well. Players can change the way their avatar looks, can shop for a large variety of new brand name clothing, and can also take their car to paint shops for some custom coloring. Another nice feature is how the Xbox Live achievements are integrated into the gameplay - players advance in level as they complete challenges and fulfill various conditions on the island, and the levels are directly tied to how many gamer points that have been obtained. A player with 180 points in Test Drive Unlimited is an "expert" and can participate in "expert-level" challenges, for example. As such, players are restricted only to objectives that they have proven capable of handling.

Like the more stylistic elements of the game, Xbox Live functionality is also implemented in an unique manner - both offline and online features are seamlessly integrated, allowing players to roam the island looking for challenges, but also allowing them to hop into a multiplayer race or request an ad-hoc road race with one of a few other Test Drive Unlimited players in their immediate vicinity. Players are even able to form Clubs - Test Drive Unlimited's version of the ‘gang,' ‘clan,' or ‘squad.' From here, players can challenge other Clubs or race among themselves and challenge each other to various races. Once players achieve the Pro ranking, they can create challenges and upload them to the server for other players to participate in, and if someone participates and wins, its creator gets a cut of the reward. Additionally, players can buy and sell cars and bikes on the community marketplace, adding just one more feature to an already robust and immersive experience.

Graphically, the game is impressive. Test Drive Unlimited boasts a real sense of speed, especially when the player is traveling along a straightaway, with an ocean, forest, or cliff off to one side. Plus the fact that all of this is presented with sparingly little pop up is doubly gratifying. A lot of detail went into the aesthetics - the asphalt looks realistic, the cars are well-detailed, and the map is one of the most beautiful things in the game to marvel at. Press right on the d-pad allows players to get into the map and plan a route, or simply look at roads, challenges, or key areas already discovered. Players can also warp to any road or area already uncovered. A great deal of attention was put into small details - I personally enjoyed that random traffic signaled when changing lanes, something you don't see very often in games (or real life, sadly).

Despite it's recommending features, the game does have a few nagging issues. The driving physics, the most cited gripe, are notably different from other racers, and this game seems to sit somewhere between arcade-style and simulator - though it leans toward the latter. After a few hours, though, one gets acclimated to the game's unique style. It is important to remember that no car is going to simply coast around 90-degree turns at 180 miles per hour realistically, and Oahu's roads feature gradients and realistic angles on many routes. Another concern is the utter lack of consistency with regards to single-player difficulty. Races are, overall, extremely easy. The AI is not necessarily bad, but the racers are not aggressive at all, and as such it is unavoidably simple to breeze through most of the races using an appropriate car. On the other hand, many of the Time Attack challenges border on the insane, and even with the right car and a hint book and a map in front of you explaining exactly what to do in the particular Time Attack event, success is often a matter of luck thanks to randomized traffic.

The most disappointing aspect, though, is that after twenty-seven hours of playing, Test Drive Unlimited's servers for this so-called MOOR. have only been up for a total of, maybe, three hours, and out of those three, hardly any of the online features such as the Drive-In and Clubs have worked, so it's not really possible to comment on them here. The online mode promises a depth that is currently unfulfilled in the absence of stability, but the promise is there, the game is new, and once the servers have stabilized, the integration between online and offline features should provide an enjoyable experience for anyone wishing to take a spin around Hawaii and participate in the near-limitless challenge this particular island offers.

Complaints noted, the game enjoyment is almost limitless. With ninety cars, thousands of miles to explore, 220 offline challenges, hundreds of online challenges, over 50 houses to purchase, hundreds of clothing items to purchase, millions of colors to spray on your myriad cars, and a number of fun and challenging achievements, the game almost begins to feels like the racing equivalent of Disgaea. Despite the flaws, this game is impressively large and open ended, and offers a wealth of fun and addictive content - two of the most important qualities of any game. As of today, thanks to a patch by Atari, the servers have begun to stabilize, the online components have begun to come back online, and the whole experience has begun to truly gel. Give it a spin and you'll find yourself rolling around Hawaii for hours upon hours if for no other reason than to ogle at the detail. Test Drive Unlimited is the kind of Oblivion-style game with which each person will have a highly personal experience, but for those that give it a chance, those experiences will no doubt be positive.

Score: 90%

Sep 11, 2006 | 0 comments
Roger Helgeson