Test Drive Unlimited:Great Graphics, Much Disappointment

I have been a fan of the Test Drive Series, since I first played it on an Apple IIC in the late 1980's. The original version was so much fun with its limited amount of cars, singular western styled road, and radar detector that would make a stupid beeping noise when the police were around. Colors and graphics were primitive to say the least, and you could control the game with the keypad or a cheap joystick that we had for it. I don't know how many hours I spent on this game, but I do remember the sheer joy of driving a Corvette or Lotus, which I knew that I would never be able to afford.

Sadly, none of these cars exist in my driveway, but I am satisfied by my basic car, regular suburban house, and the simple joys of being a husband and parent. I have an uglier dog than I could have ever imagined, and although I work a lot of hours, there's an occasional day off for time to go fishing or hunting. There are also some times where I get a chance to play video games on my Xbox 360, and I was excited to see that Test Drive Unlimited was available for it.

The last Test Drive game I had played, was the worldwide edition for Sega Dreamcast, which is one of my favorite games of all time.
After some looking, I was able to find this at a used video game store, for a price of $17. I figured I was getting a steal of a deal, since every Test Drive I had some wheel time on, was a lot of fun and worth its weight in gold. My initial reaction was it seemed to be a bit strange of a game, since you start off at an airport, where you pick up a rental car. I do want to say that I fell in love with the Audi TT convertible that I rented, while enroute to the car dealership, to pick up my first vehicle. This was a Saturn Sky, that cost $23,000, which is a lot better than the higher priced SSR that is available at the Chevy/Saturn dealership.

You buy your first car from a redhead, who happily hands you your car keys, and you find out that your car has GPS. It took awhile to get used to this, but after some time I realized that it was a necessity, and its not as annoying as the real one my wife has in her vehicle. This GPS leads you to the realtor's office, where you can purchase a house, that will have a garage to hold all of your cars. There are a few to choose from, and you can decide between a condo, single family house, or even larger mansion as you accumulate money in this game.

The key in this game, is to win as many races, and complete as many projects as possible to build up your car and motorcycle toy chest. In this regards it is similar to older versions, but it can be a bit arduous at the beginning to find out where the races are, or how to find people to pick up for rides, or to be a delivery courier. Most of the first tasks are fairly simple, and you are treated as a rookie at the beginning in races, which lack tough curves and are mostly limited to straightaways where an easy victory is guaranteed. With the F class cars, which are the basic models you start with, you can't get very high in speed. However, they are fairly fun, but seem to lack the handling that the cars used to.

In the other Test Drive games, you would feel discernable differences between each cars. Other than their abilities in speed, there isn't a lot of difference between a basic Mustang and a expensive Jaguar or Lotus sportscar. I feel that this game really neutralizes the driving experience, which takes away a lot of the fun from it. It completely depersonalizes it, in such a way, that you just don't get the adrenaline rush that you used to get from the older versions, or other competing racing games that are available today.

The one thing I do like about the cars, is that you can change your driving views, just like the old games allowed. While my personal favorite is a view just slightly behind the car, so that you can see most of the environment around you, I also do like the front driver side view with the window in front of you, or just the clear view with the speed gauges on the very bottom. These give you a different perspective, but sadly don't add anything to the overall handling or feeling that you really are behind the wheel of these sports cars.

As for cars and motorcycles, there are over 125 to choose from. I prefer the cars over the motorcyles, because the motorcyles are an absolute pain to drive. They have more of a feeling of handling, however they are easy to wreck and I don't like the turning on them. You can drive cars such as regular Chevys and Fords, to more expensive Alfa Romeo's and Ferrari's. The one thing cool about all of the different brands, is that you have to go to their corresponding dealership. These are located all over Hawaii, where the game is set, but it is a different look than just being able to buy them like you used to from a simple screen.

Test Drive Unlimited has stunningly beautiful graphics, with some of the best I've ever seen for a racing game. The older versions used to only focus the graphics on the cars, but now everything from the buildings, trees, and police cars that chase you look like the real thing. The police in this version are a lot less fun than the ones of previous games. While some might like the increased difficulty, I hate how easy it is for them to catch you, when they are in pursuit of you. It seems all they have to do is get within twenty feet of you, and they are issuing you a ticket in the range of several thousand dollars! If you don't have enough money, you have to spend thirty seconds in jail, which is more than boring. All you see is the Honolulu Police station, with your car parked in front, and a countdown clock letting you know how much of your sentence is left.

This game could have been something special, and it does offer some new concepts to the series. I think its kind of funny being able to purchase clothes for your personalized character, but I really bought this game for the usual excitement that I associate with this series. Sadly, it just isn't there, and while it is not a terrible game for the price of $17, I would have been in absolute mourning if I had to have paid the full original price. Test Drive Unlimited is manufactured by Atari, and as an old game system provider, I would have thought they would have understood how important handling was in a car game.