Great Graphics and Sound can't cover up the shallow and bland gameplay that ruin what could've been a good racing game.
ESRB: “E” for everyone
Genre: Racing
Platform: Xbox
Cost: 9.99 cdn
When Microsoft first launched the original Xbox back in 2001 the big game that stood out in everyone’s mind was Halo: Combat evolved from Bungie Studios and Microsoft. Rightfully so as Halo: CE is still the best game on the Xbox. What racing fans who picked up the Xbox noticed was Project Gotham racing from Bizarre Creations. The game is a sequel to old Dreamcast game by Bizarre and takes a lot of its main ideas from that game. Next to Halo PGR was the Xbox second best game at launch and was its best racing game for the most part until the likes of Rallisport Challenge, PGR 2, Burnout 3 and Forza Motorsport. The game plays similar to a lot of other racing games on the market today and most racing games back then with a few minor differences. It features over 200 different maps and uses a unique point system called the “kudos” system. Learning how to work the kudos system is essential to have success in your races in PGR. The entire game with the exception of multiplayer is based around the Kudo’s system including unlocking the games cars maps and levels in the single player and multiplayer modes.
The game features over 200 maps in 4 different locales around the world. These locales are based out of New York, Tokyo, London and San Francisco. Furthermore the game is divided into several different areas of each city each with its own set of maps. These maps are all vastly similar in nature and are different by the location of the car or the direction of the track your on but the 4 cities each have their own distinct racing feel to them. Each city is divided into twelve districts which have the areas in the game. The maps occur over these areas and work really well as they contrast and compliment each other. Of course what’s the point of all these maps without some cars to race on them? The games car library unfortunately is not as wide as its library of maps. The game features a not so big total of 29 cars but does feature some of the big licenses like Porsche and Ferrari in these cars. The cars all look unique and have a wide varying amount and style of them. You obviously wont unlock the more elite Ferraris until your much later and further into the game but once you get a hold of them for the first time its quite the thrill.
The game has a massive single player campaign in it that can be divided into several categories based on how the game divides itself. The main mode for the game is the Kudo’s challenge mode. This where the bulk of the game takes place as you’ll race through a variety of tracks with different gametypes and goals. Through the Kudo’s challenge you’ll be asked to several different things to earn Kudo’s and unlock more challenges. The first thing that sticks out is the average speed challenge where you’ll be racing round a track aiming for an average speed of the lap. Getting this speed hit will complete the Kudo’s challenge for that round. You’ll be racing head to head against other racers in the head to head mode. Naturally you’ll be racing against more competitors in the race modes where 6 cars go against each other all aiming for first place. Style challenges have you going around laps quickly and through cones trying to earn as many Kudo’s points as you can. One on One challenges are exactly what it says as you’ll be racing head to head against one other racer on the track. Overtake challenges have seeing how many opponents you can pass in a certain amount of time whereas a timed run sees how many laps you can complete within the time limit. Another interesting one is the top speed challenge where your goal is to reach a high top speed as fast as you can. Finally total lap challenge will have you racing to complete as many laps as you can within a time limit. All in all there are 9 different race types for a Kudo’s challenge. Naturally as you get further the difficulty is amped up and the game becomes much more difficult.
What’s interesting about the difficulty is that you have the ability to ramp it up in the Kudo’s challenge. You can choose to limit your time per lap or any time for that matter. This earns you a much larger Kudo’s bonus if you succeed but naturally is more difficult to meet the goal and earn those Kudo’s. For races you’ll bump up your minimum position from 321. In the other challenges you’ll increase the number of cars to over-take and the top speed or average speed depending on what race type you’re currently playing. In the heads up challenge your difficulty will give your opponent a head start and you’ll have to make up that much time. Since earning Kudo’s is such a key factor in the game early it may be wise to put up a high difficulty for a larger Kudo’s score and bonus to unlock more races and cars. Lastly your Kudo’s score on these events corresponds to a medal that you earn. The minimum for unlocking the next set of events is the bronze medal but to unlock more extras and cars you’ll want to aim for the gold medal. On some events early in the game earning the goal medal is basically impossible as your cars just can’t go fast enough and to get the gold you’ll have to go back later on and re-do the tracks. That said not all Gold’s are impossible the races for example are always winnable and you should aim for gold on those no matter where you are in the game.
What is most noticeable about the Kudo’s challenge is the extreme difficulty that the game presents. Even aiming for a bronze at times can seem near impossible. It’s easily one of the hardest racing games in recent memory and requires a lot of skill and practice for the most part. To earn medals you need a high Kudo’s score and some of these scores can seem unattainable at times. It seems at times the game forces you to go back later with a faster car to earn more Kudo’s and bonus points which is a major drag when what you really want to do is move on and keep racing with the past behind you. This difficulty is noticeable in virtually every mode of the Kudo’s challenge and can occasionally lead to controller throwing frustration. The Kudo’s challenge is actually quite long despite their not being a ton of levels included and this is due in most part to the challenge and difficulty the game presents. Racing veterans will have fully finished up with this mode after about 15-20 hours depending on their luck and skill.
The controls in PGR also feel a tad weird at first. This is because the game hasn’t quite decided whether it wants to be an arcade or simulation racer. It’s a mix of both and can throw a lot of racing fans off while they adjust to the scheme and figure out how to drive. Certain turns feel arcade while the next set of turns and breaking will feel like a simulation game. This adds a lot to the difficulty section and creates a moderately steep learning curve even for racing game fans and activists. This indecision also affects ht entire gameplay for the game and can make certain tracks much more difficult and puzzling then they should be. The way you may think to take a corner may not be right due to the game not making this decision. It can be a major drag and flaw at times and really brings down the whole experience of the game.
There are a couple of other modes in the game single player wise besides the Kudo’s challenge mode. Unfortunately these modes feel almost the same as their counterpart Kudo’s mode but with fewer rewards. The quick race mode has you racing a variety of tracks in the 4 cities and mostly the same challenges as before. Medals are corresponded to Kudo’s points and once you collect a bronze at each level you move on to the next difficulty. Naturally the difficulty gets incrementally harder after each set of races. The whole feels kind of useless in the fact it has too many similarities to the Kudo’s Challenge and essentially feels like the Kudo’s challenge only with a different set-up and few cosmetic differences. That said the 16 races you’re provided with are at least challenging for the most part even the early races on the “easy” difficulty set-up.
The challenge is in most part due to the faultiness of the A.I. because of the game early release developers had fail to utilize the power of the Xbox in terms of A.I. or so it would seem. While Halo had no trouble mixing A.I. PGR stands to have a few major issues. The A.I. is pre-programmed to run its root no matter what, so if you try to take an inside track instead of cutting you off you’ll be able to pass right by them. Its not all good the A.I. will often smash into in turns if you’re a little off causing you to spin out because it takes its line instead of trying to go around or maneuver around you. The spins are very frustrating as the games physics system is absolutely horrible. Certain bumps causes a lot of weird things that quite simply wouldn’t and couldn’t happen based on a slight rub, thump or bumping of a wall. This can lead to a lot of frustration especially later in races when it costs you that first place position. It really bogs down the entire experience into an often mediocre level.
The arcade mode is the entire opposite of the quick race mode in essence. Instead of 16 races, you get 16 challenges occurring in the same area again aiming for the bronze medals minimum to advance to the next difficulty setting. These two other modes’ purpose to help you collect more total Kudo’s points throughout the game. Your total Kudo’s score is the sum of all 3 modes of which the bulk will be coming from the Kudo’s challenge unless you have beaten the games other two modes of play. The Kudo’s are used to unlock cars and tracks, you can’t spend them. To increase your Kudo’s score you’ll have to take larger risks if you want the bigger payouts. For most this involves raising the amount of Kudo’s given as a bonus and lowering the time you have to meet the goals. In the hot laps and such it raises the average speed or max speed in return for a bigger payout. The game has a very risk Vs reward set-up that takes a little while to figure out exactly what you want to do and how well you think you can do it.
The entire game feels off as a whole. The game fails to capture the fast pace and excitement of a good arcade racer like NFS or Burnout or the general competitiveness and stock of a simulation like Gran Turismo or Forza. This lack of indecision plagues the game from beginning to end and leave you with a sort of bitterness. The bitterness is also attributed to the steep learning curve and difficulty. Or maybe I’m wrong and it’s not good because of poor A.I. and a brutal physics system at best. The game definitely could have used a once over for the single player and multiplayer. The multiplayer is uninspiring and just your standard modes of play. The entire gameplay feels lackluster and like it needed a once over.
Thankfully these poor gameplay issues don’t carry over into the graphical components of the game. The game actually looks quite good for the most part. The game runs at a solid 30 FPS and doesn’t hitch up even later when the cars really get going. What’s also nice about the graphics is the great environmentalistic details featured on the tracks. A lot of the game feels almost realistic and as if you’re actually racing around that area. Some great art concepts and designs and really show off the Xbox’s initial graphical power. On top some great environments and tracks the game’s car also looks really good. The cars show a great amount of polish and even some damage modeling, even if it doesn’t affect the driving. The best looking car is probably the Ferrari Spyder because of how good the car is designed and how good it looks in the game. The entire car stock have a large amount of detail despite being limited to a minimal 29 cars. The entire graphics in the game are gorgeous with only a few textures and background misnomers causing it to fault from perfection.
The sound in the game is also pretty solid for the most part. The cars sound a little lackluster and seemed to be high pitched. It also has that arcade feel in that sense because the engines sound way to close to each other with very few noticeable differences unless you listen closely. The soundtrack in the game is by far the sound highlight. The game uses radio stations as the main way of sound with a variety of DJ’s and station styles depending where on the 4 places you’re currently racing. The game default soundtrack is not too bad and features a wide variety of pretty good music for the most part the game also features custom soundtracks on the game and these are actually implemented quite well. The DJ’s will cut into your music even and make comments before switching onto the next track right after. In transitions well and the DJ mix thing is quite good. It also helps that the DJ’s aren’t repetitive or have an annoying voice. The sound like the graphics are really well done and help to make the game a little more enjoyable.
In terms of it’s individual parts PGR could look really good depending what you look at. The game looks great and sounds great and leaves the good impression of the game being a really good game. Unfortunately the graphics and sound can’t cover-up the ugly gameplay that lies within the game. It compounds and ruins almost the entire experience and leaves a rather bland taste in your mouth. Unless you’re a die-hard racing or PGR fan I don’t suggest picking up this game. Instead skip ahead to Burnout: revenge, Need for Speed: Most wanted, Project Gotham Racing 2 or 3 and especially Forza Motorsport all for the Xbox or Xbox 360.