Firmly in the middle of the pack.
As with any number of titles from the last few years, the PS2-only game takes its lead from the most recent film in the Trilogy, Tokyo Drift. Races are spread out across the Wangan (freeways) and the surrounding Touge (winding hills), with the usual variety of checkpoint, speed and drift-based events. If you've watched the film or played Need For Speed: Carbon then you'll know exactly what to expect. The environments are lifted almost directly from both sources, as well as a general lack of lighting and perpetual night-time undeground atmosphere. The main emphasis in TFATF is undoubtedly customisation. Taking a nod from the source material, success largely depends on building an uber-tuned machine suitable for the specific group of challenges that you need to progress through. Checkpoint races will require you to enter an all-wheel drive vehicle to gain any level of reliable top-end power along the sparsely-packed freeway, whilst Drifting requires a completely different setup on preferably a front or rear-wheel drive car with specialised low-grip tyres. Success can be gained early on simply by upgrading one of the stock vehicles and using it for both types of race, but to gain any progress in the game two separate machines will need to be maintained and tweaked to your own personal tastes. Cheesy montage workshop cutscenes are not included unfortunately, but you can always dream...
Whilst the tuning options are nowhere near as deep as simulations such as Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, there is a good level of depth here for the fanatics to sink some time into. Modifications to the engine, intercooler, differential, weight reduction and numerous other options can be tweaked and upgraded to your hearts content, along with the usual raft of superfluous add-ons such as lighting kits, tinted windows and rims. Lets face it, any game that has a swinging Soul Calibur keychain to add to the rear spoiler has to be worth a look.
The basic premise of the single-player game is the age-old defeat gang and steal turf mechanic that's served many a title down the years. In this instance you'll be taking on street racing organisations on your way to the top of the chain, with each location providing numerous opponents to scalp, along with a boss encounter to complete which nets you a specialised car in the process. All races are strictly one-on-one, with a small amount of traffic dotted along the freeway routes to hamper progress. Driver AI is generally predictable, certain opponents always flip the Nitrous switch in a particular stretch of a race for example, but generally the game provides a decent level of challenge without bringing any particular degree of personality to the proceedings.
In fact that's the biggest complaint that can be levelled at the title as a whole. The lack of any single player plot or any identifiable characters makes the use of the Fast and The Furious licence fairly redundant. Without tying in to any of the plot events from the film or making more of a creative effort to leverage some of the atmosphere, you may as well be playing Anonymous Street Racer 101. That's not to say its a bad title overall, but there is definitely a wasted opportunity here to differentiate from the pack, and the Need For Speed series has already shown that a little cheesy dialogue and a bunch of crappy cutscenes can make all the difference in that respect.
As a PS2 title the visual aspects of TFATF are generally above-par, without ever making any bold design decisions to stand out from any other racer on the market. Texturing is decent and whilst lighting effects are sparse, the framerate generally holds steady throughout even the most frantic of races, which is a bonus any racing game fan will appreciate. Audio is the usual mix of generic rock and dance remixes along with a little far-eastern flavour in the form of several female-only Japanese metal bands, some of which are surprisingly good (your mileage may vary). Environmental audio is functional at best, but the engine noise lacks much-needed bass and growl, a seemingly common flaw amongst the middle-of-the-pack racers.
There are a few technical issues also, with loading and saving times considerably longer than average, interrupting the flow of the game considerably. Also baffling is the amount of camera shake at even the slowest of speeds. At a high velocity the effect can add to the experience, but the amount of screen wobbling prevalent when simply crawling through the streets of Tokyo is headache-inducing, although your eyes do adjust to it after a few hours.
Overall The Fast and The Furious just doesn't stand out in any manner to justify a purchase above similar games. Without any identifiable storyline or single-player incentives, the various challenges on offer simply fail to motivate, and can become tiresome as a result. If your looking for an extension of the movie plot line or even any of the same main characters then think again, it'll be a while before anybody sees that game, if ever. TFATF is a solid experience but with so much potential wasted, it'll no doubt be screeching to a halt in your local bargain bin.
Note: This text was originally written by myself and published over at boomtown.net