Top Gear: Dare Devil Preview

Being a member of a highly secretive underground racing sect has its privileges - at least in the world of Kemco's Top Gear: Dare Devil. Because the game places you outside the jurisdiction of any type of law enforcement agency and apparently removes you from any responsibility for collateral damage caused during adrenaline-charged romps through urban city centers, it makes sense to think that Top Gear: Dare Devils wants to be the PlayStation 2's Fight Club on wheels.

Perhaps a better comparison would be to try to perceive Top Gear: Dare Devil as the first title built in the spirit (and shadow) of Sega's Crazy Taxi. Though the objective of the game swerves away from picking up passengers to showing up your daredevil peers in series of challenging obstacles, TG: DD nonetheless comes off as desperately seeking a reputation as an "extreme racer." The whole idea of racing high-performance cars through the city streets at ticket-inducing, life-threatening speeds sort of cements this notion. You might think the object of the game is to race genuine cars around realistic metropolitan areas while avoiding the obstacles presented by normal city traffic, but the underlying gameplay in TG: DD reveals that it's hardly concerned with portraying a realistic driving experience. How else could a Beetle (or any other car) suffer a two-story drop with nary a dent in the chassis?

Top Gear: Dare Devil hopes to trade realistic handling for exciting gameplay. This isn't to say that the game won't attempt to portray authenticity in some manner, though - the environments that serve as the backdrop for your racing mayhem all are based on real cities and locations. This means you can cruise past landmarks like Big Ben in London or the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - just don't expect to have much time to admire the view. The game is divided into a series of missions. You start off as the low man on the totem pole in the covert and competitive underground racing organization known as Dare Devil. Through the successful completion of required objectives, you gain prestige and renown in the racing society, and of a more personal benefit, you gain access to new autos, tracks, and special stages.

Obstacles to accomplishing your assignments are numerous, though. The Dare Devil organization isn't the only underground racing league in town. Rival groups will appear throughout the game's multiple missions to challenge you to potentially perilous stunts and other assorted bouts of danger. The police get in on the action as well, and they'll hound you as you attempt to complete your goals on time and unscathed.

Graphically, the game isn't exactly wowing anyone - yet. A very early build on display at E3 showed there was plenty of progress to be made with both texture detail and frame rate. Antialiasing is not present, but the game is running at a high resolution. Kemco has spent some time with the maps, and the promise of racing through actual city streets is being slowly realized. The environments are for more than show - you'll be able to race through the aisles of downtown department stores as quickly as you can shatter their street-side windowpanes. Wild leaps and drops (especially on the tracks in San Francisco) aren't uncommon either. Fun is the rule, but as a consequence, realism takes a backseat.

Top Gear: Dare Devil's going to certainly have its work cut out for it come the PS2 launch. Not only must it separate itself from plenty of comparisons leveled by Crazy Taxi fanatics, but it also must prove itself a worthy alternative to a couple of other high-profile racers due out at the same time. To Top Gear's credit, it's got an innovative idea going for it - namely the idea of being a member in a high-risk team of stunt masters. Now if only membership included say, a free Viper, we'd be golden.

Top Gear: Dare Devil is scheduled for release on the PlayStation 2 this November.