It takes time to get used to Enthusia, but even so it can't keep up with some high profile racers on the PS2.
- Looks decent
- Plenty of car manufacturers and races
Negative
- Controls awfully
- Can't reverse or look back
- Unfair AI
I am a huge fan of all kinds of racing games and I can say that Enthusia is one of the toughest, most innovative racing games I've played. Enthusia is a very challenging, very often infuriating racer that is not for everyone. It requires a lot of patience to get used to the awful controls and tough difficulty, plus there isn't much that applies to fans of high-speed racing games. Enthusia has some originality, and is different that almost anything that you played before, but for most people Enthusia will seem like a worthless, sloppy racing game.
Enthusia's modes are most original. The Enthusia Life mode is a sort of career mode, which is deep and challenging the more you play it, with a lot of events and cars to unlock. For beginners this mode is very difficult and inaccessible. There are a lot of cars to choose from and use in a good variety of tracks in the game. The second mode is the driving revolution mode which probably does a better job than the career mode. This is like a mission mode; where you get a car and a track and by passing through the indicators and finishing the race you get a score, and if it above D you pass. This mode is also very challenging to a degree of punishment. The indicators are of 3 colors, light blue, green and orange. Light blue means you are going too slow and orange means too fast. Green is ok. If you miss any of the indicators or go too slow or too fast, you virtually lose the event. The events aren't very long thankfully. Time attack mode lets you challenge the time of each track and test your speed in tracks. Free Racing mode is pretty much racing with the unlocked cars in tracks you have, with laps up to 200 in some tracks. There is a lot of do in Enthusia; unfortunately the gameplay doesn't hold it up.
Honestly Enthusia is not for everyone. For me, this is possible the worst racing game I've ever played. The gameplay is irksome. The physics is frustrating, and the controls are horrendous. The sense of speed is poor compared to the racers on the PS2, and there is more. To turn quickly you can press the R1 to try and drift using an e-brake, but this is almost impossible since you'll spin out of control. There are only 2 camera views available, including a first-person view and a behind-the-car camera. To add to that there is no rear-view camera so you can't see who's behind you. Plus you can't reverse making going out of control sometimes seem like the end of the road.
The AI doesn't seem to suffer from what you do. The difficulty is made of spikes, making this racing game completely out of league for most people. There are multiple difficulty settings to choose from, but that is mostly useless. In most races, the AI speeds so much that they will be out of reach in matter of seconds, even if you have been doing a flawless race. Also, don't expect damage modeling either. The game doesn't display some good bumps against your opponent either. The racing is overall difficult since the controls are a mess. Using a normal brake sometimes doesn't even turn the car resulting in a direct collision with the wall ahead. Also the steering part isn't any good either especially the analog part. It is quite a shame, Enthusia has some potential, and it's just wasted potential.
Enthusia may not push the PS2 in any possible way, but it is still good looking. The car models are decent enough and there are plenty of them, but you can't compare them to other racing games such as Need for Speed Underground 2 and others. The level design isn't very appealing and lacks detail. It's not a major focus though. The menus are almost all awful looking, not to talk about the sound. The menu music is horrible, and while the racing soundtrack isn't much better; it is passable. In this section Enthusia falls short.
You will need a lot of time and patience to fully understand Enthusia's concept, but most people won't like it. Enthusia can't keep up with the competition on the platform. If you are a Gran Turismo fan, Enthusia seems the sort of racing game you might enough, but if you didn't like Gran Turismo 4 you most definitely won't like Enthusia. The unappealing gameplay with plenty of flaws, and a thoroughly unimpressive presentation make Enthusia just a shadow of a pure racing game.
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Graphics = 6.0
Looks passable, with good car models. Environments lack detail though. But today's standard this game is poor looking.
Sound = 3.2
The menu music is awful. The racing soundtrack is ok, and the sound effects aren't really helping.
Presentation = 5.0
The menus look poor and unattractive. The loadings are very fast though. Good variety in cars and tracks.
Gameplay = 2.5
Possibly one of the worst racing games I've played. Poor controls, handling and steering and brutal difficulty are just about enough to stop anyone from playing a racing game.
Modes = 4.8
There are 4 to 5 modes to play and they aren't all that bad. There is some time to spend here, but maybe you should be looking for a better racer.
OVERALL = 42 / 100
It takes time to get used to Enthusia, but even so it can't keep up with some high profile racers on the PS2.