Test Drive Unlimited could've been much more, but stunted ambition holds it back from being truly revolutionary.
Note that I said 'loss', not 'lack'. Test Drive Unlimited is, in fact, one of the most ambitious games out there and easily the most innovative title of its genre in years.
The premise of the game is simple. You've got $200,000 in your bank account. You are flying to O'ahu. You happen to like fast (and really expensive) cars. That's it. Test Drive Unlimited's single-player game has no story whatsoever, and since this is a free-roaming game with almost no restrictions, it feels a little bit disorienting at first.
Fortunately, this is where the aforementioned ambition and innovation come in. Developer Eden Games has successfully recreated the entire island of O'ahu with accurate road layouts. That's thousands of miles of road for you to drive on, preferably along with your friends, which brings us to another notable aspect of the game: its single-player and multiplayer modes are integrated as one.
In single-player, you traverse the island's roadways alone, participating in races with AI opponents and weaving in and out of AI traffic. If your profile happens to be a multiplayer one and an Internet connection is present, then you get other people driving around with you. Players can just cruise together and chat (with the game's built-in voice chat capabilities), race in single-player challenges and compare records, create and join clubs, or even set up new races for others to participate. It's a mind-blowingly simple concept that just works, and it's rather amazing how nobody thought of it before.
With 90 vehicles available in-game, ranging from the cheap VW Golf R32 to the fabulously fast Koenigsegg CC8S to the classic Mercedes-Benz 300SL or even the Ducati 999R bike, Test Drive Unlimited is a driver's dream. The vehicles are all lovingly modeled right down to the interiors, which makes the in-car camera (another laudable feature) feel amazingly immersive. Every car can be configured according what's available in real-life as specified by the manufacturers, adding yet another nice touch to the proceedings.
The island itself is even more impressive than the rides on its twisting roads. While the more populated areas (namely Honolulu) of the game are rather GTA-like in visual detail (as in 'ugly up close'), the wilderness is absolutely breathtaking to behold. Mountain ranges stretch far away in the distance, covered by lush greenery. White, sandy beaches surround the island, separating you from the beautiful blue waters of the Pacific ocean. Above you, the sun shines brightly in the rarely-clouded sky (which looks even more impressive in cloudy conditions).
Unfortunately, other aspects of the game fail to match the impressive car catalog and the stunningly beautiful Hawaiian vistas. Test Drive Unlimited's physics could have used a lot more tuning. While most collisions are serviceable, sometimes you get odd looking collisions that send cars flying 30 meters into the air. Cars can be stopped by a knee-high fence despite crashing into it at 400 km/h. The handling could've been better, too, as some of the faster cars feel like they're running on ice rather than paved roads, and the less said about the bikes the better.
To make matters worse, the game's policy of selecting which players are visible to you in online mode is rather confusing. Seeing someone's name on the map doesn't mean you can just fast-travel to his location and join him on a cruise. Most of the time, he won't be visible to you. The game also cuts all connections to other players when you decide to access the map, which means that finding your way through the island with a group of friends is going to be a tough task. Still, the sheer number of players driving about means you'll hardly run out of things to do.
It doesn't stop there. The unstructured, free-roaming single-player content is further hampered by a piss-poor AI that tries to drive safely rather than quickly. This means that anyone vaguely familiar with the controls can beat the game's 120 single-player challenges startlingly easily.
Making up for this is the surprisingly enjoyable missions in the game, of which there are four types: supermodel, hitchhiker, courier, and vehicle delivery. The first two are exactly the same: you pick up a girl/guy and drive her/him to the destination within a set time limit without having too many accidents along the way. Off-road treks and crashes are punished by deductions to the driving meter, which can cause the mission to instantly fail if it reaches zero. You are rewarded coupons for buying clothes to customize your character upon successful completion.
The courier missions have you deliver a box within a set time limit but no driving restrictions for a cash reward. The real star among the missions, however, is the vehicle delivery game, which gives you a chance to try out the game's more expensive/exotic/rare rides and deliver it to a destination without a scratch. There's no time limit, so you can drive as casually as you want, but the huge bonus that comes with a perfect delivery means that these missions are unbelievably tense, requiring you to curb your speeding instincts while swirling your way through the island's traffic.
In the sound department, the game generally delivers exactly what you should expect: a smattering of licensed songs, unique engine sounds for each car, meaty crash effects, and other general ambient sound. The real disappointment is that the soundtrack, while nice, is way too short for a free-roaming online game that can last hundreds of hours. You can alleviate this problem by setting up your own custom radio stations, but the catch is that each station can only play around 20 tracks, and only 4 stations are allowed.
As it is, Test Drive Unlimited is an awesome driving experience that shouldn't be missed. There are plenty of lovely-looking vehicles to drive, thousands of miles' worth of road to travel on, plenty of fantastic scenery to see, and tons of fun to be had with your friends. However, the underwhelming AI, erratic physics, and slightly odd handling combine to hold the game back just enough to make it not quite a classic. Still, Test Drive Unlimited gives you hundreds of hours of enjoyable racing action in a gorgeous setting, and that's more than enough to make it a great game.