Reviewed: January 10, 2000
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Atari

Developer
Atari

Released: December 15, 1999
Genre: Racing
Players: 2
ESRB: Everyone

1
1
6
1
1.0

Supported Features:

I had played the PC demo of Test Drive 6 and had been unimpressed. Even with 3D acceleration the game still lacked that polished feel of the NFS series and other than the side-bet gambling, offered nothing new. When I heard that Infogrames was porting the game over to the Dreamcast I was mildly interested. I had recently purchased (and almost as quickly returned) Slave Zero - another horrible Dreamcast port done by Infogrames, so I should have learned my lesson. I assumed they would really try to make a statement and maybe try to redeem their company image.

The biggest reason I agreed to do this review was because I had just finished playing and reviewing SEGA Rally. It had been such a disappointment that I needed something to fill my craving for Dreamcast driving. Let me tell you right up front - this ain't it!

The entire premise of Test Drive has always been good. "Give the gamer a huge selection of exotic cars to choose from with lots of cool tracks. Throw in a seasoned pack of AI opponents and some cops to bust up the action" and you have yourself one cool driving game. Well the final product falls completely short of the premise.

Police are present only as another annoyance. The "All Units" AI touted on the jewel case simply means that all the cops are out to ram you into oblivion. Those of you who have played the 'Keep away from the cops for as long as you can" game in Driver will know what I am talking about. That's fine when the game is about keeping away from the cops, but not when you are trying to win a street race. And why on Earth would police be patrolling a closed-circuit race. I can understand on the street and road races but I'm pretty sure the cops aren't pulling over cars at the Indy 500 or Monaco Grand Prix unless there have been some severe changes in the rules of racing.

Other new features are "High-Impact collisions, huge jumps, and unpredictable cross-traffic." This translates into "poor collision detection and exaggerated crashes, unrealistic air, and mindless motorists crossing your path in an endless stream of cars". There is no car damage so crashing only results in you losing time and often the race.

The "Economic Racing System" is compromised of them giving you $40,000 to buy a car and any upgrades. Then you bet on the race and try to win money to buy more upgrades and bigger and better cars. Since it is practically impossible to buy anything for $40,000 or less that can place in the top three money slots you will go broke very fast. Make sure to keep a stack of cash handy to pay off the cops that don't crash into you. They like to give you expensive speeding tickets.

The tracks are horrible and blocky. Pop-up has never been worse with entire building popping into view when you are only a few blocks away. With the low poly count and low-res textures I would think they could render just about any object to infinity with the resources of the Dreamcast, so I can only blame a shoddy graphics engine for this problem. If I didn't know better I would say they ported the PSX version rather than the PC version - hey, maybe they did.

Track design is equally as bad. There isn't much that is challenging about any of the tracks. Most are only slightly wider than your car so you are unable to pass, and since physics is non-existent you will spend much of your race bouncing off the walls or invisible walls if real ones aren't available. The box claims "Interactive Environments" which translates to flashing barricades you can smash through, a mailbox on the corner, and the occasional shortcut through the park.

Cars are equally horrible. If the polygon count were any lower they may as well use sprites. For the money they obviously spent on licensing these exotic rides you think they could at least make the game cars look like their real-life counterparts. If they weren't labeled I'd be hard pressed to tell you what's what except for the Dodge Prowler - it has a distinctive look even when it's constructed out of less than 200 polygons. The jewel case touts their new Auto Paint System, but the cars are generally a solid color with no reflections or metallic look to them at all.

Groups like Eve 6, Kottonmouth Kings, Empirion, Cirrus, Lunatic Calm and a kick-ass opening and music video by Gary Numan and Fear Factory (singing "Cars" obviously) all offer great tunes which only enhance just how bad the game is that you are playing while listening to them.