Oh Goodie! Another Mediocre Off-Road Racer

Author's Rating:

Pros: Some good music on the soundtrack, nice 'Ultimate' models, adequete controls

Cons: shallow racing gameplay, boring courses, deteriorates into 'sim' too much

The Bottom Line: 
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Author's Review

For a company with such hits as Le Mans 24 Hours and Driver 2 under their belt, you'd think Infogrames would try something with a bit more 'prestige' for some of their releases, especially those stuck in this long, exhausting line of Test Drive Off Road games. You would also think that with the rather weak response these games get from the press, Infogrames would put the axe to the franchise that NEVER could, and start rollin' out the sequels for a different type of racer (Le Mans is a much better game that is more deserving of a sequel, if any company execs from Info are paying attention). But no, not Infogrames, they'll keep rehashing the same boring gameplay across several continuations on different consoles, until the sales of these games reach the single digits. And with the quality of Wide Open, things are looking up for the sales to sink that low.

Gameplay

Gameplay in Wide Open is fairly standard racing fare. From the title screen, you can select from three basic modes of play - Free Roam, Career Race, and a 'quick race' mode. The 'quick race' mode is akin to an Exhibition playmode, allowing you to get into the gameplay with a few quick laps in Moeb, Hawaii, or Yosemite. Free Roam lets you take one of the trucks/Jeeps and explore the levels. This playmode is similar to the one seen in Rainbow Studios' ATV OffRoad Fury, though the levels are far less packed with interesting things in this game than in ATV. Finally, the Career Race, where you play for money and new cars; new areas opened up in the other two modes, etc. Here you start with one of a slew of vehicles, and take that vehicle into Seasons where you race to gain more money and to win Cups, Championships. The cars range from a Ford Bronco (before you ask, you can make it white), F-150, Chevy Silverado, Dodge Durango, Jeep Wrangler, CJ5, Hummer Soft Top, and a few others, with three upgraded versions of that vehicle - Modified, Pro, and Ultimate. After selecting a vehicle, you enter the first Season. Seasons essentially consist of one or more racing tourneys, that further consist of two or more races. After each race, you earn cash depending on your placement, and unless you came in third or higher, don't even expect to be compensated for the entry fee. The proceeding Season will not be open until you've participated in all of the races, and have placed in the upper echelon of drivers.

The actual racing action is fairly tame if you compare it to the Colin McRae series, Off Road Thunder, or even Off Road Championship in the arcades. The environments house hardly any notable interaction, aside from some random things you can run over that pop-up out of nowhere (more on that later). The gameplay feels, at times, like a poorly miscalculated hybridization between simulation and arcade racing styles, that takes some elements out of each and merges them together. You have the realistic physics, realistically rough terrain, and tough control of simulation racers, and the massive jumps, indestructible vehicles of an arcade racer. Each of them, when fitted into their own style of racer, is complacent, but when mixed together into an 'off road' game, the gameplay becomes a mess.

When you get down to it, the game is quite generic and boring. Sometimes, when one of the few good songs on the soundtrack is on, and you're running a perfect lap, this game can feel like it's something special, but those moments are few and far between. For one thing, the AI is decidedly stupid. Most opposing cars race in packs - bumper to trunk, so if you pass one, passing the next few won't be much extra work. The AI is cheap, too. Many times, my vehicle was rammed by another driver until it spun out of control. The game can get very frustrating when your AI opponents keep ramming into you at random points - there's hardly any manner of preventing the other car from dominating yours, unless you have a Power-fitted vehicle. On top of all of these faults, we're talking about the fourth or fifth game in the TD: Off Road series. There haven't been many non-aesthetic changes made to the standard formula, so if you've played even one of the previous installments, this new version won't be much different aside from new cars, larger courses, and slightly better soundtrack.

On the topic of control, Test Drive Off Road Wide Open handles decently for the most part. Despite the fact that, as I mentioned, the control can be tough at times if you hit a tree or something, your truck/Jeep handles well enough otherwise. There is no ability, outside of choosing between Manual and Automatic when you purchase the vehicle, to alter the steering or upgrade the car in any way, but there exists no need to do this as they've been fitted with the proper stuff from the get-go. This isn't to say that the cars all handle the same, though. Every vehicle in the game has it's own pros and cons when it comes to handling, top speed, climbing, and acceleration (the four areas judged when you purchase it), and every vehicle handles differently based on those facets. Still, every car seems to have the odds stacked against it when it collides with something, like a rock, tree, or wall. It irritates me when you race three or four perfect laps, only to crash into a wall accidentally right before the finish line, and lose your top position and have to restart the race from the beginning.

Graphics

Visually, TD: OR Wide Open is hardly a good example of what the PS2's processor can do. The vehicle textures are bland, jagged, and appear to be posters plastered over the bodies of the cars. The environments are standard, graphically, but 'standard' isn't acceptable in this day and age of Project Gotham and Gran Turismo 3. Also, the draw-in distance for some environmental objects is ridiculous. Though you may see far ahead of your car when racing in a course, random objects such as rocks or trees may pop up and stop you dead in your tracks. This happened in some of the Moeb and Hawaii courses, and when a graphical flaw like draw-in affects gameplay to any extent, it's considered a huge downfall by me. Credit must be given where it is due, however. Angel Studios have managed to almost completely eliminate any slowdown or clipping that have plagued past entries into the series. I believe I only ran into slowdown once with this game, and that's when the screen was absolutely packed with detail. Overall, however, the graphics aren't anything to write home about.

Sound/Music

Perhaps the best part of this game is the soundtrack, which contains great songs like Fuel by Metallica, and Fear Factor, among others. There are some genuine hits on this ST, that complement the somewhat tepid gameplay nicely. Yet not every track on this ST is good. At least half of the music in this game reeks of heavy-metal overload, where the band disregards rhythm and coherence, and focuses on being as loud and aggrivating as possible. Adding stale burboun to the blaze is the fact that music has a tendency to 'crash' while you're racing, causing a horrible mish-mash of sound to start grating on the nerves. Thankfully, the presence of a 'Skip Song' option prevents the Mute button from having to be pressed, but this is still a huge flaw that is angering beyond words.

Replay Value

If you can stomach the tepid, boring gameplay across several different courses, I'd reckon to argue the game is well-rewarding. There are three difficulty settings, for those who want to experience the maximum challenge possible, and collecting all of the vehicles is a task worth uptaking, especially since some of them look so awesome. Still, I didn't find myself screaming to keep playing, but it's easy to see how someone could derive a good amount of gameplay from TD: Off Road Wide Open.

Overall

Some things never change. CNN never stops covering the whole Afghanistan issue, GamePro never stops sucking, and Infogrames can't stop releasing countless rehashes of Test Drive endeavours that are repackaged and slightly touched up, but nothing else. In a way, this Test Drive game is one of the best I've ever played, but considering the score I gave it, you know that isn't saying anything. Rent if you're interested, or if you're a fan of off-road racing, but when it comes to purchasing, leave this one on the shelves and pick up something with a bit more style.

Overall: 4.5 / 10