Title: Test Drive Unlimited
Date: 09.18.2006
Genre: Racing
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Eden Studios
Publisher: Atari
When TDU was announced a year ago, I followed it closely, reading every piece of news and preview articles on it. The idea of driving around a fully open environment like Oahu was a thrilling concept. Well, TDU is here and for the most part it is a thrilling joyride. Of course, like many titles, it isn't perfect. It IS a fantastic journey in it's own right mind you.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
INTRO TO OAHU AND CHARACTERS
As you may know, the island of Oahu is fully rendered and accessible right from the start. Yes, it's said from some that most major streets and highways are in tact and in the game, as well as some of the islands landmarks. I can't dispute this, as I've never been to Oahu. I can say though, that the island is enormous. This being the case, you have the opportunity to begin driving the entire island very early in the game. The way you are introduced to the island is a nice touch. Not simply pick a character and a car. Instead you arrive at an airport and are standing in line with a host of characters. You can pick either a male or female. If you don't particularly like the way they look or the clothes there are wearing no problem, you can modify your character as soon as you buy a home. After picking a character you then head to the rental car place to get a car. There are a few choices ranging from Chevy to Audi to Lotus (this is just a vague listing of the various companies’ cars you can rent). After renting a car for a few minutes (no, you can't keep the care for more than about 20 minutes or so -- for a cost), you can drive to a car dealership of your choice. Since you only have a few hundred grand, you can only pick from certain classes right off the bat. Don't worry; there are some decent machines out there.
  
To name a few: Audi, Alfa Romeo and a bunch of others. After you get the ride of your choice, you then head to the real estate agency closest to you and pick a house. Since you have a limited budget, you only have a choice of 2 homes. They are both nice, considering the prices. If you like the whole urban yuppie thing, you might want to buy a condo in the city. If you like scenic drives in the country, then the single family home may be your choice. In either case, they are decent establishments with 4 garages apiece. This may seem suitable early in the game, but as you progress and buy different classes of cars, you see that another home with more garage space is needed.
As stated earlier, you can change the appearance of your avatar. The things you can change about yourself are amazing. If you have the time and patience, you can most likely modify your character to at least “resemble” your real world image, which is cool, but time consuming. The trick to this is picking a character at the airport that sports many of your current physical facial features. You shouldn't worry if they are not the same race as you, as you can change skin color quite easily. You can also change your clothes (Street clothes or motorcycle clothing) in your dressing room. The only thing is that you have to first by more shirts, pants, jackets, glasses, sneakers/shoes/boots and gloves from the various boutiques throughout the island. The only way you can do this is by either dropping Top Models off at certain designations or giving hitchhikers rides. After you have achieved your objectives, they give you “markers” to redeem at boutiques. After you have spent some time shopping, the articles of clothing you buy will show up in the dressing room.
THE ISLAND AND NAVIGATION
TDU does a great job at making the island of Oahu easily accessible. If you are familiar with some of the other open world driving games, particularly The Need For Speed: Most Wanted, then the navigation in TDU is a snap.. Since the island is so huge, you will want to get to the heart of races and challenges quickly. You can do so by simply pressing left on the D-Pad (as long as you aren't in a race or mission). When you do so, the view will automatically zoom from your car straight up to an overview of the area you are in. When in this view, you can see either 1) the challenges, missions and races open to you at the time 2) places of interest, such as Car Dealerships, properties for sale, Real Estate Agencies, Motorcycle shops, MOD shops for specific cars or boutiques/clothing stores or 3) Bookmarked areas that you'd like to visit on a regular basis. This can all be done with the shoulder triggers and buttons.
  
When you see a location you'd like to visit, move the curser over the area and an information screen will pop up telling you the specifics of that particular race, building, etc. The info screen also provides you with how much money can be won or markers received by taking the challenge. In an effort to make the game more accessible, you can instantly ward from location to location…for the most part. I'll explain: Many people have complained that it's tedious to drive the island looking for races, etc. Well this is the case part of the time. Let's say you are downtown and a race opens up in the mountains. You mark the race in the mountains for instant transport; however, you'll receive a message saying basically that if this is your first time to said location you'll have to drive. No problem. Set the GPS and drive out there. Now this is where the usefulness comes in.
By driving to that location from the city, you have in effect opened up challenges that pop up along the way. These can then be instantly accessed via the navigational system, without all the driving. You won't have to drive to that particular mountain location in the future anymore either, as now it is basically locked in for instant transport. Also by doing a bit of driving, you receive “achievement” for sightseeing certain miles, etc. So it pays a little to drive around.
THE OFFLINE CHALLENGES
I think TDU did a great job with these. Races are broken into various classes (G – A) and car types. In the beginning you'll find you'll need to have a class F car to do most of the available races. As you progress through the game more, other classes will open up progressively working down from G to A. Of course other classes are thrown in at varying times, but for explanation purposes we'll keep it simple and say classes G – A. The races are broken between standard races with up to about 8 cars, radar-like best time trials, beat the clock, “get 170 mph in traffic”, etc. Nothing special or out of the ordinary here. The missions include “get the super model or hitchhiker from here to there”. These individuals have their own criteria such as the make and model of car they'll be seen in, along with how many seats. These missions are actually interesting as you have to pay attention to certain conditions, such as a countdown timer, not hitting too many cars or running off the road.
The rewards are decent; all helping you acquire new clothes. When you want to net loads of cash, look for transport missions. These one try events are great. They are one try if you succeed in winning them. If you lose, you can try again. The money you gain is huge. In the few I won, I netted 40 thousand and 80 thousand dollars respectively. They are also a great way to experience using another type of car that you may not have the funds to afford as of yet, such as the Enzo Ferrari mission where you have to deliver the car to point B without scratching it. Or perhaps the other Ferrari mission where you have to deliver a rental back to the dealer a) with minimal damage and b) with a strict time limit. Considering the game has only been out 3 days, I'm sure there will be tons of other cool missions to find.
  
THE CARS
Although the cars may not look as good as some in PGR3, they sure are fantastic. A close connection is made between you and the car of your dreams because of the addition of being able to view the interior of the car. Yes, it's nice to buy a 600K car and speed it around the streets, but it's even nicer when you can almost feel like it's real, due to viewing the seats, radio, nav system (in select models), carbon fiber, brushed aluminum or wood interiors, etc. from inside the car. I personally like to drive in bumper view when racing, but when just cruising around the streets, it's nice to drive in the interior view and be able to look up-down-left and right, just like in any other car in the real world.
Because of the detail, pricing, options and appeal of these cars, people just WANT to attain them. It's great to race all day and finally be able to drop a load of hard earned cash on that rare Noble M12 GTO-3R or Aston Martin or Lamborghini or whatever your heart desires…just to show it off in the on-line world. Speaking of which, if you spent a lot of time making your avatar closely resemble yourself, you might want to show it off in an expensive convertible. You know, so everyone will see you.
The handling of the cars feel very good as well. Unlike NFS:MW, where all of the cars could be broken down into feeling like just 4 differing groups, most of the cars in TDU have a very different feel and reaction to the driving conditions. You really have to take this into account when driving in certain areas such as on straight-aways or curvy winding roads or single-lane highways. The strategies and approaches are endless.
THE MINUS's
POLICE
Firstly, the voice acting is outrageous, in a bad way. With the superb voice acting found in NFS:MW, playing TDU and hearing theirs is such a shame. It sounds like they got a few people off the street to read cue cards, without any note of realism, or varying phrases. The cops in the game are a sorry addition. Not only are their verbal phrases annoying, they hamper a great driving experience. Ever get charged $16,000 for slightly rubbing2 cars? You will here if you don't high-tail it from the accident. You're probably saying “well, you should out run the cops anyway”. Well, yes you should, but the whole cop theme is so unbalanced, that after tapping just 3 cars, you can be looking at an astronomical fine.
Tap one car, the cops come out, if you don't out run them for some reason (to much traffic or you bump them by accident) and you scrape another car, they'll really become aggressive. Hit a third and they send masses of cops. As they come for you, you'll most like tap more cars. You may also hit a few of the police while avoiding their road blocks. After they inevitably catch you (by slamming into you), you'll have such a high fine, all the work it took for you to gain x amount of dollars would have been in vain. It would be better for you to just shut down and restart the console then to try to out run the cops after a 3 shield level.
RACERS AI
This may only be my own gripe, but it's amazing how easily the AI will do a pit maneuver on you and win a race, but you can't do one on them. For instance I had an all wheel drive, highly modified Audi and was pitted by a cheap, low end, Mustang. I figured “ok, no prob, I'll get him back”. Well, low and behold, I tried to pit him in a twisty section of the race, did he spin out? No. Did he slow down? Of course not. Not only that, but after my feeble attempts at pitting him were unsuccessful, he accelerated to eventually win the race. Mind you, his top speed could be no more than 150ish. My Audi can do 167 easy.
I could and had sped past him all day long. We were only a few feet apart in distance when I was trying to pit him. Should he theoretically have won? Of course this is just one area where I've seen miraculous actions by the AI. When you get online, this “cheating” shouldn't be a problem.
Well, there you have it, a high level review of a game that was well worth the wait. With the online content to come out in the future (downloads, etc.), I think this game will have a very long console life.
Game Score
A-
Reviewed By: Contributed
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