|
|
Metropolis Street Racer
|
|
|
|
|
|
Graphics & Sound:
Metropolis Street Racer is as perfect a racing experience as you're likely to have on a console. From the minute you pop in the CD, it pops with visual flair. Menus crackle and shift, text and titles fade away and come into focus, and then you hit the streets for real racing. Sega outdid themselves in the level of accuracy given to these tracks. Thousands of pictures and drawings went into making Tokyo, San Francisco and London come alive, and boy did it work! I was impressed by how Rockstar's Midnight Club Racing showed off New York and London, but MSR changes the rules of the realism game. It's not as clean a look as the PS2 racers, but where they felt a little stylized, MSR is total immersion. San Francisco streets are wide, with the long hills and row-houses. London is mixed between cobblestone rotaries, narrow paths through the park and old city streets. Tokyo is urban sprawl, narrow and winding and then open overpass driving on the same track. The mark of true achievement is that MSR tracks don't feel like they were pieced together by some designer or programmer in an office building; they look like snapshots from the cities they're set in. Musical innovation is also right on, and MSR takes the Drivin' USA concept to new levels. You're in a car, so why not listen to the radio, right? Each city has its own set of radio stations, appropriate (kind of) to the setting. You can listen to one station, or build a CD of your favorites to listen to no matter where you are. This option appears as an interface that looks like a cool, in-dash CD player where CDs can be created and saved. In a really nice touch of realism, each radio station comes complete with announcers, talking between tunes about restaurants, clubs and even song requests. Sure, after you've played for a while there's repetition, but I'll take this over licensed bands any day of the week.
|
|
|
Gameplay:
When I first saw the tag-line for MSR that said, It's not how fast you drive, it's about how you drive fast I kinda scratched my head. The gameplay behind this statement is dead-on, and sometimes feels more like an RPG than a Racer! The unit of power in MSR is a 'Kudo.' Kudo means merit or praise, and by racing well or pulling off tricky maneuvers, you earn kudos in the form of points. MSR is set up in chapters, each with a special car to earn and sub-levels. Moving beyond any chapter requires a point total, so unlike most games that say winning is everything, it's more than possible to win and not earn enough points to move ahead. In fact, winning without style might as well be losing, because style-points are everything. Each mini-event within a chapter is set on a different track, in a different city and with different objectives. Sometimes you're racing against the clock, while other times you're driving against another car or multiple cars. Earned cars pop up from time to time, and MSR makes you really earn them. Even after cars become available, you have to race them in a time-trial to put them in your garage. All the incredible cars are here, from the Audi TT to exotic Opels. But, you have to be careful, because switching cars or replaying tracks you've already raced can lose kudos, setting you further back. This is really some great gameplay, and will lure in people who wouldn't have even thought of themselves as racing fans. For the racing purists, other awesome elements include the ability to pull down ghost cars from the Internet or merge saved times from another VMU. There's plenty of opportunity to race your own ghost times in Time Attack mode, and even to save ghosts for one car and race against them in other cars. This is a great way to decide how cars compare, and being able to post your time on the 'Net or challenge your buddy's VMU saves is killer. Actual Multiplayer Mode is awesome, and plays as smooth as the Single Player. With about 300 tracks to choose from in 3 cities, MSR is as much racing as you could ever want. |
|
|
Difficulty:
Especially for people really stuck on the whole 'do anything to win' racing philosophy, MSR provides some challenge. Winning a clean race and driving like a pro will earn more points than raw speed and collisions. Plus, the point system itself means you have to race strategically. I love racing, and I loved the challenge, but this is at least as deep as most RPGs you'll throw yourself into. The 'easy to pick up and put down' gameplay that most racers have is nowhere to be found here, but who cares! The bags under my eyes can attest to how addictive MSR is, and how often I stayed up late trying to just get that next track opened.
|
|
|
Game Mechanics:
One of the coolest details in MSR is time synchronization. Basically, you're prompted to enter your time-zone and exact time. The importance of this becomes clear when you see each of the cities synchs with your clock, and changes depending on what time of day you put in the game! It's a small detail, but I kept wondering why San Francisco was always dark... :) Weather effects and lighting look great, and using the Dreamcast clock is a smart way to automate all the day-night selection that tends to be manual or preset for most racers. Other nice details include the customization you can make to the cars in your garage. When you test-drive a new car, it comes stock. Rather than playing mechanic, the custom options are vanity license plates, choice of removable tops for convertibles, auto or manual transmission and ABS on or off. MSR really isn't a sim, but there are enough choices for cars that anyone will be able to find wheels to suit their driving style. And the cars do handle well. Default controls put brake and acceleration on the triggers, and have button control for things like camera angle, handbrake and reverse. Setting options and navigating menus is very easy, thanks to contextual on-screen descriptions. In a game that's already super deep, freeing us from too much reliance on the manual is a great thing. Plus, with Quick Race Mode, anybody can jump right in and race without all the preamble. One of the more interesting things about kudos and Street Racing Mode is how you can gamble a little on your ability. When you look at the race description, you'll see a target. In the case of a timed run, if you think you can beat the target time, MSR lets you dial down the clock. And, if you beat the time you set, more kudos are granted. This is a great feature, especially since it allows you to change difficulty on-the fly. Nothing out there on console right now can touch Metropolis Street Racer for pure fun. Sure, there are games with deeper simulation, combat and fighting elements, or offroad tracks. But, as a complete experience, MSR sets a high-water mark for racing games. If you like racing, MSR justifies buying a Dreamcast, especially with the recently lowered system price. Some games deliver and make for enjoyable racing action, but MSR pretty much defines what a street racing game should be. |
|
|
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
