After 13 years, the Test Drive Unlimited series returns to our screens to try and act like the old royalty coming back to reclaim its throne, but it honestly feels like it should have stayed in the Xbox 360/PS3 era and let the new kids on the block take the crown.
Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown is online only, and before I get into this review, I wanted to note that for the first three days of having the game installed, I could not play it due to server maintenance or issues.
Granted, this game was not officially released yet and was in early access, but non-press could gain access via the Silver and Gold editions, which gave you access at the same time as the review copies went out, so if I paid upwards of £80 for early access and I could not play it for half the time, I’d be fuming.
Story and Gameplay
Well, to say Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown‘s story is wafer-thin is an insult to the strength of a wafer. Essentially, you are invited to the Solar Crown motorsport festival in Hong Kong, and after a few practice races in a sweet Lambo, you are then dumped in the open world proper with your basic car, and off you go.
You compete in races, pass through speed traps and other collectibles to increase your reputation, unlock the next area, and do the same. Each race rewards you with money to buy new cars, but honestly, it wasn’t enough to have a serious garage like you can in previous titles and in other open-world driving games like Forza Horizon and The Crew.
Oh, I almost forgot. You created your custom avatar before all of this, and my word, it is the earliest Xbox 360 character creator ever; it is very basic and just an almost pointless endeavour.
So, how is the actual racing? In a nutshell, it’s abysmal. Yes, the actual driving is, at best, okay and does the job, but the cars never take any damage, no matter how hard you smash into other cars or the environment. There is no difficulty slider, so you have no way of knowing whether you are driving against an 80-year-old pensioner or Max Verstappen, and unless you know each race layout perfectly, the opposition will trounce you without much fuss.
I would care about winning each race if the rewards the game gives you were worth it. In one race, I finished fifth but still got a lot of XP and credits. I thought, “Let’s try and win it.” Eventually, I did, only to see the difference in XP and credits is minimal at best.
You also have the opportunity to use your legs to walk around the lifeless hotel room and car dealerships, but honestly, I miss the old games where you could actually run around and do stuff.
There are also old car relics dotted around the place, but again, this seems really low effort as all you do to collect them is go up to them and hold a button, and poof, they disappear, and that’s collected. Nothing like Forza Horizon‘s barn finds.
The only saving grace to the racing are the varied locations that you will be racing in, which I will go into more detail about later on, as the variation between cityscapes and dense forest-like areas does make the monotony and pain of playing the game tolerable.
Graphics
Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown‘s saving grace is the environment of Hong King itself. The map is huge and really makes you feel like you’re exploring Hong Kong and all of its varied locales. It seems like this is where 95% of the developer’s efforts have gone.
Now that the mild positive is out of the way, onto more negatives. The overall graphics would not look out of place on the Xbox 360. Most cars look like they are a kid’s toy, the avatars and character models look awful, and in general, this feels like it looks worse than the original Forza Horizon and Test Drive Unlimited 2 that came out way back when on the 360 in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
The voice acting for your character and the NPCs is dreadful—about as lifeless as voice acting gets. And yes, while Hong Kong is done some justice, where are the people? I’ve never been to Hong Kong, but I imagine more than five people are knocking around at any time. It’s just bizarre.
Conclusion
I really, really, really wanted to enjoy Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown, but I hated almost every second I played it (if I even got to play it at all). The server issues at the start were frustrating, but as the week went on and I managed to get into the game, the servers would either time out mid-race or kick me out as I tried to enter a race.
If you are going to make an always-online racing game, ensure the servers can handle more than 10 people playing at any one time. I think in my whole review period, I passed by one other person, and that was it. Maybe this will pick up in the weeks to come.
The only reason this game does not get quite as low a score as one of my lowest-scoring games, Rugby 18 (which gives me Vietnam-style flashbacks), is that the game has at least made some effort to be fun and interesting and doesn’t make me want to pull my eyes out.
Also, I played this on the PS5, and it ran awfully. Even in performance mode, this game stuttered so much and caused me to make so many mistakes that the controller almost mysteriously ended up in the TV.
Unfortunately, it is a relic of the Xbox 360 era. If I were to make one recommendation, I would say to go play The Crew 2 or Forza Horizon, whatever (I love Forza Horizon 4 the most), and enjoy what an open-world driving game should be.
Publisher: Nacon
Developer: KT Racing
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PC
Release Date: 12th September 2024
