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12th March 2003:
Racing Evoluzione
Has the natural evolution of racers arrived?
Posted by John Grothier - Xbox - UK and Europe

Since Grand Turismo was first released on the PlayStation, a plethora of racers have appeared, each trying to live up to the greatness of Turismo. Some come very close, and some do not - but once in a while a racer comes along with a new twist on the genre. Racing Evoluzione is one of these. Instead of racing around tracks in order to purchase new cars and upgrade licensed vehicles, with Racing Evoluzione you get the chance to build your own brand of sports cars, and then race 'em.

Racing Evoluzione features an Arcade Mode and Dream Mode. In Arcade mode you get the chance to race, or time attack, on any of the circuits in the main game, and there are over fifty different tracks to race on, with four very different racing environments - city, mountains, speedway and racetrack. The Dream Mode, however, is the main part of the game…

The Dream Mode begins with your and your mechanic finding some blueprints for some exciting looking concept cars, and he thinks he can build them. So the game starts in a modest garage, and you make the first steps in starting out your new production company by choosing your company name and logo, and then its time to race. Once you have taken part in a few of the Amateur League races you will have earned some reputation and research points. These points are necessary in order for your mechanic to make improvements to your car, and for your modest garage to grow into a fully staffed production company, with a development team, automotive technicians, a production manager and a leggy secretary. The new staff will provide new concepts for sports cars, and you must choose which direction your cars are developed by selecting different proposals from you research team. Once these new models are made, they can be taken into racing competitions, and by winning you will gain acclaim for your brand within the industry. After a few wins under you belt, sales orders for your cars will begin rolling in - at first a few rich individuals, and then later larger parties will buy from you. If you play well enough the police may even contact your company, as they are looking for a new highway patrol car.

The control and handling for the cars in Racing Evoluzione is excellent, and the game runs so blisteringly fast it's an absolute joy to go racing. The A.I. is also very impressive, with rival vehicle deliberately blocking you and scraping paintwork off your beloved car. If you get knocked out of the race you can usually catch up with the pack, Racing Evoluzione is not one of these frustrating racers where one mistake means it's all over. Although the developers have thrown in some nasty looking bends, often just before the finish line. Laps are kept to a sensible 3-5, so if you do make a terrible mistake just before the finish line it unlikely that your controller will be thrown through your television. Racing Evoluzione is a fun racer, and quite a good one, certainly the best I have played for a while. There is a huge amount of cars and tracks to unlock in the game, and the Dream Mode alone will take the average player around 30 hours to complete.

The graphics in Racing Evoluzine are stunning with a very high polygon count on the cars in the game. Tracks are superbly designed, with huge amounts of variety with the four main styles - city, mountains, speedway and racetrack. There are also quite a few nice graphical touches that you may notice while speeding round the racetrack, such as planes flying overhead, helicopters tracking the race, and balloons being released as you come up to the finish line. The lighting effects are also superb, with some noticeable effects on the cars themselves, but also the developers have put some real effort in how the light affects the track itself. Damage to you cars is quite basic with windows breaking and bumpers crumpling, and sparks flying onto the racetrack, but you won't get more than a few dents in your pride and joy.

The sound in Racing Evoluzione, however, it nowhere near is good as it should be. Even the Dolby 5.1 Surround is poor, and there is no change in sound when you change your cars perspective - from inside to rear view. But the real problem with the sound is not the terrible music, (because you can add your own, hooray!), but the sound when you hit another car, or when another car hits you. There seems to be one basic, and unrealistic crash noise and that's it, and after you hear it a few times it becomes very grating on the ear - I say grating, it's actually bloody irritating.

Overall Racing Evolouzine is an above average racer that is a little deeper than most, and the Dream Mode will offer the player a good few hours of gameplay. But if a little more time had been spent on the sound issues, and the inclusion of a widescreen mode, then perhaps this would have been the natural evolution of racers.

John Grothier

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