WWW.SILICON-FUSION.COM

Platform Filters:   All Platforms  Xbox   GameCube   PlayStation 2   PC   Game Boy Advance   Site Sections:   Updates  News   Games   Publishers   Developers   Reviews   Previews   Release Dates   Editorials   Glossary   Contact Us		Review:       16th June 2005: SCAR - Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo  Italian driving tie in licence that aims to put a tiger in your tank with a few RPG elements. Posted by Chris Snook - PC,PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe Racing games often fall into one of two types, either they are arcade perfect games that offer thrills and spills, or they are pieces of near perfect realism that are as close to the real thing as is possible whilst sitting down in front of a screen. SCAR - Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo tries to offer a third variant of the genre. That of a racing RPG. As you race you build up your driver from level one, through experience, to ever higher and better levels. Gaining better skills and attributes as you go along, hopefully gaining greater and greater fame as you blaze trails around some of the best tracks around the globe. From City street circuits through to places such as Hockenheim there is a seeming good variety. The same goes for the number of cars you can tear around the scenery in. With what looks like a broad selection of Alfa Romeo cars to unlock and gain access to over time. This is the main problem. SCAR is at times not sure exactly what it is. Ignoring the RPG element for the moment it stands between two stools. On the one hand it has the trappings of a nicely done arcade style title, with time-trials and instant action modes to complement the main Dynasty game mode. Yet at the same time within the mechanics of the game it tries to make a stab at being a simulator, with car damage being significant, physics that can cause skids, crashes and the like at almost random moments. Admittedly damage is most significant in the Dynasty mode where even the mildest bump can scrape away a couple of percentages of health from your drive. Damage in instant action however is ignored and in terms of collisions the cars act more like billiard balls than cars with crumple zones and this for a while was the most fun thing in the game, running backwards around the track, colliding at high speed with an opponent, trying to create the best collision possible. This is typical of the almost schizophrenic nature of the game. The RPG elements, which are the main feature in the game just don't seem to make much of a difference at low levels and it is quite likely that you will remain at those low levels for quite some time. It really doesn't add much and often gets in the way of belting around the track, trying desperately not to run out of car or similar. The main effect it does have is in the Dynasty mode, where the 'Heart' attribute modifies how much stress and intimidation you can withstand by opponents trying to over take you. For the most part this again distracts from trying to enjoy the game and concentrating on avoiding totalling the machine you are driving. Ironically the other big feature of the game, the 'Tiger Effect' is immensely useful for getting out of a huge mess. With this you can reverse time by a set amount, initially a single second and plot a better course of action. This refreshes through the race as you make daring passing actions and manage to stay on the road, this too can be affected by experience but is locked to the starter player. As is much of the game, you get four cars to run about in, one each for the four courses open to you initially in Dynasty mode. You get to race around the Laguna Seca in Instant Action and the time trials, needing to finish in a certain place to unlock the next track. Graphically SCAR is functional with some stunning effects, the way the sun reflects off of the paintwork. Reflections, dust and smoke as you try to burnout or skid off into the gravel trap. Backgrounds are basic and there is no real detail in parts of the track and some of the other effects on the cars detract badly from the shininess, lights looked more like paint being removed than being smashed by impacts. Again there are some nice little things with the sound, in first person view the gears make a 'chunk' sound as you change up or down, everything dopplers nicely. Ambient sounds are as you would expect, crowds cheering, gravel crunching and the like. There is no speech at all and the music is less than memorable and confined to the menus for the most part. Length is subjective, if you can progress there is a good chance of it remaining played for a while but the majority may well be put off by the initial difficulty and lack of initial things to do, regarding tracks and cars. Controls are awkward on the keyboard, with multiple keys to remember, response is spongy and can lead to problems with control. Things are easier with a joystick but there is still too much to do and the keyboard is still necessary. It works best with a joypad, duplicating the possible layout of a console control system, it is here that the gameplay picks up, the response time picks up considerably. Other elements are after a while not too bad. The reverse of normal is true, manual gears are easier to use than the automatic option and once this is found it improves things no end. The menus are complicated, with duplications of keys and mouse that seem superfluous, graphics are cartoony and a little flat. There are a number of layers that are not really needed, you need to save your profile and apparently separately to save your drivers stats, an auto-save feature would have been vastly useful. To get anywhere quickly is not easy, things are just not intuitive and almost fall over themselves in places. Despite all this, there is a quality that stands out that can make SCAR horrendously addictive. If you persevere you can improve, despite such a steep difficulty curve that is there from the get-go. There is under the bonnet a good game that has the signs of being buried under a concept, that at times a committee made some decisions and compromised key areas such as the physics and over all playability. In all there is some gold dust but you will need to dig for it and many will not wish to do so. * * * * * PS2 Comments. It is rare to find two games of the same name on two different platforms to match so exactly. Everything that applies to the PC version can and often does apply to the PS2 counterpart. Handling is similar, the menus however are simpler since there is little need to include options for a mouse click or button press. Graphics are marginally better on the PlayStation 2, they seem a little more fluid and notch up to a seven out of ten. The control responses are the same but the main difference is that the audio is a little better balanced, with more background effects coming into play. In total the gameplay is so similar that if you played one you can play the other and leap in with times that are only marginally different between the two. If you know where to brake and then turn in the one then you do in the other. Chris Snook             Latest Images:		Review Scores:    Graphics:   Sound:   Gameplay:   Length:   Overall: Click here for our Review Score Guidelines.  Review Summary:  A curious use of a title, with some appearing bizarre gameplay decisions that leave a feel of someone changing their mind half way through. Lumbered with an RPG element that is not really needed, all the good ideas get bogged down in frustration, as a concept that should have been obvious didn't quite work has run away with things. For the perseverant there is hope, for the rest of us there a whole cylinder missing.  Related Games:  SCAR - Squadra Corsa Alfa Romeo for PC  39  Screenshots  1  Review Click here for All Game Information. SCAR - Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo for PlayStation 2  1  Review Click here for All Game Information.
		Go Back To Main Page        Go To Top Of Page