Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> Total Immersion Racing

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Review:

20th December 2002:
Total Immersion Racing
Will the Xbox finally get the racing simulation it deserves with Empire's Total Immersion Racing, or will it be consigned to the pile of racers that pale in comparison to GT3?
Posted by Marc Hull - Xbox - UK and Europe

When Total Immersion Racing was first announced, it promised to be the most accurate racing simulation around, with a highly accurate physics engine modelling every aspect of each race, including realistic aerodynamics and tyre slip in order to better other titles such as the seemingly unbeatable Gran Turismo 3 on the PlayStation 2. The game was also said to boast a highly intelligent AI system, whereby each opponent would remember how you raced against them on the track and bear grudges if you're nasty to them. However, now the game's been released it has a lot to live up to, especially with other titles such as SegaGT 2002 hitting the market around the same time and potentially carving out a large chunk of the title's market share.

Initial impressions of Total Immersion Racing are pretty favourable; the game has a slick introduction sequence which uses some high-quality real-life racing footage with various graphical effects super-imposed on it. While it may not be up to GT3's cinematic masterpiece, it certainly gets you ready for some fast-paced, action-packed racing. The menu screens are similarly well presented, with video clips running in the background and smooth transitions giving the title a nice, stylised feel, which bodes very well for the racing itself. Unfortunately, it all seems a bit of an anti-climax when you finally get racing, with the initially selectable cars plodding around the tracks at a pedestrian pace. Yep - it's the age-old problem of the faster cars being locked away until you complete a certain challenge, so the only cars you can select at the start are very slow and uninspiring. Admittedly a lot of games, including GT3, suffer from this fault, but it seems to somehow affect Total Immersion Racing more than the others.

Back-tracking a bit, the game contains all the play modes you'd expect from a racing simulation these days. There's the mandatory Single Race mode, where you can jump straight into the game by selecting a car and a track to race on, as well as a Time Trial mode in which you can try to set the best time on each of the tracks. The more substantial modes are Career and Challenge, the former of which contains the main meat of the game which is best likened to games like TOCA Race Driver and V-Rally. You basically start off with contract offers from two manufacturers, who are willing to let you race in their cars for one season. By completing each race of the season in the top six, or setting the fastest time, you then accumulate points that decide who has one the championship that year. Do well in the races and win the championship and you'll be given contract offers from better manufacturers, unlock more cars in the other game modes, and get to drive much faster vehicles.

Unfortunately, while other racing games are balanced so that the slower cars race on shorter tracks, or so incentives are given to you regularly early on to ensure that you keep playing, Total Immersion Racing seems to have none of that. Instead, completing the first season means participating in races that take eight to ten minutes each to complete, with the championship taking a good forty minutes out of your life because the cars are very slow and the tracks are very long. Completing a season isn't very rewarding either, since after getting a pat on the back from your team manager you simply get to pick a new team and race all the tracks again in slightly meatier cars. Challenge mode promises slightly more enjoyment by setting up custom races for you to beat, with the completion of one unlocking the next, but even these races take too long to finish and the tasks you have to complete are quite uninspired.

However, not everything is doom and gloom. The game makes a good effort to be a simulation, with each race taking place on a new 'weekend', allowing you to take part in a practice session to get used to the circuit, a qualifying session which decides your position on the starting grid, and finally the race day itself. The races also contain cars from other classes, with six usually from your class and six others from a faster or slower class. The other cars aren't there to race against you, they're usually too fast or too slow for this, but they can get in your way at the start of a race when all the cars are tightly packed. It's a shame, though, that these other cars only play a part at the start of a race, since after the first few corners they're either way out in front or back in the distance. So, for 90% of the race you're only likely to see your own opponent cars, and even then you'll probably stay in front of the pack so you'll only really be challenged by one or two.

The game's graphics are quite solid and smooth, but don't really push the Xbox at all. The tracks, although well-textured in places, seem quite bland with few trackside objects and flat trees. The cars are probably the best bit, visually, with lots of polygons lavished on recreating the smooth bodywork and some nice, if slightly understated, realistic reflection effects. In fact, the game looks great when there are lots of cars on the screen, but the problem is that this only happens right at the start of a race, so the rest of the time things look quite average. The main surprise is the lack of special effects in the game, with little sign of depth focussing, heat effects or reflection of the sun off the track.

Sound doesn't fair much better than the graphics, with some fairly typical engine noises accompanied by some quite annoying voice bites that are played at the end of each lap. Fortunately, the game does offer background music, but this is very generic and forgettable, and there isn't even a setting to add your own MP3s from the Xbox's hard disk. Gameplay is slightly better, with the cars being pretty responsive and the game offering driving aids that can be turned on and off to suit both novice and expert gamers, although the much-vaunted artificial intelligence seems to leave much to be desired - a lot of the time opponent cars will simply drive into when trying to overtake!

Length is were Total Immersion Racing should excel, since although it only has ten tracks there's loads to do in the career and challenge modes. However, with both of these modes starting so slowly, and offering little incentive for continued play, the likelihood is that you'll get bored before you've unlocked most of the game's stuff, and leave it uncompleted. In a way it's a shame, since the game does have a fair bit of potential, but the game just lacks the action to make it addictive enough to play to the end, something which other racing games like GT3 have almost got down to a fine art.

Overall, while there's nothing wrong with Total Immersion Racing, it's lacking the core component of any game; the fun factor. Simulation addicts will no doubt find something to like about it, but I fear that it's a little too slow off the marks for the mainstream audience.

Marc Hull

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Review Summary:

Total Immersion Racing promises a highly detailed racing simulation, and offers something that is possibly a little too detailed. Every title has to balance out fun and realism, and TIR seems to sway too far away from the 'fun' side of things, providing a slightly slow and tedious game.

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