Drive Club... worth the wait?

Drive Club is a beautiful game. We have all seen the E3 demo's, read articles in magazines and on the internet as to how brilliant and amazing this game will be even although it has been delayed for a whole year.  The reason for the delays were to perfect the ultimate racing game which encourages multiplayer racing.  So the PlayStation Store finally had a copy of it on their PlayStation Store. I was hooked into the hype so thought nothing about parting with a bargain of £34.99 which was offered as an apology from Sony and the Studios involved for releasing a game which was supposed to be released on the same day as the console first launched. Let me get into the review.....

Beauty and the beast is a good way to describe Drive Club.  It really is amazing how the next gen platform games are coming along graphically.  Drive Club is no exception.  Backgrounds so beautiful you forget to see where the hell your going at 160 MPH. The cars have a level of detail we have not seen in a racing game before.  I have never seen light physics been put to this much of a test before either. Every indicator, paint glissen, or glass reflection has been done with intricate lighting techniques which only a next gen console or PC could handle.  It really is a masterpiece to look at.

What about the Cars and the Tracks? Pretty important in a racing game I would say. Well this is a
mixed bag. The Cars are perfect replicas. You could not tell any details which defect from the real thing. There is a good selection of cars but not hundreds. A few hand picked great cars worth driving. They have modeled them so well I can see why they did not go crazy building lots of cars. To build one of these must have taken forever. So hats off to the developers for this.  The tracks are another story. No real world maps are included. None. Not one. This for me was a massive let down. A huge hole in a racing game. They have made up their own tracks. None of which flow well or give you that technique and feedback making you feel the need to master the road ahead.  The tracks are mainly just sections of road in what they consider exotic locations, Scotland, India, Canada etc.. In those Countries there are a couple racetracks rather than roads. The tracks again are fictitious and lacking. They have no feel of a real racetrack. Poorly designed and I can't see how they will create great racing either. I have driven on them all and none have grabbed me as " a track I gotta improve on".  Okay, so Cars look good and the tracks suck for a dedicated racer.... what's the actual physics like...?

The physics are sadly again on my list of disappointments.  Far too close to an arcade racer, no competition to Forza. Not even competition to Sony's Gran Turismo range. I could put it in the same par as Project Gotham Racing. Personally I think that Project Gotham Racing was better also.  I really do not have a good feeling from the cars. The button mapping can be changed but do not let you use the sticks for accelerating and braking...the real only true way to control a simulator by easing on the brakes and slowly accelerating finding the limit of adhesion. Its trigger pull and trigger snap for braking. The cars waft round corners...sometimes I feel like the track is just going under you and your not actually in any real control of left and right... you just have to turn right when its right... turn left when its left. Okay there is a little more to it than that but it just doesn't cut the mustard. Forza has no rival. It is the only game I miss by leaving Microsoft and going to PlayStation.  So the physics are completely lackluster for a racing game.  The environmental physics on the other hand are great. Real night to day light changes, weather, leaves flying, the smoke from burnt rubber, all of that helps to its authenticity as a racing game but the car and track physics fall to short for the environment physics to overtake the let down.

Damage on the cars is present which is a welcomed addition to these types of games. I know that manufacturers generally do  not like Game Studios adding real world damage physics as they want their car represented in the best possible light. Well Drive Club have managed to somehow get over that with the manufacturers and included a limited damage system. Although I say damage is included we are talking purely aesthetic.  You can drive as fast and as hard as you like into any object without any real threat of anything except for loosing time. Once again very disappointing. Not every person will agree with me here...many find car damage very frustrating which I understand but at least turn damage off. At least have an option. Another let down which makes this game a stupid arcader dressed up to try and be something it will never be.

I am also disappointed with their method of starting a race. No Qualifying, just a random place on the grid which is never pole position.  No lights, not even a countdown, just "READY" and when that disappears, which happens way to soon, the race has begun. Their is no feeling of lining up on a grid, the need for a perfect start, any tactic to be thought about for heading into turn 1... its all just go and lets smash everyone out of the way as I dont even bother to brake for turn one...who cares? no damage, no costly effects, no thrill, no need to race. The more I write the more I hate this game. I am actually getting more and more disappointed as I write.

Well okay it's just a really pretty arcader, but isn't this all about the online elements of the game? Oh
my god...where does one start. The Developers have apologised....... their game doesn't work online yet. Yup.. thats the short of it. Its an online racer which is not working. If you have seen the news they are struggling to maintain their servers and they have all been overwhelmed. Okay... be slightly sympathetic, all games have a bump here and there on release. Battlefield 4 was the biggest bump I ever had hit before. Drive Club takes the biscuit. They have actually had to cancel some parts of the online play until they can fix it. Oh dear, the problem is you can't even get online. The servers are down all the time.  If you do manage to get online... the online racing is no better than any other game. They have taken a new angle to try and build online clans and teams to drive together in. I just cant see how this will hold any value if the game itself is not playable to any standard of a sim. Arcade bashing and crashing offers no skill reward and no reason to be in a team or even try to work together. Their is zero realism so why bother.

Overall what do I think? Sadly this is my let down of the year! or should I say "2 year let down", as thats how long we have waited for this. The driving physics are far too basic, their is no element of this to make it feel like a serious or realistic racer, its an arcade bash about with an online element which isn't strong enough to overcome the poor tracks, design and gameplay. I tell you what it is.... a creation of beauty and light dynamics.  It's the sort of thing I would watch as my computer did a benchmark test. About as fun as well. No replays, no strong driving connection, no roads worth learning and overall a complete waste.  I have driven all morning and afternoon to unlock a few cars, have no real excitement, definitely no heart pumping moments and I am more disappointment than 'an elephant without a trunk in a watering hole'. The short of this means a game with nothing new to offer the next gen. It's an arcade racer that we have all seen before. It is just prettier. No new concepts.  I think I would have accepted this if this is what they advertised it as. Unfortunately they claimed it was the future of racing and groundbreaking. None of these claims are true. Think I can't wait for PlayStation to finally come out with an amazing racing game. They need to get on it.

Will definitely be interested in "The Crew"... will review that when I get the chance to play it in on release day. Sounds like an arcader which offers a lot more than this!

GRAPHICS 9 / 10
GAMEPLAY 3/10
ONLINE 3/10 (if you can get on)
PHYSICS 3/10
TRACKS 3/10
OVERALL 4/10