The racing game PS4 owners have been waiting for?
DriveClub had somewhat of expectation attached to it, as one of the first major racing games to hit the PS4…with the exception of last year’s Need for Speed, it had the difficult task of living up to gamers’ hype…but how does it perform?
The career is a little archaic and restrictive in its design, you are given 3 objectives in each event and completing each one will gain you a star towards unlocking other events, almost like Angry Birds if you want to imagine such a thing. You start out with a very limited car catalogue, as you would expect and obviously get better cars as you progress…but it feels like a very by-the-numbers approach.
It’s basic at its core, which isn’t a bad thing…it just lacks innovation or originality. I also had to fumble around with the options just to enable background music, otherwise all races were just silent with the exception of the noises that the cars made. It handles well for the most part, although it’s not always perfect and the game does tend to have a heart attack if you venture off course for a split second, flashing on screen that it’ll reset you to the track in 3 seconds.
A lot has been said about the game’s multiplayer, which is good when it works, when it works. It’s had some issues with lag, connectivity and in some cases, being unplayable. It does feel a little better now, but it’s still got a long way to go till it’s worth investing your time into.
Visually, the game looks pretty good. The cars are nicely detailed, showing cosmetic damage as you bump and crash into other cars and parts of the tracks, while the courses themselves are nice on the eye, although the lighting effects do need a little work. Other than that, it looks the part…while the sound is average, even more so when you don’t have the music turned on.
The Verdict
DriveClub isn’t the racing game that fans have been waiting for, but it does have potential hiding away that needs unlocking. Once it’s up and running without issues online, then it may just fill the void until the next big racer.
