 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Namco |
| Publisher: | Namco | |
| Genre: | Racing | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 (2-14 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (content DL, leaderboards), Hard Drive (custom soundtracks while watching replays) | |
| Buy Now: |   |
If there was one genre the Xbox 360 launch lineup was strong in…well that would be the FPS genre. If there were two however, the second one would be the Racing genre. Thus Ridge Racer 6, despite being a launch title, already faces some strong competition from Project Gotham Racing 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Unfortunately, the fact that Namco chose to deliver mostly the status quo means this game is probably the worst of the three. That doesn't mean it's a bad game though.
If you're new to the series, the first thing you should know is that realism plays very little of a role. That begins with the gameplay. Ridge Racer 6 is an arcade drift racer, which means that the brakes are basically not needed. When going around curves, instead of applying the brake you simply drift the car through the turn by letting off of the gas slightly, then turning into the curve and flooring it. Traveling 180MPH through a sharp turn while drifting would never work in reality, but for fans of this kind of racer that unrealistic nature of the gameplay is part of the appeal. Still, it does mean that racing requires very little technique, even with the nitrous system that adds a little bit of strategy to it all (in other words, you have to figure out that you should use it on straight-aways).
The A.I. doesn't exactly help spice things up either. Other cars drive in their pre-programmed lanes, putting up very little of a fight (usually only if you accidentally get in their way) when you pass them. They don't try to bump you (or each other) off course, and they never make random mistakes resulting in hitting the wall or spinning out. Of course, that doesn't matter much anyway since there's no way to actually crash in the game…hit a wall and you simply slow down. So, the real competition comes more from starting in last place and the length of the course itself than the A.I. drivers.
So with very little technique to master, it's up to the rest of the game to keep the player interested despite the simplistic gameplay. Here Namco does a decent job, but not nearly enough to compensate. Of course, the big selling point in Ridge Racer 6 is that for the first time ever you can now play a Ridge Racer game online. Online modes include head-to-head with other players, a Global Time Attack mode that ranks everyone's best times, and the ability to download the ghost data of other racers to hone your skills against. It's not the most robust online feature set ever and doesn't even begin to compete with PGR3, but it's enjoyable and gets the job done. Unfortunately, it's already becoming difficult at times to find other players online to compete against (my guess is that's due to several better online-enabled games being released at the same time).
The other big addition to the series is the career mode, also known as World Xplorer. This is basically a big grid of over 230 races dubbed the Ridge Universe, with the player beginning on the left-hand side of the grid. As you progress from left to right, you'll unlock (primarily) new cars and encounter ever-increasing difficulty. While it's commendable that Namco at least made the effort to add some depth here, it mostly just feels shallow and tacked on. Each car you unlock will feel the same as the others in its class and drift type (Mild, Standard, or Dynamic), with only different body styles and slightly improved top speeds to differentiate them. And it's not like you're constantly exploring new areas either, as throughout the single-player mode you race the same basic courses over and over again with slightly different rule sets. So on the whole, the cars aren't that big of an incentive to keep pushing ahead and seeing the same fictional locales over and over again grows old fast.
So with simplistic arcade gameplay and a lame single-player mode, the game should at least look good right? Well, it sorta does. The cars are the high point, as they look fantastic. The fictional cars sport a variety of different looks (many Namco-themed of course), made up of plenty of polygons and sporting a number of crystal clear decals. Having different odometer displays for most models is also a nice touch. Graphically it's all downhill from there however, beginning with the environments. While they look OK for the most part (mountain sides and objects on the horizon look a little original Xbox-ish though), the environments are devoid of life. The trademark helicopter and airplane flyovers are still out in full force, but other than a few birds, fireworks and windmills there's virtually nothing going on besides the race itself. If a developer isn't going to base their game's environments around real-world locales, the least they can do is make their fictional ones interesting. The lighting is also weak, with car headlights that have no noticeable effect on their surroundings and racing at night that looks virtually the same as racing during the day aside from some painted-on shadows. Other than driving straight towards the sun itself, no other light sources have a real impact on gameplay or act like actual light sources.
The sound is similarly divided between the great and the not so great. The great is the music, with a funky techno/Japanese soundtrack that works very well. The not so great begins and ends with the announcer, who's horrible. The very first note I took for this review while playing was "announcer must die", which means it only took a race or two for me to realize how annoying he is. And while I didn't mean it in a literal sense, I sincerely hope I at least never hear him in another video game. He repeatedly says the word "nitrous" like a third grader excitedly talking about a classmate letting out farts ("Somebody used some craaaazzzy nitrous!"), approximately 1 gazillion times per race. Even when he's not saying the word nitrous, he's still spouting off lame one-liners in a voice that combines the worst traits of Vanilla Ice and Chris Rock (think about that for a second). The only saving grace is that you can turn him off.
Bottom Line:
Ridge Racer 6 does what it sets out to do and little else, and that's just not enough when the MSRP is $60 and there are alternatives like Need for Speed: Most Wanted and PGR3 available. If you've enjoyed past Ridge Racer games you'll enjoy this one too, but those looking for a bit of a challenge or a more realistic experience should look elsewhere.
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6.5 |
Posted: 2005-12-04 14:32:24 PST