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| Title |
Street Racing Syndicate |
5 |
| Publisher |
Namco |
| Developer |
Eutechnyx |
| Genre |
Street racing |
| Players |
1-4 |
| Version |
US NTSC |
Good and bad
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The street racing phenomenon hit the mainstream spotlight a few years ago with the release of the Vin Diesel hit, The Fast and the Furious. Since then there have been various game releases looking to capitalise on the popularity of this illegal sport. Street Racing Syndicate is Namco?s foray into this genre. With a lot of experience in creating racing games, can this title live up to expectations?
While street racing is certainly not my cup of tea, I entered into this game with an open mind and was pleasantly surprised. Unsurprisingly the game takes you into the underworld street racing scene and allows you to compete in various racing events in order to win money and respect. Although there is the obligatory arcade mode that allows you to race the various tracks within the game, the real meat and potatoes of the game takes place in the street race mode. Here you start off as a lowly in a street racing crew. After winning your first race you are given enough money to buy your own ride and get started on your own.
Pimping out your ride is clearly something the creators of this game wanted the player to take an interest in with various vinyls and stickers to adorn the body along with a multitude of upgrades to tweak your engine, brakes, suspension etc. However, not being a car enthusiast I found this process, especially early in the game, to be incredibly tiresome. I only wanted to start racing yet I was forced to choose on what set of electronics I wanted or what tires I wanted to drive around on. I am sure that fans of such systems will enjoy tweaking a great deal, but for typical arcade racers there is nothing but chores here.
From here you are able to drive around the city of LA in order to find races, crew meets, sanctioned races and respect challenges. The city is large and affords the ability to drive wherever you like, however I found it rather tedious doing so and there is very little point other than getting chased down by the police. I found it much easier to just select the location from the map and jumping there directly. The main aim of the game is to drive in crew meets where you can place wagers and win money. There are three GPs per meet but you can only race each GP by earning enough respect and/or upgrading your car so it meets the entry level. If you do not have enough money to enter a meet then you can enter a sanctioned race which takes place on actual race courses, rather than through the streets. These are fairly straight forward races and can earn you some serious cash early on in the game.
Along with the crew meets you can challenge various racers around the map to single challenges to make a little spare change, or your can take a respect challenge. The respect challenge is basically a way of impressing one of the 18 real world car models in order to be your girlfriend. By completing their challenge they will accompany you back to your warehouse where you can watch a video of them dancing. You can then hook up with them so that they will ride with you, and by completing crew meets you can unlock up to two more videos of them. The videos serve very little purpose than eye candy, but they are least give the player something to aim for. However, while the girls don?t seem to have a problem being locked up in your warehouse ready for you to choose them, they don?t like you losing races, as doing so will make them leave you and go out with a rival racer. The only way thus to get them back is to challenge them to a one on one race. Its not exactly a world renowned dating simulation, but it adds a little enjoyment to an otherwise one set game.
The actual racing in the game is fairly fun but since you are continuously racing different parts of the same city over and over it can become a bit tedious. A bit of variety wouldn?t have gone amiss. Certainly the same could be said for the selection of cars. 40 real life cars are available through unlocking, but many of them are simply variations, such as special editions with no real change, of the same car. Thus, while you may want to collect them all at some point, there are very few that will pose an actual challenge to the other racers in the game when you get further on, which basically means you?re stuck with the Nissan Skyline whether you like it or not.
While the game requires the player to tweak their car in the garage and repair damage after races, the actual racing is a mix between simulation and arcade. Racing purists may find the lack of depth here somewhat annoying whilst fans of arcade racing may not like having to repair their car all the time or having to refill their nitrous systems manually at the garage. It seems that Namco haven?t quite gotten the balance right yet here which may be a problem for many players.
Graphically the game is nicely polished and each car has multiple levels of damage which reacts realistically to the world. While some of the races take place during the day, the majority are at night allowing the impressive lighting engine to take effect. Lights reflect realistically off of the wet tarmac and the cars and flare according to the movement of the camera. The city is also nicely constructed, although offers little character when compared to a game such as Burnout 3.
In terms of music there is again a severe lack of variety. While the music is suitable for the style of game, there are very few tracks and Xbox users are even unable to use their own custom soundtracks, something that is really inexcusable. All other sounds in the game are fairly generic racing noise so nothing really new is offered here.
The game also lacks a certain longevity seen in most racing games. Although the arcade mode will see some use after street mode is completed, there isn?t really enough depth in the racing like in a game such as Project Gotham, to keep you coming back once all challenges are met and you have all women safely locked away in storage. There is thankfully an Xbox Live option as well as system link, but these too wear thin eventually.
Overall the game offers enough to keep you entertained for a weekend or so and is enjoyable enough for that time period. Fans of Project Gotham style racing games or street racing in general should find this easy enough to pick up but I wouldn?t say it is a game for everyone. There are worse racing games out there so if you feel you must pick this game up you probably won?t be disappointed. Everyone else I suggest trying before you buying as the subject matter is fairly esoteric and not necessarily to everyone?s tastes.
Visit the official site here.
Seth Powell |
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