Comic vs. reality
The combination as an attempted photo reality and rather mediocre drawn comic naturally polarizes. But at least it sets the game apart from the usual NFS mush. Whether you like it because it seems childish in places, that’s something everyone has to decide for themselves. The beautiful thing about the human brain is that it gallantly fades out recurring trivialities. Ergo: the longer you play, the easier it is to ignore all that and concentrate on the essentials.
The city is well modeled, the vehicle models are anyway. From a purely visual point of view, the photo-realistic part is successful. It’s just that you have to get used to all the manga-for-poor-people characters with a subtle hint of the Bronx past. But at some point, even that succeeds. What really put me off at the beginning, however, were the comic effects while driving, which, contrary to announcements to the contrary in advance, cannot be turned off. Except that’s exactly what I meant by inanities and brains. So less drifting and it works again with the eye.. But at some point, even that succeeds. What really put me off at the beginning, however, were the comic effects while driving, which, contrary to announcements to the contrary in advance, cannot be turned off. Except that’s exactly what I meant by inanities and brains. So less drifting and it works again with the eye.
Modification and tuning options
While I find my alter ego rather meh and can’t even begin to identify with any of the selectable characters due to the lack of options, the vehicle models and tuning parts have been implemented with full enthusiasm. The whole thing lacks a bit of the gloss of Forza Horizon 5 visually, but it’s a different game for that. Copying would also be uncool. However, a directly accessible test drive after trimming the vehicle setup like in NFS UG2 would certainly not have been a stupid idea. So you have to be careful that the police don’t catch you and the eternal loading between garage and free ride is completely annoying.
The visual options for Pimp-my-Ride are quite extensive and you can really spend hours tinkering with the parts, repainting everything and trimming the body to ghetto pimp style:
Performance can also be improved, but you always have to keep an eye on the current vehicle performance group. Otherwise, you may no longer be able to participate in the races that you would have liked to. But: the individual tuning of NFS UG2 is also unrivaled here and the chassis tuning is rather characterized by random hits. It’s a shame, but it also kind of fits the times when kids have an attention span the size of a pin.
Sound samples and sound tracks
I actually would have liked other options besides all the hip-hop and rap remixing. Underground 2’s song list was truly legendary and top-notch. Nevertheless, you can also handle the titles from Unbound, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. After all, not only acne plantations play here and even for this clientele, apart from a few top-class international performers, not everything is so hip that booms so hop and uses Auto-Tune. But it fits a lot of situations, so you can let that go. An own, importable song selection would have been the crowning glory. But it’s like the savegames here: narrow fare, because it all repeats itself far too often. The car sound, on the other hand, is okay, even if some tuning options don’t make any difference at all in terms of sound, which is a bit inconsistent in the implementation.
Gameplay with joystick and keyboard
You can feel the console influence on the game a bit. The controls with my XBox Elite Wireless are good and, for an arcade-heavy driving style, reasonably accurate. The keyboard is a bit “rough” in places, but this is of course a matter of getting used to it. The menu navigation is also a bit convoluted, but that’s just about enough. Sometimes, however, you really wish for a mouse support. There is actually hardly any reason to grumble here, even if you cannot configure all keys freely (gamepad). But you can also bend a lot of things beforehand with suitable software.
The lack of the common rubber-band AI is really commendable, and the AI of the opponents quite as well. They sometimes crash into each other or against something, which makes every race much more varied. This is where I see the real strength of the new game, because the programmed omnipotence of the opponents is blown away. They even drive really well (depending on the difficulty level), but are anything but flawless, which makes it all a bit more plausible. This also applies to the (somewhat too) intrusive police from APB level 3.
The betting system and the individual race types have been implemented well and it is always fun to have to weigh the risk and your own skills against each other. Because you can also go bankrupt. And then it’s back to grind until the doctor comes. I don’t want to spoil more than that, even though much of it seems quite familiar. The lack of rubber band opponents, on the other hand, finally sets the new title apart from the force-triggered masses. Thanks for that.
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