For 35 years, the Test Drive series has offered a something a bit different. In its earliest days, it was a rare series that featured more realistic racing environments. Many games at the time focused on having an emphasis on speed and exaggerated stages.Test Drive II - The Duel, for example, featured a much slower pace to the action, but with that placing a greater emphasis on the driving experience. True to its name, the one-on-one nature of the events alongside police involvement offered something more reality-based than the norm and became an early gaming highlight as a result. The series continued on into the PS1 days with many games using the moniker – at the expense of hurting the value of the brand beyond top-tier games likeTest Drive Le Mans 24 Hours.
The last time we saw the Test Drive franchise wasTest Drive Unlimited 2on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and whileSolar Crownmay bear some influence from more modern games like Forza Horizon andGTA Onlinewith its nightlife decor, the original TDU was a trailblazer too when it came to showcasing a large online world long before Horizon. KT Racing takes the helm withTDU: Solar Crownand has clearly used their experience with WRC games in the past to deliver a satisfying racing experience.TDU: Solar Crowncontinues on with the Solar Crown competition inTDU 2and a luxury vibe throughout the entire experience. The in-world exploration of places like showrooms and hotels adds a layer of reality to things that aren’t normally seen in racing games. That aspect of the experience reminded me a lot ofGTA Online’sand actually the first-person exploration inWWF SmackDown Just Bring Itwith how the walking speed is.
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Rapid Racing Action
Exploring the area is fun, but time-consuming and the attempt at world-building with exploration helps a lot when it comes to making the world feel lived-in. Things like car meetups and especially the in-game club environment add a sense of realism to things that aren’t in other big open-world racers. I wouldn’t say that the world feels fully alive, though, as there aren’t people roaming streets and traffic is subdued on Hong Kong Island when you aren’t in races. The racing action is the best the series has seen yet, with handling that feels natural across the board and a better sense of speed too. One issue prior games suffered from was feeling like the vehicles were floating above the ground and there wasn’t a great sense of speed during intense racers or control when you needed intricate movement.
The racing action is the best the series has seen yet, with handling that feels natural across the board and a better sense of speed too.
Now, handling for things like time trials that require more precision feels just as nice as regular races – where you have more flexibility in making mistakes or using your rivals to your advantage. Personally, using rival cars to nudge myself towards the front of the pack comes in handy at getting an early edge, although it does carry with it a fair amount of risk. If it pays off, then I can find myself in first or second place right away and that allows for an easier time during the race itself. If it doesn’t work out smoothly and I get spun out, however, then it’s time to hold a button down to reset my place on the track and set myself further back in the field.
Rain-Slicked Beauty
One downside to this being an online-only racer is that there’s no rewind function or any in-game pausing feature. Much likeThe Crew Motorfest, you can be sent back to a menu due to inactivity, but it takes far longer for that issue to kick in here than it did in Motorfest where a simple bathroom break could send you back to the main menu and lead to dealing with its cumbersome menus to get back to where you were. Here, the menus are more user-friendly and you get sent right back into the game world a la the Forza Horizon series.
The biggest issues plaguing the game so far are its online-only requirements. If the servers are down for any reason, then the game itself is completely unplayable beyond just a basic main menu. This makes sense to an extent, but hurts the player experience if you have a single day off and want to play and the game is offline that day. During our testing, we also had issues with car unlocks not showing up right away - including an attempted car purchase early in the day that just brought up error messages in real-time before showing as being bought during a later play session. This kind of issue is something I’ve never seen before and it makes me hope that an offline mode is added into Solar Crown down the line to greatly expand its long-term lifespan.
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Racing and Reality Intertwined
Visually, TDU SC is a looker in the areas that matter most to a large-scale racing game. The environments all have an impressive level of detail, with things like store signage being visible and helping make the world seem a more real on a superficial level. It isn’t quite like watching an old cartoon with the same two stores in the background and having a version of Hong Kong Island rooted in reality with its map allows the racing environments to feel more organic. One issue that hurtThe Crew Motorfestwasthe feeling that while it was taking place in an area replicating reality, you’d have these branched-off sections of the island that just looked like something out of the neon-soaked Batman movies of the late ’90s that didn’t visually fit in with everything else.
Everything has a consistent visual tone inSolar Crownand the addition of areas like clubs allows the player to see how much work went into the lighting of environments and also of people. The character models are the weakest point of the graphics and reminded me of the avatar in the first Forza Horizon where I thought that it would be better to not showcase that – but when it a club, the action figure-esque single-tone skin gets nice lighting on it to make everything look more organic and people are generally in clothing that’s flattered by the lighting as well. Vehicles pop during nighttime races and even more during nighttime exploration when you can enjoy what’s in front of you without having to worry about the race outcome itself.
Solar Crowndelivers the goods more often than not when it comes to audio. The dance and pop-infused soundtrack also has rap in the mix and a fair amount of diversity, so while there’s nothing as defining to it as CHVRCHES was for the earlyForza Horizongames, there’s a solid in-game playlist to enjoy. The impact of crashes is also satisfying, and being surrounded by other cars trading paint has an excitement to it thanks to the blend of graphical sparks and audio crunch. WhereSolar Crownfalters with its audio lies in the voicework, which has logical AI in the form of the GPS and also kind of lifeless voice work when it comes to the characters. There’s no sense of true character here, just archetypes like Clubgoer and Organizer. There’s no depth to a performance or a reason to remember them and that’s a missed opportunity.
Illuminate the World
Closing Comments:
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crownoffers up a lot of fun both on the track and in its simulated world. A lot of work was put in to make Hong Kong Island feel like a realistic place with far more exploration than one is used to in a racing game. Some of those elements don’t hit perfectly, but the on-track performance is what counts the most and Solar Crown largely succeeds there. Races are fun and even on-foot exploration offers up something that helpsSolar Crownstand out. Unfortunately, the online-only component of things complicates far more of the experience than it benefits and causes odd problems to occur that makes it tough to fully recommendSolar Crown.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown
Version Reviewed: Xbox Series X
