Namco Bandai has released the first free to play Ridge Racer
into closed beta a few weeks ago and I thought I'd test it out. Ridge Racer:
Driftopia locks you into a impenetrable machine that somehow fuels itself from
smashing stuff up. Just don't hit that building head on, it isn't quite
indestructible.
I haven't played any of the other Ridge Racers, so I can't
compare this game to its predecessors. Instead I'll look at it as it is, a free
to play racing game. Driftopia isn't a single player game nor is it a
multiplayer game. The line gets blurred when the only game mode you can play is
sort of like you vs your ghost only the ghosts are players that have previously
raced on the course. Being an online racing game I was expecting to be racing
with people, be able to crash into them, to just have that human element there
as competition. Instead we are presented with an arcade time trial racer.
So how does it all work? When you enter a race you get to
decide which car you want to race. Your selection determines who your opponents
ghosts will be and before the race starts you can give your car a slight
advantage using the card system. Such advantages include 2Xboost and down
force. The card is used up after the race. While the card system is nice, there
are those cards that are obviously better than others. Perhaps the reason for
not having true multiplayer in the game as you can clear the track with an
early boost. This brings me to the boost system. You want boost and you want to
boost all the time. It propels your car faster forward and can be combo'ed
together to get the best results. To gain boost you have to either destroy
stuff or perform manoeuvres. After playing the game for a while you soon learn
what can and cannot be destroyed.
The cars in Driftopia feel good but in that arcade racer
way. It is very easy to start sliding all over the place. You can upgrade your
car when it levels up, your car levels up when you complete a number of races.
When your car levels up your repair costs go up and here is where the free to
play model starts to come into effect. While you can gain repair kits from
winning races, some cars can use up 10 repair kits and more if you crash them.
If you don't have enough repair kits or the cash for repair kits, remember
those car levels you raced so hard for? Well there gone now. This is a part of
the game that really annoyed me. I'm fine with being able to buy faster cars in
the cash shop or better cards for performance but when you get your car up to a
high level, which usually means it's going faster and that brick wall is a lot
harder to avoid, the repair cost starts to tally up. This feature also starts
to make the game grindy. You revert back to your starter car so you can gain
more repair kits so you can then go and race your better cars.
To get cars in Driftopia you have to first destroy them in
races. To destroy cars you can either hit them really hard, and I mean really
hard, or you can ram into them while boosting which turns your car into a
wrecking ball to all other racing cars. Once destroyed that car goes into the
challenge line-up of cars. When your car levels up you can race a one off
challenge race. You select the cars you want to race out of the line-up and you
have to beat them to unlock the cars. As I said you only get one chance at this
so if you crash, your challenge race is over and cannot be retried.
Moving on, the destruction in the game is great. The
environment reacts with buildings collapsing and statues falling apart. There
are shortcuts that require you to smash through shops and buildings which in
turn give you more boost. It would seem that this is Driftopias focus, having
almost everything destructible and the game encouraging you to take advantage
of that. I would of liked to see something similar to Need for Speed: Most
Wanted were you can drive through certain areas creating an unpassable
obstacle, however I believe this wasn't done because of the time trial manner
of the game and would end in countless amounts of rage every time you're
tailing someone and you end up getting destroyed.
The free to play element of the game allows you access to 2 free
garage slots, a free card booster pack every 24hrs and access to every racing
mode currently available including the tracks. You can purchase garage slots,
cars, cards and repair kits although not separately. They have to be bought in
packs starting from $2.49 or your regional equivalent. While I am content with
the model, there are some changes I would like to see such as unlockable garage
slots through game play and more repair kits given for placing in the first 3
of a race. If you like arcade racers, like to compete for the best lap times
and are satisfied with the free to play model then Ride Racer: Driftopia is a
quality racing game. If you want to be able to race your friends or other
people in a real multiplayer environment, have a large selection of cars and
racetracks then maybe this isn't the game for you. Ridge Racer: Driftopia is coming to PC and PS3
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