Road Wars Review

Racing games market is rich with titles, but unfortunately, a couple of companies have a monopoly on that genre (you know, EA, Sierra...). Sometimes UbiSoft, or Psygnosis releases something, and that's it. However, from time to time, a relatively unknown company releases a good game that turns on the hordes of players with something new, for example, when Melbourne House struck gold with Dethkarz...

My colleague Bunny has talked me into trying a new arcade race Road Wars designed by (in my case) unheard of developers - Interactive Visions/Phenom Productions. He claims: "... it's a great game that has hooked many players already." So, at one of my lunch breaks, while I was concentrating on an enormous Sub, I forgot about his pervert taste and the fact that his desktop is full of folders containing "Tokyo Cute Girls", and other nonsense, and carelessly said "OK, pass the CD..." That was the mistake I shouldn't have made...

I really like these night races...

Look at me, I'm semi-visible...

The developers claim "Road Wars is a cutting-edge vehicular combat racing game set in the not-so-distant-future" (How do I know that? Well, I read it on the official Web Site, since the game doesn't have an intro that would explain anything). You enter the menu directly, and it generally looks as if it was set in the (not)-so-distant-past. All game menus look appalling. At first, I though that it was a poor PSX conversion. But, then again, all such porting jobs that I played had better menus. These look as though they have been grabbed from a TV, and saved as low-quality, 90% compression JPEGs. Not only is the resolution terrible, but also the fonts are such that in combination with poor colors, form unintelligible lines, especially if they are small. I wouldn't exaggerate if I said that some screens in the game appear as if they were done in EGA graphics. Oh, and I almost forgot, there is no support for the mouse in the menus! Spooky!

The game thrusts you into the role of a Road Warrior, member of The Road Wars Association (RWA), responsible for this insane competition, which is driven on special tracks that can host a bunch of drivers with their ludicrous vehicles. There are three single player modes (Quick race, Single race and Season race), and the inevitable multi-player. All driving is confined to 12 tracks, which are equipped with tanks, cannons and similar gadgets, and their purpose is to crudely obstruct the players, besiedes the fact they bash the hell out of one another. The tracks are colorful, and generally resemble those in Test Drive 5, and Need For Speed 3. (Although they are nowhere near the quality of the latter mentioned.) You speed passed cities, deserts, forests, some kind of coliseum... etc. The biggest flaws are the poor texturing and modest interaction... The objects show no intention of budging, even if you ran them over at 120 MPH. It is exceptionally stupid that everything in the game (gates, posts, trees...) stop you in your tracks. Another problem with the tracks is their ample linearity. Only a small number of tracks include "track-branching", or some "hidden" paths or passages between two buildings (shortcuts?). This means the distance between two in-game points can be crossed in several ways. In all other cases, no matter how dirty this ride appears, you are confined to strictly defined routes...

In general, the graphics look "rough-edged" (even in higher resolutions). The models look extremely non-anti-aliased, and the texturing is bad. The trees, for example, are presented in crummy 2D sprites, and the textures "pasted" on the walls and the signs by the road don't look much better, either. Special effects of the weapons and nitro boost, on the other hand, look good. But the game has no support for dynamic lighting... I hadn't noticed the flashes or explosions illuminating the surroundings, and neither did the surrounding objects shed light on the car. During the whole race, the cars had the same color, so entering a tunnel doesn't make them less visible, or any brighter while passing under a streetlight, for that matter.

There are 12 cars, and as many tracks, and each car comes with one tough hombre, or bitch driver (7 drivers are females, the rest have hairy chest, and testosterone): Bud The Crud, Niki RoadKill, Sarge.... In Interactive Visions, they claim that, not only is each car unique, but the characters (drivers) make it special as well. Certain characters receive special treatment in the game. One such character is the mechanic, who receives discounts when repairing, and buying items in the garage. If you ask me, of all the characters, Daisy is just getting the royal treatment in this game. So, go figure what the developers had in mind when they created her character! Why, you ask? She is a long legged blonde that drives a hot retro-looking big-ass-cruise-mobile, that's why! (Hey, I'd give you the same treatment if you were a "long legged..." -Ed.)

Just you try passing me, you'll get a rocket!

Ooops, that was close!

The car seems to have a good grip, and at first, it reminded me of Driver. However, it didn't take long, before I started discovering its defects... For example, they don't have hand-brakes and at high speed, the car steers sluggishly... Breaking ahead of a curve, and then adding throttle after entering the bend doesn't reduce the skidding. As I mentioned before, head collisions at incredible speeds make the car stop, instantly. There is some car damage, but nothing major; the force of the impact doesn't throw you back, you simply stop. On the other hand, lateral impacts, hitting the railing, and getting hit by missiles almost always make the car spin like wild?!

Similar to the textures of the menus and the surrounding, the car textures are just as unimpressive. (OK, the first thing these guys in the development team should do with their profits, is to buy a quality paint software --- PhotoShop or something...) I'm not sure if the game has memory problems, but texturing was often buggy, or even "disappearing", and the cars sometimes became semitransparent, or pink... Now, I know that "Alt-Tab" combination is not recommendable in every game (it was an accident, I swear...) but in this one, it produced the weirdest texture effects. The first time I accidentally pressed "Alt-Tab", and resumed the game, the otherwise messed up textures returned to normal (?), and each time I did it again, it gave a different, strange-looking color to my car.

Collisions cause damage to chassis and ruin the paint job. This is something you should avoid, (yeah, like I needed to tell you that) since every repair costs... This becomes a problem in Season Race, where you have only one car at your disposal. If you don't have enough money to repair the car, or maybe upgrade it, you'll go back on track with the damaged vehicle. If you, however, come across some cash, apart from the necessary repairs on your car, you can always upgrade it with engines, armor, wheels, weapons, and other special add-ons. The richer you get, the more money you can splash on these components, since they come in cheaper and more expensive versions.

The game can be viewed from several angles, including the TV view. I discovered that the default view suited me most. There is no rear view mirror, which is a little awkward... Only a key that lets you use the "rear view" option. An objection is understandable having in mind the cockpit view - the one with the visible dashboard. Prepare yourself for a drastic decrease in FPS, if you decide to play from this view.

The sound effects, for a change, are much better than the visual segment. The sounds of the engine, collision, and other effects are very well done. The 15 music tracks composed exclusively for Road Wars are a nice touch. Each character/car comes with accompanying music that varies from hefty HC to techno. The scores are the work of a US synth-rock band "godhead".

In the end, all I can do is to thank my colleague with a "refined" taste, who offered me the opportunity to play Road Wars. Yep, thanks again Bunny, just tell me once more, why did you want me to take this game? Is it because you can see a girl's tit on the official Web page? Or is it because of Daisy? You weirdo... (Why's he a weirdo, if he likes Daisy? I don't get it. -Ed.)