M.O.O.R. Than Meets the Eye - Test Drive Unlimited

The majority of us will never get to experience Hawaii, thus left to live vicariously through others who are lucky enough to visit. Even fewer ever get the chance to get behind the wheel of the most exotic automobiles like an Enzo Ferrari or a Lamborghini – even a Corvette for that matter. The possibility of combining the two is beyond the dreams of all but the richest people in the world...and even then it might be a stretch. Ah, but the power of video games can grant us concepts beyond our wildest imaginations – and that's what Atari and Eden Studios have provided with Test Drive Unlimited. Part racing game, part lifestyle game, TDU is one of those games that demonstrates the prime directive of the medium – to provide whoever is behind the controller a chance to do something they'd never be able to do in our cruel, vile, very real existences.

The entire island of Oahu has been recreated for Test Drive Unlimited, which equates to roughly 1000 square miles. Obviously as I've never set foot on the islands, there's no way to completely vouch its accuracy, but judging by the scenic views, waterfalls, plantations, and hip shopping districts, I'd say it's pretty realistic. It's a bit creepy to drive around and see nary a pedestrian – apparently everyone is out driving – but it's not something I thought about much after a few hours of play. Besides, you'll be driving much too fast to pay attention to clueless tourists anyway, and instead wind up ramming into them on the road. Why waste the processing power when you could be rendering the beautiful scenery that can be so stunning that you'll get into at least a few collisions with AI cars admiring it? Though huge, it's possible to navigate easily, by using the GPS to either guide you along the way, or if you've already been to one of the hundreds of destinations before, a simple warp is all that's needed.

Most racing games have an online lobby...in this game, Oahu is the lobby. Upon arriving in Hawaii after a very brief introduction where you choose an avatar (to give yourself a semblance of existence rather than being faceless, I suppose), buy a home to store vehicles, and pick up a cheap ride of your own (such as the Saturn Sky, my starter car), and learn the mechanics of the game, you're plugged into the TDU servers and the game becomes something of an MMO. Seriously. Dubbed Massively Open Online Racing, or M.O.O.R (trademark Atari), this MMO-styled concept places you onto the roads along with possibly thousands of other, human controlled cars via Xbox Live. As long as you're connected, the game automatically signs you in, even if you have zero interest in dealing with others. That said, it's possible to separate yourself from the online aspect, by either not logging in, or by filtering out everything related to it.

Though billed as an MMO-styled racer, it's still a very robust single player game. There's over 100 events to complete, be it races with AI cars, time trials, and the odd speed challenge that requires you to hit checkpoints at high speed to earn points. In particular, the speed challenges can be amazingly frustrating – nothing like reaching a checkpoint and either slamming a wall or colliding into the frustrating AI traffic that's either the worst recreation of other cars or the very best simulation of horrible drivers – I'm not really sure whether to damn them or praise because it's both stupid and uncannily realistic because most drivers in reality are stupid. But I digress. The bizarre thing is some race events do feature traffic as an enemy, while others have no traffic at all – while others yet combine traffic with an evil 'driving skill-o-meter' that tacks on a time penalty for hitting things and going off the road.

Combined with the hundred or so race events, TDU has another hundred challenge-style dealies that really push driving skills over anything else. Scattered around the city areas are 30 tired supermodels who are tired because they have been out shopping and probably throwing up in bathrooms & need a lift – and fast. Sometimes, they even require a certain car to pick them up, and even then they will trash talk your ride. It's like high school. Even more amusing, there are 30 kidnapping, I mean hitchhiker challenges where you pick up someone left stranded out in the middle of nowhere and drive them to their destination at high speeds. Most of these would be easy if it wasn't for that driving skill-o-meter thingy that will scare off your model or hitchhiker if you are reckless. Both of these reward you with coupons that play into the lifestyle aspect of the game. Throw in fun courier & vehicle delivery missions (the latter of which has no time limit, but your earnings reduce by driving like a moron) and there's quite a robust single player game. The only downer compared to the race challenges is they don't appear on your map until you come across them, making it very difficult to unlock unless you explore every nook and cranny of the map.

The solo game seamlessly blends into the overall online design quite well. Scattered on the map are both single and multiplayer challenges, along with online-exclusive clubs and diners. Clubs are where you can assemble a team of drivers, clan-style, and then compete against other clubs, and diners are pretty self-explanatory – it's a throwback to the 1950's diner days when people would bring their rides, show them off, and then race around to win the girl or a free milkshake. I don't know for sure, I was born in 1979 and don't own a time machine. Through the use of in-game filters, it's possible to remove all the online or offline events – or anything in-between, making it easier to find what you're looking for. The user-friendliness of Test Drive Unlimited is astounding and makes it a much more enjoyable game – given how many of these open-world games can be extremely confusing, TDU is a breath of fresh air.

Test Drive Unlimited manages to toe the line between realism and arcade, but it comes close to crossing that line. The cars take absolutely no damage, though the pedestrian traffic does get smashed up if you collide with them. There's a slight learning curve to making sense of the handling, but after a while powersliding around corners and navigating traffic at 150 MPH becomes easy, though some cars are a bit looser than others. The downer is the AI when playing single player races is a bit weak and can be exploited easily – the AI heavily slows down when taking corners, so mastering that crucial driving skill makes almost every race a cakewalk if you've got the right car. The traffic AI is even more annoying, but I have to give them credit because in reality it's probably the best representation of how people really drive – that being, most people don't actually know how to drive. Watching them change lanes at will, with no apparent reason, or even more amusingly, seeing them swap lanes and immediately come back into the other lane can lead to unnecessary crashing and then hiding from The Law when they go all O.J on you – no sir, I didn't hit that car, but if I did, here's how I'd do it.

But as much as it's a racing game, Test Drive Unlimited is also a sort of lifestyle game. When not out racing, there's homes to buy, cars to purchase, and clothes to fashion your on-screen avatar with. The homes are not just for show, as if you have a large car collection, there's gotta be a place to store them, and that's the basic function. The cheaper homes have 4 spots, while others can have 10 and above but they're quite costly. And believe me, you'll need the space, as the car selection is ginormous – but don't expect many clunkers, as the least luxurious car is one of the starter cars, the Saturn Sky. Instead, there's roughly 100 different high-end cars, ranging from American Mustangs and Corvettes, to plenty of Ferrari's and Lamborghini's, European wonders like Lotus and Aston Martin even some lesser-known brands (to non-car enthusiasts) like Maserati – even some motorcycles are there to use like Kawasaki and Ducati. There's a lack of emphasis on Asian cars, with only a few available such as the Nissan Skyline (and that's only available online through the Marketplace, albeit free), but that's a nice switch given how all these tuner car games have dominated the racing genre. Every one of these cars are excellently recreated from the real deal, and though they take no visible damage, they otherwise are extremely lifelike.

Winning the hitchhiker and top model challenges don't give out cash like everything else, but instead coupons to use at stores to buy clothes. It's a bit...weird I suppose to be buying clothes in a racing game, but hey, it's there and it helps make your character different from the others when out on the online town, and there's a couple achievements tied to buying stuff. It's actually a good thing that there's clothes to separate your avatars, because there's not a whole lot of variety to character models – it's creepy as hell to buy a car from a salesperson who looks exactly like you, just with different clothes. And that's not even going into how many of the character models would likely better fit in as zombies in Dead Rising. But hey, it's a racing game, and the cars at least are easy on the eyes.

Final Thoughts
At $40, Test Drive Unlimited is an absolute steal – even with Atari hoping to get more money through microtransactions, the game is still full-featured and far from an incomplete product that will force you to buy add-ons. TDU is the epitome of a sleeper hit – considering how it's been years since the franchise has truly been relevant, this one came out of nowhere. It needs some work in the AI department and some other less important areas (i.e. the built in soundtrack is awful aside from the classical station, and some of the voice acting is atrocious), but this is without question the best racing game on Xbox 360 in the year 2006, and at a budget price, anyone with a passing interest in the game should give Test Drive Unlimited a shot to see what happens when racing games evolve into something beyond what's been seen in the past.