When it was announced, I was slightly interested in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (oh great name) because of my recent attraction to racing games, especially arcade games like this one. The last good games I remember enjoying were Need for Speed Unbound and The Crew Motorfest, which are not new for being highly criticized games.
So, when I saw the specialized critics bad-mouthing the game, I thought it might be a case similar to those mentioned above. Pure illusion, much to my chagrin. For me, the word that best defines this return to the Test Drive franchise is boring. Obviously this is a personal taste, and there are people who like it, after all, we have players at very high levels playing it, albeit few.
This point even brought up a very uncomfortable situation for me. As I understand it, the game only works online, at least when the internet is present. I believe that due to the small number of players, I received a flurry of almost desperate party invitations from a few players, even though my status was offline on PSN. It's not a problem with the game itself, but it was indirectly caused by it.
How does the game work?
But let's get down to business, which is how the game works, but you can relax, I promise I won't go on too long. There's nothing new in terms of structure here, but there are things to comment on. It's a totally arcade racing game, so you can expect a variety of racing modes here, some more traditional and some more different.
The game has a few levels of notoriety, which you increase as you earn XP by completing races. Initially, there aren't many races to do, but as you level up, more races are released. But in my opinion, the races are released very slowly, and this becomes very tiring.
Open world, but very difficult to understand...
The game is open-world, with a reasonably large map inspired by Hong Kong. Given the size of the map, I found the UI for the events and locations on the map to be very poor. The icons are very small, to the point where you have to zoom in considerably to identify what they are.
It's hard to understand what it's about, which mode, if we've raced, if we've won, if the car we're in is compatible or not. And I'm not trying to be annoying here, I'm just asking for it because all this information is available in the game, but it's difficult to see. But I wouldn't complain if this information was only available when you click on the item, which is also the case here.
Join the clan!
Another form of notoriety we have in this game is the clan levels, which are available in two: Streets and Sharps. The names are very suggestive, aren't they? The Streets are more stripped-down, rebellious, while the Sharps have a more classy vibe. The two clans are at war, vying for territory in Hong Kong.
At a certain point, you have the option of choosing which clan you want to join, and then, of course, you have to compete with the other faction. Everything matters in this sense: when you win the race, you earn more points for the clan, and the other way around too. When you advance through the clan levels, you get to the coolest part of the game, which is to face other clan racers in a 1v1 that puts you on another level within the clan.
Not just in the car...
Another thing that sets the game apart is the clan, but that extends to other things as well. You can get out of the car, you even have the option of customizing your character, although it's very simple and you don't even see the character properly, after all, the view of the game outside the car is in first person.
We can get out of the car at different times, in relation to the clans, we can visit their "HQs", and as we go up the level of the clans, we have access to more locations within the bases. We can also go inside dealerships, workshops and some event areas available on the map.
As is common in racing games, we can make various upgrades to our cars, although they are quite simple. Upgrading and buying more powerful cars is extremely important because the opponents have different levels, making life very difficult in some cases. I think that's it in terms of gameplay. Now, in terms of visuals...
Beautiful? Harmonic?
I believe that today we have two games that are the benchmark in terms of graphics, at least when it comes to arcade games. One of them is Gran Turismo 7, which is sometimes called "simcade", while the other is Forza Horizon, which is an arcade game in its own right. The Crew and Need for Speed are considerably inferior, but they're also very pretty.
But when it comes to Test Drive, I see it as the ugliest of them all, by far, to the point where the cars look like toys at times. Since it was first announced, the game has never looked the prettiest, but playing it, the feeling was much worse. I had the opportunity to test the game on PS5 and PC in 4K with everything at maximum. You can even see both versions in our YouTube channel.
On PS5, you have the option of playing in quality mode and performance mode, but I confess I didn't feel much difference between them. The car models are easily identifiable, but far from beautiful or very detailed. But the character models... Wow, very bad, but at least the game is about the cars and not them.
The soundtrack is also without comment, I found it to have a vibe totally unrelated to racing games in general, and I believe this is to give the game its own identity. But for me, it just didn't work. Every time a song came on in the game, it felt strange, but at least there's a streamer mode that removes a lot of these songs.
Was it worth it?
There are very few cases where a game isn't worth playing, because all games have their positive and negative points, and the same is true of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. But this game, at least for me, didn't work at any point. It was a really tiring review to do, even if it wasn't the longest.
But as I said, I've met some players in the game with very high levels, and to get to that point with such a short time of release, surely they've had a lot of fun playing. That wasn't the case for me, unfortunately, but who knows? But it will require an investment that I don't recommend, even though the game isn't full price.
See also:
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard reveals exploration videos and a flyover of its world
- September PS Plus Extra and Deluxe catalog revealed
- PlayStation 5 Pro date and price revealed
- PlayStation 5 Pro to be announced this Tuesday
- Astro Bot is the definition of fun and satisfaction - Review
By the way, don't forget to follow our official X profile e on Instagram.
English 
Portuguese