Console: Sega Dreamcast
Developer: Sega AM1 (Wow Entertainment)
Release Date: 29th August 2000
Sega's answer to the Gran Turismo series plays somewhat like the very games it's attempting to compete with. There's race series and license trials to make your way through, with cars available to buy or unlock through winning races. Unlike the Gran Turismo series, you're able to race for a works team if you do well enough on your license test, and design and create your own driveable cars if you have the money to.
The career mode of Sega GT plays much like that of Gran Turismo for the most part, you start off by taking your basic tests and get a starter car, working your way up the ladder. The money seems to come in a lot more freely after a couple of race wins however, with even the most expensive cars being fairly easy to unlock if you know which races to enter. Another difference that Sega GT boasts is the ability to pick up sponsors by winning race series, who pay you on top of your winnings.
Controlwise, its a strange simulation experience unlike more recent Gran Turismo games. It feels somewhere beyond arcade, but at times you feel the influence creeping in as its easy to bounce from advertising board to advertising board without losing much speed. Collisions between the player and AI racers are also handled rather oddly, there's no damage to worry about but the physics seem somewhat unrealistic still. When creating cars in the Carrozeria mode, the choice between front, mid and rear engined designs has a big impact on the handling. While its nice to see that they thought of this, mastering any car on the game seems to prove difficult, let alone having many different styles of handling.
The Championship mode itself is pretty short, featuring 4 race series per vehicle class, 8 special races, 4 main series races and 4 single race cups to win. Overall you could complete it in a day if you stuck to playing and mastered the controls for a couple of the cars. As stated before, money is easy to earn and there's no shortage of cars to be unlocked from winning race events. In a way the game feels too easy, once you have a decent car for each event they're not particularly challenging at all.
Graphically the game is pretty good, although sometimes the textures used in certain places on track let the game down, with pixelation visible almost on cobbled stone and muddy floors. The cars are fairly well rendered and there's nice lens flare effects and other touches. Soundwise there's a funk/rock vibe to most of the backing which feels almost classic Sega; its enjoyable for the most part, although sometimes muffled by the louder car sound effects.
The car selection in game is fairly small when compared to its competitors, but the cars that the game features are varied and cover a comprehensive section of the market. The selection of tracks is almost poor with a lot of repetition between race series and events and no real world tracks featured. Although licensing official tracks might have been difficult, the tracks that were included could have been more interesting, especially as a lot of ovals and basic tracks feature in the game.
The fun of the game seems to be mainly in the ability to design and race your own vehicles as well as competing in works cups for beating lap times in license tests. Everything besides this you're able to do in Gran Turismo series games with more tracks, cars and series to choose from. Although a decent effort from Sega, a lot of the game feels like there's just not enough features and that its not fully fleshed out which is a shame. The handling could be better and the graphics could be improved but its playable and there's some fun to be had.
Rating: 66/100
Grade: C
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