Series Review: London Racer

Game: London Racer
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Davilex
Release Date: 29th September 2000

Racing games generally appeal to certain types of people; the best titles may well interest people who don't usually play racing games, and some titles such as Gran Turismo, Motorstorm and F1 games once appeal to a niche market. Once in a while however, a racing game comes along which appeals to absolutely no-one, with no real likeable features, and gameplay that will disappoint racing game fans and gamers alike.

London Racer was a game developed by the Dutch company Davilex, in which players tried to make their way through single player mode (the only mode in the game; there's no multiplayer), upgrading their car and winning races against three computer opponents around London to earn enough prize money to buy a better car.

Gameplay is made fairly unenjoyable by a mix of poor handling (the car slides about instead of actually turning), poor physics, bad AI, many invisible walls on tracks, and unsignposted turns. Both the opponent cars and police cars which chase you drive badly and will ram into the side of your car, slowing it down significantly many times per race. There's only 8 tracks in total and 6 cars, the 5 of which you don't own at the beginning are far too expensive to buy considering the cost of upgrades, fixing damage and fines, as well as the measly amount of prize money for winning races.

The main (and only) game mode is poor due to a lack of progression and options; all there really is to do is upgrade your car, or buy a new one. Players are able to view the record times for each track but are only able to race on the circuit they've got up to. Losing a race means that you'll be returned to the menu to try again. There are 2 ways to lose a race (other than coming 4th); damaging your car too much will first result in a plume of black smoke which obscures your view, before putting you out of contention for good, and being caught 3 times by the police (which happens a lot more than you'd think).

Graphically the game is very poor with unimpressive stretched textures which deform as you pass them, a lack of detail and some big problems when cars collide with eachother (it's as if the game has no clue what to do sometimes). The music in the game is generic and doesn't really stand out as anything much, but oddly seems to be the best feature of the game due to the others having far more flaws.

Overall London Racer is deservedly included on many worst Playstation game lists and sits a triumphant first place atop gamefaqs lowest rated games for the system also. Despite my best efforts to find a redeeming feature it seems that the exclusion of any multiplayer modes, terrible handling and gameplay, poor graphics and sound, and general lack of effort all contributed to making this a truly bad game.

Rating: 9/100
Grade: F

Game: London Racer II
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Davilex
Release Date: 14th June 2002

There's no logical reason that London Racer should have warranted a sequel, but somehow 2 years later London Racer II appeared and probably caused gamers to wonder why Davilex were still in business. Some new modes have been added since the first game; Single Race, Tournament and Time Trial are the single player options, with Duel and Player vs Cop as multiplayer modes.

The main mode of the game is Tournament mode which challenges players to compete in the London, British and World Cups which have 3, 6 and 9 races respectively. This pads out the game's run time a little as there are only 9 tracks in total, which means a lot of racing on the same track in different cups. The requirements for winning each cup are easily met, and there was only one occasion where I didn't win a race.

Although the handling of the cars is better in this game than the first, it's still very difficult to stop your car from spinning out at certain points in the game. There's also the added danger of riding up the side of other cars and managing to flip yours which wasn't present before. Overall the cars feel very heavy and glued to the road when they're not being influenced by the strange physics engine.

Damage and Nitro gauges return from London Racer, but now there are power-ups scattered around the courses which aid the player in gaining more nitro or fixing damage. There are so common however, that there's no need to buy nitro or pay to fix damage in the options of tournament mode. The only real costs players should have is upgrading their car through the 3 tiers of performance. Once the peak is reached, there's literally nothing to do with the excess cash. I finished tournament mode with over £50,000 in the bank.

Graphically London Racer II is a big improvement on its predecessor, looking just a little blocky in places and without much detail on its vehicles and landmarks. While I wouldn't say that it's up to general PS2 standard, it isn't bad for a budget video game. The music and in-game radio which accompanies racing is pretty dire; players are stuck with a techno station featuring spoof phone calls and a humourless DJ attempting to make jokes for most of the game.

Overall the game was never likely to win many awards. As the sequel to one of the worst racing games I've played, it's definitely an improvement. There's some career style single player gameplay as well as multiplayer modes and a selection of 9 tracks, 6 drivers and 12 cars. The handling and overall experience of the game could still be improved in a number of areas, but at least the series got a little better. Apparently there were more London Racer games released, but I think 2 is enough for me.

Rating: 36/100
Grade: E