Game Review: USA Racer

 

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

According to the information I could find about USA Racer (and there's not a whole lot around), it was released on the same day as London Racer II. This is fairly evident when the game is loaded and features the exact same menus and menu music as its twin. I did begin to wonder whether the two games would be similar to the point of not warranting a new review, however the differences between them extend further than just their location.

Having said this, the progression and game modes featured in both titles are identical; to unlock tracks and alternate cars for each of the game's 6 characters players must make their way through tournament mode, where series of 3, 5 and 11 races are held on various circuits around the USA. Competing against 3 AI opponents, players must ultimately top the standings to progress to the next round of races.

The game's handling is somewhat different to that of London Racer; there's certainly less grip overall when cornering and any amount of braking will result in some sort of drift. Even small collisions with other cars result in an unrealistically large loss of speed, and often spinning out completely. Unlike London Racer II, police are featured in all races and will usually cause several pile-ups on each track.

The opponent, traffic and police AI are all shockingly poor; opponents often drive into walls, eachother, obstacles and the player's car, causing chaos and unfair setbacks, police are incredibly vicious and will literally hitch a ride on top of player cars if they have to, and traffic cars never deviate from their set path, even if it sends them into a huge pile of scrap metal. In addition to this, the overall sense of speed in-game is awful; 177mph on the display feels like 50mph at most, and even using nitrous doesn't help a whole lot.

Graphically the game is blocky, blurry and undetailed with a poor draw distance and little variation in visuals between locations. Several of the cities featured in the game have the same series of urban looking turns, and even the recognisible landmarks featured hold little excitement. The music and speech featured on the in-game radio are lacklustre and add little to the already dull experience.

Overall I'm starting to think that the "Racer" series by Davilex is the worst video game racing series ever released, with at least 4 incredibly poor titles, and a total of 13 titles released over 7 years, many of which are based on the same game engine and code. At least the Simple Series had the ambition to try and ruin different genres of games every now and then...

Rating: 20/100
Grade: F