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From The Entertainment Depot - http://www.entdepot.com Sony
I have a delightful history with the Sega Rally series that goes way back. Way, way back. After renting the original and playing it until 3am with a friend, we decided it had been turned off for far too long and cranked it back up at 4am. When the sequel was announced for the Sega Dreamcast, I imported the system so I could play it and Virtua Fighter 3tb early. My Sega Saturn and copy of Sega Rally still sit at the ready near my television, ditto for the Dreamcast and the sequel.
Just as Sega Rally Championship is inferior to its predecessor, so is Sega Rally Revo to its. That isn’t to say that Revo isn’t enjoyable, just that it’s several marks of awesomeness away from the fantastic original. Much has changed in the series, and much has stayed the same. Instead of racing from checkpoint to checkpoint, courses are now raced from beginning to end, with the only worry being placement in the pack instead of racing the clock as well. The game is still pure arcade racer with a handful of superficially different cars that slide around some of amazing courses in vibrant environments.
Something is different this time, though. Revo doesn’t benefit from the ‘90s Sega, the Sega that understood what a proper difficulty curve is and how it can turn a game from decent to memorable. Each of the previous Rally titles took some time to get used to, but when they eventually click, like most racers tend to do, they become these hectic bouts of dirt flinging and hard sliding. That internal clicking is important to racers, and when it doesn’t work the way it should, the game suffers. It doesn’t click in Revo.
From the very beginning it becomes obvious that Revo is hard; too hard too soon, in fact. Why Sega made an arcade racer, one based on a beloved series that was easy to get into from the outset, so inaccessible from the start is beyond me. I can overlook the strangely nimble cars – this is an arcade racer, after all – but the soul-crushing experience of being smoked right out the gate is something I can’t. Every racer has the rubber band effect, where the AI is always just in front or just behind the player so that racers are neither depressing nor blowouts – good AI keeps things interesting while being subtle about it. Revo’s AI is a Congo line of pain: the cars have a set path, often one after the other, and do not venture from that path. Even hitting the computer is futile as the slight bump they receive is quickly transitioned into a smooth entry back into the invisible race line, and off they go again while you spin and swerve about. It’s a shame that I wasn’t nearly as good as the computer.
I’m not too bad as it turns out. The problem is that it can feel like there are two races going on, the one I’m racing and the one they are racing. When I would get in the groove and pass a few cars, they would randomly zip past me as though they kicked on some turbo boost. The game doesn’t allow restarts either, so if you get stuck in one of their vortexes of pain, you simply have to ride it out until the end. It felt as though I was struggled for last place, which is both depressing and infuriating.
Revo clicked for me though. It clicked for me a few times. Despite running some excellent courses, I often felt as though I was at the mercy of the computer’s whims. If the computer felt that I shouldn’t win, then it would send a few cars blowing past me running perfect races. What can I do? I’m already doing well, but my click isn’t working; there is nothing else left at that point but to struggle for a mediocre finish. Not to mention that you always start in last place. Even after earning enough points to open up more advanced circuits, there is no recognition whatsoever for any achievement. Here’s a quick fact for Sega: Always starting from the back sucks.
Even then, there is much to like about Revo. The GeoDeformation system- ruts stay in place and become deeper as tires tear up the ground - works extremely well with force feedback on the 360 and does a great deal to add a bit of challenge to the game on both versions. The fact that an invisible wall keeps you on course and that slamming into the side of a rail or another car only drops the speed 20 miles per hour or so isn’t too bothersome, because, hey, this is an arcade racer for a reason. The racing is fast, dirty, and filled with large colorful cars in varied, beautiful settings that are enhanced by great sound effects. With a large television and a steering wheel, this would definitely feel like an arcade game. The courses are also exceptional, and the fact that the old mirror mode trick is used here – reversed courses put in line with the rest – is fine by me. In fact, everything but the AI is awesome: unlocking cool paint jobs, new cars, grinding down corners to mud, dirtying up cars the way they should be, and a loose controls system that, though not as good as the original, goes a long way in making for a wild ride.
But the AI really holds Revo back. There is no subtlety here, and it doesn’t even care. The cars race around like toy cars on a Hot Wheels track and it’s your job to try to navigate between them, if the computer so allows. Taking a long turn without excessive slide is as exhilarating as ever, but doing it while feeling its futile is a shame. There is Multiplayer on both, which does help bring the game back down to earth, on Live or via split screen. A cool hybrid mode is the Time Attack mode, and here performances from solo trials can be uploaded online for others to race against and other players’ times, as ghosts, can be downloaded to race against.
Overall: 6.5/10 © Copyright 1999-2005 by EntDepot.com |
