Tuesday, November 1, 2005
QuickView:
Good: Interesting story, large well-designed city to go wild in
Bad: Poor graphics, non-skippable crash sequences, NOT a Rush game
My Suggestion: Play SFR 2049 and relive the good old days when this series was treated the way it should be
High flying jumps, incredible stunts, hidden short cuts and classic arcade racing have all been mainstay's of the Rush series of hit titles from Midway Games. Back in 1997, San Francisco Rush introduced us all to the unique style of Rush gameplay. In 1998 we were given it's follow up, Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA, which delivered more tracks, more cars, and the fan favorite stunt track. San Francisco Rush 2049 completed the series with higher resolution graphics, improved A.I., a full blown stunt mode, multi-player battle mode, catchy music and more. To put it bluntly, I am a huge fan of these games.
That has absolutely nothing to do with the game that I've wasted the last couple days playing because L.A. Rush is not really a "Rush" game. This is not a true addition to the series and not just because it is a bad game and I'd hate to see a bad game associated with the "Rush" label, but because it has no resemblance to anything that makes a "Rush" game what it is. L.A. Rush is simply a racing game designed with the intention of being a Need for Speed meets Burnout clone with a rather annoying MTV style theme. The result is a pretty cruddy wannabe that won't attract any fans from either franchise.
You are Trikz, a successful street racer who manages to disrespect fellow gangster "Lidel" who decides to use his considerable resource's to bankrupt you almost overnight. You are left with the directive to go back out into the city, Los Angeles of course, and rebuild a small empire. Set in a large GTA-like city, full of cops, pedestrians and lots and lots of traffic (too much traffic in fact) to smash to pieces. You'll seek out street races to win money/pieces of your former property (cars) with bonus challenges and tournaments thrown in to prove your racing mettle.
The game actually has a few good things going for it. First, the city is large and fairly well designed with nearly every major landmark of the city represented. The navigational "arrow" aide is intelligent, providing excellent directions when traversing the map from one location to another. The story is actually pretty well done, with plenty of sub-plot to keep it interesting. One such instance actually involves trying to swipe Lidel's girl! The graphics, while impressive at times are equally disappointing the rest of the time. L.A. Rush also makes use of the West Coast Customs license, for those of you who are fans of their work. I really wish I could tell you about more good aspects of the game but that's really about it and it gets pretty depressing from this point on...
The AI is poor. Beating the computer-controlled racers, even in the later stages of the game, are simply too easy. Spend an hour with the game and you'll learn the formula for beating them. The police really don't have any bearing on the game either and generally just try to stay close to you, often times not even trying to stop you. They just want to chase you and yell out the usual police catch phrases like endlessly threatening you to pull over or else, calling for backup that doesn't exist or repeatedly chatting over the radio.
The course design is also relatively poorly done and again it is extremely non-rush like. As I've said, in L.A. Rush you are not racing on tracks but rather courses that have been laid out within a fully free roaming city where short cuts are rare and the right direction to go not always very clear. Also interesting is that the game features many destructible objects (such as light poles, trees or flower planters), non destructible objects (light poles, trees and flower planters) and some objects that don't do anything (light poles, trees and flower planters), they just let you drive right through them. Notice any similarities there? Most of the time you can't even tell the difference between that which will stop your car in its tracks and that which you can just plow on through.
Speaking of crashing into things, there is the extremely annoying slow motion crash sequences. First, while the particle engine functions realistically, the crash itself looks terrible. The texture work is poor and the speed becomes very noticeably choppy. Worst of all, you can't skip it! Every time you crash you are absolutely forced to watch a 10 second clip of your car being crushed in an extremely ugly fashion. How many times I just tossed the controller on the floor in disgust because of this problem I don't know, but it completely ruins the game "experience". Finally there is the whole MTV gangster theme that the game is based on, and while it is a matter of taste, I found it annoying and very unimaginative considering that this is done to basically copy nearly every other racer on the planet.
If I haven't made this clear yet, this is not a "Rush" game. If you are a fan of the series, you will not like this game. If you are just a fan of racing games, you will still likely not like this game. If anything at all, rent it first but do not purchase this disc. We as gamers should let Midway know that this is not what we wanted and that we will instead wait for a true sequel. In fact, rather than picking up L.A. Rush, just go out and get the recently released Midway Arcade Treasures 3, which features a slew of excellent racing games, including San Francisco Rush: The Rock Alcatraz Edition, and San Francisco Rush 2049, easily the best of the series, now more than ever. At just $19.99, those two games alone are a bargain. As much as it saddens me to have to say this however, I really can't recommend this particular "Rush" (fraud) to anyone, end of story.
Graphics: C
Sound: C-
First Play: C
Last Play: F
Gameplay: D-
Overall: 60% D-
lawrence.comrade
