Street Racing Syndicate is yet another in the now-cool genre of street racing/import tuning games. It tries hard to have the attitude and put the player into the world of the street racer, but ultimately it fails on the most basic of levels for this genre – it is not a satisfying driving game.

SRS definitely tries to replicate the street racing scene. In the career mode players will compete in races to earn money and respect. Money buys things like car repairs, upgrade parts and even new cars. Respect earns the beautiful women. Sorry to sound a little preachy here, but unlocking women by being a good racer? As video gamers, aren’t we already considered nerdy enough without this kind of cheap titillation in games? Isn’t that also encouraging guys to think women are just objects that are impressed by a fast car? I didn’t like basically buying friends in NBA Ballers and I’m not real happy with this either. Treating humans as things to be possessed is a sad attitude.

Anyway, back to the game. There is an early attempt at a story in the street mode (career) but it quickly devolves into merely racing for more money and respect on the circuit and driving around the nicely detailed cities to find races, test cars and cruise the honeys. What can you expect, right? On top of career mode there is an arcade mode that lets the player drop into a race quickly with four racing styles: Quick Race, Checkpoint, Iron Man and Speed Trial. Multiplayer can be either split screen, System Link or Live. Don’t be fooled by the “Players 1-4” on the back of the box. Only two can play at a time via split screen on one Xbox. Four-player gaming is reserved for System Link and Live play.

There is a full-featured garage area where the real fans of this sub-genre of racing will find all the authentic parts to upgrade their ride – with the right amount of cash. The garage is also where repairs are made between races, but that too costs money, so it doesn’t make economic sense to play the races like a demolition derby. You can quickly find yourself spending all your cash on repairs rather than upgrades or new rides.

Speaking of rides, SRS has a respectable number of licensed vehicles, including Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen – the more popular cars on the street racing scene. All do handle differently and have varying reactions to the upgrades put on them.

Audio in the game is quite respectable. Nice engine sounds and road effects. The soundtrack is the hard-charging driving music you’d expect. Graphically the game is more mixed. The environments are nicely detailed, but I’ve seen better looking cars in older games. When racing, the car just looks like it is an overlay on the road. Sure, that is what is being done, but good racing titles trick the player into thinking the car is sitting on the road and has weight on the wheels. SRS somehow feels like the cars are hovering just above the road.

This gives rise to one of the most unforgivable of sins in a driving game: no real sense of speed. While the controls are pretty tight and give the player full command of his vehicle, it never feels like you’re flying through city streets at a breakneck pace. It is just not exciting.

Online multiplayer does add a bit to the play. The pink-slip races where players can actually wager their cars are interesting. But ultimately it is not enough to save SRS from being an inferior product to its contemporaries.

Looking at developer Eutechnyx’s track record, it is quite apparent that this is a hit or miss development house. 007 Racing was a big, steaming pile while Test Drive Le Mans was pretty good. Overall, it has more misses than hits. Sadly for Namco, there are many choices in street racing games now, and more on the way soon. Street Racing Syndicate might have been received as a pretty good game a year or so ago, but now it does not stack up to the competition – even with the racing cuties.



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