Ah, the wonderful world of remote control vehicles. It's expensive, prone to disastrous impact, and possessing an unmistakable streak of geek. And yet, before you turn twelve, it's probably one of the coolest things you could ever hope to own: not a real car, plane, boat or helicopter, but a small version one can enjoy smashing about in the backyard for a few minutes before they get bored of it. To help speed this process, Whiptail Interactive was kind enough to publish Creat Studios' creatively titled R.C. Cars, which is, without a doubt, a game only an R.C. enthusiast could love.
One of the title's touted features, which also happens to be something a death knell for the casual gamer, is a rather robust physics engine. It is, quite possibly, the most accurate to-scale representation of RC car physics known to man. Rest assured, this is no light claim, as your car is constantly flipping and ricocheting off small stones and slight indents, as one might expect a five pound wheeled object zipping about at high speeds to do. After a certain point, this borders on the ridiculous, as these constant, unpredictable, sometimes irrational, and inevitably frustrating crashes throw the player from first place to eighth, and then back again, all within half a lap. Once again, the game industry shows us that realism does not always equal enjoyment.
However, one cannot argue that this was not done accurately, as was the vehicles' handling, which leans towards spinning wildly out of control on tight turns. Again, just like the real thing. Furthermore, when a car hits a jump at high speeds, it tends to pull to the side, throwing the player into a tailspin. Whether this is a result of an accurate modeling of the "single drive wheel" mechanism, or simply "the last tire leaving the ground has the most say" is up to the end user to decide. Regardless, after a few of these incidents, one would feel an intense desire to attempt to hit that next ramp squarely.
Other components of the game are fairly straightforward, with a mere three cars available, ten tracks, and two race modes: Championship and Quick Race. The former has a standard five-lap race, and scores from placing in each race goes toward unlocking the next track, whereas the latter is a short three-lap race that more or less accomplishes nothing. Regrettably, tracks must be unlocked in Championship before the player can experience them in Quick Race, so one wonders why they even bothered with it. There is also a multiplayer aspect to the game, which is available in a split-screen mode on the same system, LAN play, or internet play. Finding a game online may be a challenge higher than most are prepared to go, however.
Tracks consist of a theme focusing on the beach, a military base, a ghost town, or the imaginative military beach base. Each track has a loosely defined course to follow, indicated by faint tire tracks, and enforced by checkpoints. Otherwise, the player, and the AI, is free to choose any path it can to get to the next point, and the levels often incorporate handy and hazardous shortcuts to accommodate this wish. Those hazards can be quite varied, with anything from anything from rickety bridges, bodies of water, belligerent teens, quarrelsome hounds, oncoming traffic, and M-16 toting soldiers. The last one tends to stand out for most people. While vehicles don't take damage, certain hazards will send your vehicle back to the last checkpoint rather than simply jostling it around. Falling into deep water, off cliffs, or taking gunfire will trigger this, and it's the sort of thing that tends to take one from first place to last in the blink of an eye.
The vehicles themselves are fairly straightforward: you start with a stable but slow monster truck, and can then purchase a middle-of-the-road six-wheeled humvee, or a fast but flip-prone race car model. Each vehicle can be upgraded in regards to engine, booster, and tires, but must be upgraded in sequential order. This means that you can't simply save up cash and buy the best motor, you have to buy all three motors before you have the best. Cash is earned by winning races, with incentives added for how far back your competitors are when you cross the finish line. Each vehicle is pleasing to the eye, with ridiculously exaggerated mufflers and intakes, reflective paint surfaces, wobbly antennas, and reactive suspension. Over the course of a race, your vehicle slowly becomes more and more filth-encrusted, adding a further visual touch that only enforces the sim-like aspect of the game.
Overall graphics are pleasing enough, thought somewhat repetitive, and the low system requirements are another point in the game's favor. Water effects, sun spots, and the cartoony presentation make for a fairly eye-pleasing experience, though the lack of variation between track themes does induce a sensation of d?j? vu. However, on the other side of the coin, the soundtrack is like some jarring midi collection from the early 90s, bordering somewhere between "annoying" and "grating", ranging from a repetitive techno beat to a warbling rock guitar. Decidedly the low point of the game's presentation. The sound effects for the environment and cars themselves, while satisfactory, do not feel noteworthy in any particular fashion.
Overall, the game feels like a well-done RC racing game for the RC enthusiast, like some strange stunted cousin to Jane's flight sims. Intensely frustrating, often leaving one with a feeling of having been cheated or ganged up on, while one can recognize the goals achieved by the developers at Creat Studios, it's somewhat harder to laud them for their accomplishments. This is decidedly not a game for everyone, and quite possibly catering to a niche too small to register on the market.
