| Bumper to bumper with several previous Top Gear titles comes the latest wheel-spinning action from Kemco. In a radical departure from its usual blend of track-based hardcore racing action, Top Gear Dare Devil promises an altogether new slant on the driving genre, with frantic free-roaming needed to complete each mission. |
As a single player game, most of your time will be spent in the career mode, where you have to unlock new cities and cars to progress through the 27 missions. Rome, London, Tokyo and San Francisco offer picturesque locations for your city centre calamaties; each being recreated with impressive detail. As an example, expect to encounter plenty of classic red buses and traditional style red post boxes in London and a stack full of street cafés in Rome. Your basic aim within missions is to collect a certain number of coins scattered around the city and then burn it to the finish area within the strict time limit. Other collectable items include time bonuses, instant nitro bursts and keys to unlock new cars. | | Even though it's not possible to damage vehicles - you gain points for collisions, there's still plenty of chaos to create by smashing your way through the rush hour traffic. Even in the smallest car, a Fiat Cinquecento look-alike, you'll still be able to smash through shop windows, knock other cars out of the way and even re-direct buses! Some may find this too unrealistic, but it certainly eliminates any possible road rage. While the game lacks any official manufacturers' licences, you still get plenty of familiar motors, although each has been given comical pseudonyms; the Mini Cooper is referred to as the Pnut, the Volkswagon Beetle as the Turtle and the Audi TT as the Ricochet. Don't be put off by the smaller cars though because what they lack in raw power, make up for in sheer nimbleness, which can be essential for zipping around town. I did find it slightly worrying that the VW Beetle had virtually identical performance stats to the Audi TT though! | | While each mission varies very little from the next, though offering different parts of each city to explore, tactical awareness becomes increasingly important as time limits become more stringent. Later on, you'll have to rely closely on efficient map work to ensure you take the most time efficient route to maximise the number of coins collected, while leaving enough spare time to make it to the finish. The non-linear mission structure of the game will be welcomed by many and helps to restore some replay value. | | Essentially though, once you have completed all the missions and unlocked every car, there's little reason to return for more action, which is where the multiplayer modes come into play. Offering a choice of straightforward racing, pass the bomb and collect the most coins games, there's a decent amount of fun to be had challenging friends to some split-screen rivalry. | | It's evident that a significant amount of time has been ploughed into ensuring each car's handling is both accurate and fun to endure. Naturally, you'll spend most of your time tearing around the tarmac like a crazed lunatic late for the birth of his first child, and thankfully it's possible to scream around corners, wheels smoking, which is essential to beating the clock. One unique aspect to the handling occurs if you try to brake hard from speed, your car has a tendency to veer to one side, which takes a bit of getting used to, but can actually work to your advantage. | | Graphically, Top Gear Dare Devil is a mixed bag with bold colours used to portray cities in a realistic, yet light-hearted manner. Cars are well detailed, right down to their interiors and visible drivers and every city offers plenty of scenery to smash your way through, hot in the pursuit of success. Rarely does the frame rate drop, even when you hit a densely packed street of vehicles. My only real disappointment is that when you crash through a window, the glass shattering effect is slightly slow and clumsy, but this can be easily overlooked. | | TGDD feels slightly rushed and while it is still fun in the short term, much more should have been done to improve the game. Police cars patrol the streets and freely let you smash into them without even the slightest hint of a siren or attempted arrest - if only real life was like this! Likewise rival gangs or racers would have spiced up the proceedings tenfold. It would also have been nice to see more mission variety as there's only so many coins you can collect without going mentally insane at the thought that you're still not made of money! | | All in all, TGDD provides entertaining action for those who are not complete racing enthusiasts. If you are holding out for the likes of GT3, then this is hardly likely to satisfy your high-speed appetite, but if game like Midnight Club and Smugglers Run are your cup of tea, then this way well fit snugly into your PS2 collection. | |
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