R: Racing Evolution – PS2 – Review

The latest racer from
Namco, “R: Racing Evolution”, is not a sequel to the wonderful Ridge Racer
series, nor does it have much to do with it other than Namco publishes both.  R:
RE differs in many ways to the legendary series not the least of which is the
inclusion of real world cars, a new “pressure meter”, and an involved story
driven mode.  While the final Ridge Racer on the PS1 did feature a rudimentary
story mode, this one, for better or worse, is a whole different animal
altogether.  The heart and soul of the game is the “Racing Life” mode where
aforementioned story mode resides.  In racing life you play the role of Rena
Hayami, an ambulance driver.  The game opens with Rena transporting an injured
racer, when the team manager, who’s riding in the back, jumps to the front of
the ambulance begging Rena to get to the hospital faster.  Rena jams on the gas,
weaving expertly through traffic, at breakneck speeds, impressing the owner so
much that he offers her the chance to race for him.  The story mode is told
through several well-done CG movies.  Shortly into the game you meet your main
rival on the track and in life, the beautiful Gina “I’m racing rather than
modeling” Cavalli, and the story continues from there revolving around your
battles against Gina for racing superiority.  In addition to Racing Life, it
also has the proverbial time trial mode, ghost mode, and head to head racing
with a friend.

The gameplay falls firmly
in the burgeoning new racing genre, “I’m not sure whether I want to be a sim or
an arcade racer, but I have a story to tell nonetheless”.  It’s pretty standard
stuff, as far as the actual gameplay is concerned.  Two things that are
different and unique to this game are the “Brake Assist” feature and the
“Pressure Meter”.  Now, for most of you gearheads out there, you are going to
want to turn the brake assist off immediately.  It makes the game incredibly
simple by removing the need to ever step off the accelerator, always giving you
the perfect amount of braking for every turn.  I was a bit annoyed that such a
feature was not only available, but also a part of the default settings.  But
after I thought about it for a while, I think it was a nice step by Namco.  It
gives beginners or newbies to racers a fighting chance.  Secondly, you still
have to take the correct line into and through turns for maximum benefit, so it
proves an effective teacher for those who’ve never played a racing game.
Another plus is that it actually shows you on a meter how much brake pressure
you should use in any given situation, further teaching the newbie.  But it’s
the games other unique feature that deserves some applause and more refining by
the developer to perfect it in future games, the “Pressure Meter”.  What this
amounts to is that every opposing racer on the track has a meter gauging the
pressure you are putting on them.  You increase pressure by tailing drivers,
pulling beside them, and so on.  Once the pressure gauge is full, your opponent
is only seconds away from making a massive mistake, usually in the form of
spinning out in a turn, or slamming into the wall.  It’s very simple and
elementary here, but I believe the developers are onto something that with a
little work could be a huge advancement in AI and gameplay.  No matter how
simple it is, it’s still a bit of fun stressing out the computer controlled cars
to the point that they wreck.  On the downside, this makes an already easy racer
much easier because it’s very simple to do this to every car in the field,
practically guaranteeing you a win.

The graphics, however,
are a bit of a disappointment.  Everyone remember how we went “gaga” over the
first pics of Ridge Racer V despite the problems with the anti-aliasing?  Well I
expected at the very least a huge improvement over that game’s visuals, and it
looks as if they may have gone backwards.  The cars are just too plain looking
and often times look too artificial in some of the more impressive
environments.  Certainly Namco and the PS2 are capable of much better visuals.
The audio end of the spectrum is about what one would expect from a racer.  The
roar of the engines, tires skidding on the pavement, the different sounds for
the different surfaces, and so on.  The music is also what you’d expect from a
Namco racer, pure techno and J-pop.  Most of us are so used to this type of
music that we no longer notice it, and the same can be said here, it’s just
white noise, but at least it’s not grating or offensive to the ears.

In the end, R: Racing
Evolution is a solid, but very vanilla racer.  Namco has attempted to do some
new things, which I think we should all applaud, anytime a developer attempts
something new and innovative is cause for celebration.  In this case, while not
pulled off anywhere near their full potential, they could very easily become the
new staple of future racers.  It’s probably a great buy for those wanting to get
their feet wet with racing games, but experienced racers should probably look
elsewhere.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 7
Very simple, but
reasonably fun.  The analog control for the face buttons is a bit too touchy,
but with a bit of effort, you can become fairly competent at finding the proper
gas or brakes.

Graphics: 6
Some of the
environments are nice and interesting, but the cars are just too plain looking
when compared to other racers on the market.  Namco is capable of better as
they’ve proven with other games, not the least of which is the years old Ridge
Racer V.  The CG is very nice on the other hand.

Sound: 6
All the sounds
you’d expect in a racing game are here and the music while also plain never
becomes a distraction or headache inducing.

Difficulty: Easy
The brake assist
feature makes things ridiculously easy, but without it, it bumps up to simply
“easy”.

Concept: 9
I’m giving Namco
some brownie points for trying new things with the racing genre.  Most racers
seem to be just minor variants of all the others, but they’ve tried to do
something different here.  The story of the game is also compelling enough to
keep you coming back to see how it plays out, which should also be applauded.

Multiplayer: 5
Head to head
racing rounds out the multiplayer and gamers in this day and age expect much
more.

Overall: 6.5
R: RE is by no
means a bad game.  It is solid, but it’s just very bland.  As I’ve preached
quite a bit, they tried some new things to a certain amount of success and this
makes the game worth a look.  They’ve also crafted a compelling story that keeps
you playing the game.