Test Drive: Eve of Destruction – XB – Review

I have a confession to
make: there’s a part of me that wishes I would grow a sweet mullet, gut out my
Chevy Chevelle and then slam my ride into some other muscle car in a muddy arena
with hundreds of fans cheering on the destruction.  Well, a man can dream,
right?  But for those who don’t want to risk their lives, there’s Test Drive:
Eve of Destruction for the Xbox.  Does this game feed our need for
destructive vehicular mayhem?  Take a ride with me and let’s find out, shall we?

Eve of Destruction
takes fans of this particular motor
sport to its old-school roots of when demolition derbies pit a wide range of
vehicles into a muddy arena and let them go on a destructive rampage until only
one car survives.  Even some of the coolest demolition race types are included
in the game like the Figure-8 races with ramps that inevitably leads to cars
colliding in mid-air.  The game even allows you to go behind the wheel of a
school bus, an ambulance and even a car hitched to a trailer.  Everything a
demolition derby fan could ask for is included in the game.  You’ll be
astonished by how many race types are included in the game and all of them are
race types fans will recognize.

The game has a Career mode
that serves as a sort of story mode.  You start your career with your grandma’s
beat-up rust bucket of a car when you hear about the Eve of Destruction event
coming in your area.  Ditching your duties as a chicken farmer, you sign up as a
contestant as you go up against your town’s collection of speed demons.  You can
go directly to the event or drive around your town looking to get into small
races with the town’s racers hanging out in TJ’s Diner or upgrade and paint your
car at the Auto Shop.  Of course, upgrades cost money so winning races is
essential.  During the events you’ll also notice that your vehicle takes quite a
beating–enough that you’ll often go for repairs or consider purchasing a new
one at Sweeny’s Salvage Yard (you can own up to four cars).

While lengthy and filled
with various side races, Career mode quickly feels repetitive.  It basically
just has you driving around to get to the next set of races.  Sure you’ll stop
to make repairs or to buy a cool new car, but other than that you’ll just be
competing in events that will soon become far too similar to the last set of
races you just competed in when you began your career. 

Luckily there’s Action
mode, a game that simply allows you to choose the race types and various
vehicles.  Played as a single player or multiplayer (up to four players) mode,
Action mode will impress you with it abundance of race types, many of which are
vehicular mayhem at its most intense.  You’ll be unlocking plenty of new
vehicles and even unique arenas such as the Hastings arena that is placed in the
middle of an industrial zone.  You’ll be playing this mode the most mainly for
its many cool modes like Gauntlet (your vehicle must survive five laps of brutal
attacks) or Knock-Out (destroy as many cars as you can).  There is enough here
to keep demolition derby fans very happy.

Here’s the bad news,
though.  While the multitude of race types and vehicles are a big plus, it’s the
controls and driving physics that really matter and here they just disappoint
big time.  The controls are pretty simple to figure out since you’ll just
accelerate, brake, steer, go in reverse and occasionally hit the turbo.  Yet
somehow, even with the simplistic control scheme, driving seems a bit too
awkward.  Many times you’ll be steering with perfect precision and other times
you’ll be baffled by how you managed to spin out of control using the very same
car you just happened to maneuver so easily in the last race.  Secondly, many of
the cars feel like you’re driving a big bulky boat.  Even with this, though,
it’s still fairly easy to destroy other cars (each car has a damage meter).

The graphics found in
Eve of Destruction are a mixed bag.  For one thing the cars look great
smashing into each another and there are times when you’ll see vehicles break to
pieces . . . literally.  But, on the other hand, the environments can sometimes
be a bit on the dull side and you’ll occasionally see a lot of clipping.  Yet
its all about the car wrecks and all of that looks decent enough thanks to the
little details (such as fenders coming off and sparks coming from scraping
against other vehicles) that making demolition derbies so cool to watch.  It’s
still sad to see a game not put the Xbox graphical capabilities to work because
this one could have been pure eye candy.

Another of the game’s
biggest weaknesses is the sound.  You’ll find an assortment of tunes from
artists like Hoobastank, Thursday or Rob Zombie and they’re not bad at all . . .
although some of these tunes feel out of place in a demolition derby game. This
can be remedied thanks to the fact that you can use your own tunes (you can’t go
wrong with some Lynard Skynard).  Yet as far as sound effects are concerned,
they just don’t quite make such an impact when it comes to collisions.  They are
not as loud and as detailed as those heard in Burnout 2: Point of Impact
and that’s a big disappointment.  You’ll also find an arena announcer but he
quickly becomes a bit annoying.

Don’t start growing a
mullet just yet, while the game is filled with plenty of vehicular carnage,
Test Drive: Eve of Destruction has its share of faults that keep this from
being a great demolition derby game.  It’s fun to smash up other vehicles and
there are enough game modes to really get into the mayhem but thanks to the
awkward controls the fun really gets old too quickly.  Do yourself a favor,
racing fans, rent this one before you even consider buying it.

#Review Scoring Details for Test Drive: Eve of Destruction

Gameplay: 7.0
The number of race types will blow
you away and, for the most part, they’re pretty fun.  Still many of the modes
can become repetitive, especially after playing the Career mode.  Who can say no
to the School Bus Race event where everyone races as a school bus?  While the
modes, such as Dare (which contain Survival and Demolition) will keep you busy
for awhile, the controls will not only aggravate but also remind you how
repetitive many of the races really feel.

Graphics: 7.2
Eve of Destruction
doesn’t take advantage of all the things the
Xbox console has to offer when it comes to the graphics.  In fact, much of the
game will look a lot like a PS2 game and in this case that is not a very good
thing.  For one thing the environments have plenty of detailed backgrounds and
many of the cars take damage beautifully.  The vehicle damage looks way cool,
though.

Sound: 6.0
If you like Hoobastank and Sum 41
you’ll find the tunes right up your alley but they really don’t scream
demolition derby.  Luckily the game supports the Custom Soundtrack feature so
you can crank up your own tunes like “Born to be Wild.”  The sound effects are
pretty weak here with the sound of metal crunching against metal being stifled
by the annoying announcer who is constantly talking whether it’s announcing what
car has been trashed or plugging the event’s commercial sponsor.

Difficulty: Medium
The game’s biggest challenges come
from the timed events and wrestling with the awful controls.  There are race
types, such as the Trailer Race that has you pulling your own trailer, which
will really have you working for first place.  Other than that the game doesn’t
really require you to be a precision driver, after all, it’s all about the
crash-and-bash madness.

Concept: 7.0
The dozens of race types will
satisfy demolition derby fans with its various styles that range from the fun
Figure-8 Race to the Forward-Backward Race and the most unusual mode of all,
Soccer (where the cars slam into a giant soccer ball to make a goal).  There are
also dozens of different cars including some interesting choices like the school
bus and a supped-up hearse.

Multiplayer: 7.5
Up to four players can take each
another on in Action mode split-screen style.  This adds more thrills and plenty
of replay value when you’re tired of the repetition of playing against the
computer-controlled drivers.  Sadly, Atari didn’t include Xbox Live support,
which would have made Last Man Race and Survival all the more thrilling.  If
there’s a game that screams online multiplayer mode it’s this one.

Overall: 7.2
Eve of Destruction
has all the twisted metal action fans of
vehicular carnage will love, but its repetitious races and awkward controls just
hold back what could have been a great demolition derby game.  It does have
plenty of game modes to sink your teeth into but in the end it’s the controls
that really should have gotten the most attention.  Still, if you love this
style of motor sports I highly recommend you rent it.