A New Adventure Games Creating New Opportunity
Early versions of Titus' racer Roadster featured logos proclaiming the game's title as Dream Roadster. Well, those logos are gone from the final copy, and, unfortunately, so is the Dream. The stark reality of the situation is the Dreamcast has itself another competent, if rather uninspired, driving game to add to its ever-growing pile.
Like so many before it, Roadsters fails to deliver in any sort of substantial way. It offers eight racecourses, but variations on each theme allow for 24 different configurations. Twenty-one cars are playable, and there are three versions for each -- standard, sport (which handles differently from the standard editions and also has a nitro kit accessible in the pit stop areas) and formula. Titus has thoughtfully included a bumper crop of real-world automobiles from Fiat, Lotus, Ginetta, TVR, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Ford, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Jaguar and Wiesmann, and cars can be colored to suit a driver's fancy. Tracks are altogether gorgeous, and the backgrounds are spectacular. Players race through snow-capped mountains and arid deserts, with wonderful environmental effects such as ominous lightning, and falling snow and rain to give everything a real-world feel. Skies turn colors, shifting from night to day, and various blimps and planes soar overhead as races progress. In addition to their beauty, the environments hold great peril; each course has its own "Act of God" that will often step in to kick a driver right in the crotch. Volcanoes explode and pour lava onto the tracks, avalanches bury paths, and tornadoes will send a car hurtling through the air. All involved in bringing Mother Nature into Roadsters deserve appropriate applause.
Four modes of play exist for Roadsters: trophy, quick race, time trial and multiplayer. The greatest challenge exists in trophy mode, where a driver must place third or better to move to the next race. Players can win money by outdoing the competition, and upgrades make the driving alternately more challenging -- and more fun. Though this mode provides for wonderful scenic views, a sense of continuity (players control the same racer throughout) and some simple, straightforward play, it is quickly burdened by a sense of been there, done that. The "Endurance Cup" challenge requires a player to complete five laps; on these rather generic tracks, it's a chore, and we'd rather endure a lecture on gun control from noted "actress"/windbag Rosie O'Donnell.
Roadsters has its flaws, and they serve to sink the dream. Cars handle as one big block, go-karts of a sort, with a racer's speed, but no sense of axles to be found. Tracks are rather straightforwardly laid out, and though there are plenty of shortcuts available, finding them can be a costly proposition. Some are separated by simple barricades, and, whereas it's possible to smash through just about everything in Roadsters (ice chunks, boulders, buildings, rocks, etc.), barricades will often remain impenetrable. There's simply no way of knowing if a blockade will give way or not; hit an unforgiving one, and it's dead stop city, a frustrating little nowhere from which a player will be hard-pressed to escape quickly.
A neat touch that allows players to select drivers with their own unique taunts quickly sours. Limited sound samples ensure the player will hear Angelica, for example, bleat out "Totally Rude!" and "Loooossserrr!" ad nauseam. Like the "cute" antics of other people's children, the effect loses its luster right quick.
The computer's AI turns enemy drivers into headhunters. Computer-controlled cars unerringly seek the player's vehicle and will immediately begin bumping it in a mad sort of jockeying for position. What it is, is video mugging like Clash of Lords 2?. Unless the cars bottleneck and pile up against each other (and then only a true act of God could unsnarl that mess in any sort of timely fashion), an opposing racer will single-mindedly work to slow the player's vehicle down or send it rolling into any sort of barricade or guardrail.
Yes, we had some dreams of our own. As it turns out (and with our sincere apologies to singer Carly Simon), they were clouds in our coffee.
Despite some neat creative touches, Titus' Roadsters joins Tokyo Extreme Racer, Monaco Grand Prix, TNN Motorsports Hardcore Heat, Flag To Flag Kart Racing, Suzuki Alstare Extreme Racing, Test Drive 6, Clash of Lords 2 etc. in the disappointing racer file.