Overview
Last year was the first year that Accolade brought the Test Drive series to the PSX with Test Drive 4. This was a pretty fun game that did have its share of problems. It was cool because it brought back to life some of the old classic muscle cars as well as some of today's top performance sports cars. For some reason, I just couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. It didn't really hit me what it was until I started hearing about Test Drive 5. It became quite obvious what was lacking in TD 4 as soon as I heard it. The problem? No Mustangs! They fixed that and I am a happy man.
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So what is new in this, the second year of Test Drive on the PSX? Of course there are new cars (we will cover this later), new tracks, branching roads, and a new cop chase mode. Better graphics make the action look good but the insane difficulty is still here. Throw in dual shock support and you will now feel the rumble of the 454 under the hood when you are sitting at the starting line on the drag strip.
Gameplay
Take one part Need for Speed 3 and one part Gran Turismo and one part Test Drive 4 and what you have is Test Drive 5. This is quite a compliment considering Turismo may be the best PSX game of all time and Speed 3 is a great racer in its own right. This game takes the arcade fun of Speed 3 and combines it with the realistic vehicles of Turismo and gives it a flavor all to itself.
The biggest draw of this game has got to be the cars. As with last year, this game is stacked with some of today's hottest cars as well as the muscle cars of yesterday. There are 28 cars to be exact. The game follows the now-popular unlock the cars by winning certain modes so all of the cars are not available from the get go but there are enough to keep a smile on your face for quite a few hours while trying to unlock the others. Some of your old favorites are back, like the old 'Vette and Cobra, and plenty of new ones have been added, like the 1998 Saleen Mustang (YES!) and the old classic Stang.
One of the things that I really liked about TD 4 was the track designs. Instead of having short tracks that required numerous laps, the developers decided to make continuous stretches of road that went on for miles and miles. This was a pretty cool change from what I was used to and I really liked the long races. Well, for those of you who prefer the multiple lap tracks, you are in luck. Those of you who prefer the long spanning races are in luck as well because this game has a both. There are 18 real-world tracks to be exact. You can race anywhere from Moscow to Hawaii. Some courses are short and some are long. The point is that there is bound to be something that will tickle your fancy.
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I play lots of games and it seems that game sequels always try to add some new gimmick mode to make it different from the original. This game is no exception. The gimmick mode is the cop chase mode. I assumed that like most of the other games that try things like this that it would end up being fairly lame. Boy, was I surprised. This mode is actually a blast. You get to chase the race cars around from behind the wheel of a cop car. You even have control of the siren and the flashing lights. The object of this mode is to catch up with the race cars and make a positive ID. Once you make a positive ID, a message flashes up on the screen informing you of the heinous nature of the crime the person is wanted for. You then drive after them, ramming your car into theirs until the meter runs down and you can then arrest them. After that, it is off after another bad guy or two. This will continue until you reach the end of the course. Like I said, these added modes are usually pretty lame but I think they did a great job with this.
One of my minor gripes about the first game was that the game was really difficult. Actually it was not really a complaint so much as it was a warning. Did the game developers take my whining to heart? Hell no! They probably laughed and called me a little candy-ass. So if you could not win a single race no matter how hard you tried in TD 4, it ain't gonna be any easier this time around. The competition is always looking to bump you and send you spinning off and yelling in frustration. Okay, they did add an 'easy' skill level but I think you will have a totally different definition of easy than they do.
Finally, this game does a great job of mixing arcade gameplay and simulation controls. You can choose between arcade or simulation handling but I never really noticed much difference. What I am talking about refers more towards the overall feeling of the game. I really got the feeling that I was behind the wheel of the car but there was always some corner I was sliding around or some high flying jump that I would hit to remind me that this was just a game.
Graphics
The graphics in this game were a bit of a step up from TD 4 yet they don't quite reach the level of Turismo. Don't get me wrong, they still look good, actually great, but just fall a little short. Once again, this is still a hell of a compliment because the graphics in Turismo are unmatched. Everything from the detail of the cars to the awesome crashes to the flashing cop lights look great. They even went for the high detail replays which are a blast to watch with all of these crashes and jumps going on.
Bottom Line
There are so many racing games on the market today that it takes something really cool to grab my attention. Test Drive 5 did just this. It is one of those games that you can't wait to show to your buddies. I don't know how many people I dragged over to my desk and made them play a race (usually Scotland.. play it once and you will know why). This game is just a blast to play. If you are one of those people that must win every game you play, you are going to in for some unhappy nights because the computer controlled cars will kick your butt and not look back. So far, this is the holiday racing game to buy.
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