R: Racing Evolution

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. 

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.