10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Yes this is good but no more
Date of Review: Mar 2, 2002
The Bottom Line: Easy to pick up and play but gets boring quite quickly.
I had very high hopes and expectations of this game, after reading all the reviews on the internet which pretty much universally say it's the best racing game on the Dreamcast, if not on any platform! High praise indeed, so I inserted the disc and got ready to be very impressed.
The first thing I did was to choose 'Quick race' on the easiest difficult setting (Amateur) to just get out on the track and see what the game looked like and what my car was like to drive. I was immediately very impressed with the graphics which are very detailed. Then the race was underway; I began last on the grid and I was accelerating up through the field.
Controls are like other Dreamcast racers: left/right triggers for brake/throttle and the Y button to change view between two chase views and two first-person (bumper and in-car where you see a bit of your front bonnet similar to F355 Challenge)
The difficulty level in this game is set low compared to some other racing games (most noticeablely F355 Challenge) which many would consider no bad thing. There are two ways to define difficulty: how easy it is to just get the hang of driving your car so you're not crashing it into things constantly or leaving the road at every corner, and also how tough the AI cars are to beat.
Well the car is very easy indeed to drive - it does not wildly oversteer leaving you fishtailing all over the track every time you breathe on the stick; you can push the car to oversteer but it happens in a predictable and progressive way. The AI difficulty varies dependant on which difficulty level you choose; on Amateur I was able to finish my first race in first place easily, about half a lap ahead of the pack!
If you choose Amateur, your car will automatically slow down for corners which basically means all you have to worry about is steering - you can almost keep the throttle pressed permanently and never have to touch the brakes though not quite.
On Intermediate and Expert difficulty settings, auto-braking is off so you have to brake manually. It takes practice so you don't overshoot corners by braking too late, or brake too early letting the AI cars overtake you, but learning it is not very difficult.
Even on Expert I would say Le Mans is easier than F355 Challenge on the Novice setting!! This is very much an arcade racer rather than a simulation like F355 and will have a wider appeal as a result.
One criticism I would make of this game is, it would be better if you could adjust the difficulty of driving your car (auto-braking on/off) and the difficulty/skill of the AI cars, *separately* so for example you could race very skilled AI cars with auto-braking, or race very easy AI cars with manual braking.
The graphics are very good and there are some very impressive lighting effects - see how the sun reflects off your car for example. Also the rain effects are very realistic.
However...! It isn't all wonderful with the graphics. Everything moves smoothly but only at 30fps - play F355 Challenge then come back to Le Mans and it will seem sluggish and less realistic compared to F355's liquid-smooth graphics and 60fps frame rates. F355's cars look better too (the Le Mans cars are in need of anti-aliasing) and the detail level overall is equal to Le Mans so it can be done obviously.
Also, as has been noted in another review, the view doesn't quite look 'right' - it's hard to put your finger on it but playing this game for a while makes my eyes go funny; it's like everything is through a fish-eye lens.
The rain effects are impressive and realistic but it can be very hard to make out where the road is or to see where you are going! Very realistic maybe, but I would rather sacrifice a little realism to see where the road is, call me weird!
I found this game quite fun for a while but I just don't think it has a lot of replay value. I just found it got boring after a few days and I didn't have the urge to play it any more. And I am a racing game nut so that tells you something.
The music is not offensive but bland/forgettable best describes it. The engine and screeching tyres sound good though. Oh and your tyres screech even when you are driving in the wet on a soaking wet track! Just a nitpick maybe but not very realistic.
Overall, this is a good game but I prefer F355 despite its higher difficulty level; its graphics are much more polished, fast and smooth and its gameplay more rewarding ultimately, but that's a personal thing and I know a lot of people would prefer the easier to pick-up-and-play Le Mans.
