The legendary driving franchise Unlimited test drive returns after more than 13 years since this second part. Today, come back with Solar coronadeveloped by KT Racing and published by Nacon. with the clear the intention of being a worthy rival of Forza Horizonstick around and read this review to find out if the title set on a massive, large-scale Hong Kong island delivers on what it’s trying to be.
Hong Kong as a motorsport base
Unlimited Test Drive: Solar Crown presents Hong Kong, where all the action is of the game. Although the inclusion of Ibiza has been announced for the near future As a secondary area, Hong Kong is the only one present at the time of writing this analysis. Of course, it should be noted that in terms of content, we will have no problems. We are faced with a Open world with a good amount of activities to do from the moment we finish taking our first steps to enter the island.
The terrain we will travel through at the beginning will be made up of narrow and beautiful streets carefully recreated to, little by little, extend towards the rest of the large map, allowing us to cross fields, elevated roads, highways, etc. We will open up to the world by raising the level of our character (which is customizable with different physical and clothing appearances). This higher level will also unlock some cosmetic products for our character or vehicles. Once you reach level 12, we can join one of the clans rivals between them: the Streets or the Sharps. Within one of them, we will belong to the street (Streets) or to the high life (Sharps), and we will unlock a new type of race which consists of competitions between teams of the two clans. Not that the story matters much.but our view on this will change depending on the clan chosen.
Scattered around the world we will see some abandoned cars completely destroyed and hidden from view, which can be repaired to become our property. A system very similar to the one seen in Forza Horizonforks the only collector’s item that we will collect along the streets, roads and fields of Solar Crown. However, it is appreciated without a doubt.
In Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown, we will be presented with many activities
Solar corona It’s full of activities to do in the form of races, radars or even socialization. Radars They will ask us to cross them at a certain indicated speed, which will give us a certain number of stars and, with that, money and reputation. On the side of socializationwe note that in the concessions, a hotel which serves as a house, and other buildings, we can leave the car and go on foot with a first-person perspective with other players who are also present at that moment. In addition, we can challenge everyone we meet on the roads in a mini-race.
There are several types of races: the classics, by land, the clannish ones mentioned above… But the most original is perhaps the Domination, consisting not of arriving first, but of scoring points. These points will be added when passing through the checkpoints, and they will be added in greater quantity, the better positioned we are. Depending on the race, the weather changes between cloudy, rainy and clear, and the time of day between night, day and evening. Even if it is not something dynamicnevertheless. In any race, the AI (when there are no real players to play with, because it is mandatory) It looks quite irregularwith situations where they are too slow, and others where they are too fast, regardless of the difficulty chosen for them.
First steps in the game
After completing the tutorial behind the wheel of an imposing Lamborghini Huracán Performante, where we are shown above the island where the action takes place and its possibilities, we are free to participate in races that we deem appropriate. From here, Each one will ask us for a specific type of car and performance.. Across the tuneoWe can improve or deteriorate parts of our vehicle to adapt it to each race.
But, to start, we have the possibility to choose between 3 cars to start: a Ford Mustang GT, an Alpine A110 Legend or a Nissan 370Z. For our first vehicle, we will receive a significant amount of money Solar parts (game currency). However, The rest of the cars we want to buy will cost us effort. Although It is possible to test each vehicle for freeYou’ll have to play a lot to buy them. Something that was missing in this type of game where, normally, you start directly with a fairly valuable garage.
Driving sensations in Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown
Unlimited Test Drive: Solar Crown responds very well to the classic console controller. However, the ultimate experience of a game of this nature will always involve a steering wheel. That’s why I tried some races with the Thrustmaster Ferrari 458 Spider Racing Wheel. I am not an expert on this type of console/PC issues, but I will try to clarify your doubts in this regard in the best possible way.
How was your experience with this steering wheel? Well, the truth is, Considering that we are talking about the most basic device that can be found on the market, the experience has been more than correct.. Sure, you can configure some settings to your liking, but the truth is that I didn’t need to adjust anything to have a good driving experience, gear changes, etc. both on dirt and on asphalt. However, One downside is the game’s virtual steering wheel, which doesn’t rotate more than about 45 degrees.. This causes a rather strange and unrealistic experience, especially when connecting a physical steering wheel. Although KT Racing has announced the implementation of the full virtual wheel lap for laterthe truth is it’s a bucket of cold water not to have it as an outlet.
A launch that was not yet ready
Let’s be clear and concise: Unlimited Test Drive: Solar Crown I just wasn’t ready to leave yet.. Ignoring the problem posed by permanent online connection In any video game that is not exclusively online, we face an even bigger problem: server related failures of the game. Several times I suffered disconnections that, of course, immediately send you back to the main menu of the title, whether or not you are in the middle of a race. But it doesn’t stop there, and this is what As for optimization, we are talking about a pretty poor job on any platform.although it is true that the least attractive in this sense was the Xbox Series S, on which I played to be able to carry out this analysis.
Playing at 30 frames per second, which is also definitely choppyis the last thing you expect in a racing proposition where you’re supposed to feel the speed. To make matters worse, there’s a few burst in some elements, mainly notable in the car’s first-person camera. The worst part is that Solar corona It’s not some kind of graphic marvelwith fairly poor character models and animations and textures that generally leave a lot to be desired. The cars, while not impressive, are the most detailed, and the sound of their engines is faithfully recreated.. It should at least be noted that I only came across one bug sometimes relevantwhere the accelerator does not work even if you press the button, until you press it again.
Conclusions from Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown
Much to my regret, after the large number of hours I have invested mainly in Unlimited 2 In 2011, now distant, I conclude this analysis with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Unlimited Test Drive: Solar Crown It’s basically a good open world driving game.. Yes has a strong potential to become a serious candidate for the Olympus of this type of proposals led by Forza Horizonthanks to the promised future updates. Hong Kong is an artistically interesting setting, and has a significant number of activities to do.. The handling of the cars is correct without fanfare, cars that will require a lot of time to be acquiredsomething that is appreciated in comparison to other works. And the progression seems relatively satisfactory.
However, Being released so early had a very negative impact on him. A technical optimization too bad This is just the tip of the iceberg of a game that forces us to be connected to their servers permanentlyWhether you play alone or not. Servers that failed a lot at launch and they didn’t let me play as I would have liked. As if that wasn’t enough, on top of all that is added a excessively outdated graphics section in general.
I just hope that in the coming months we can talk about an interesting proposal. who has managed to rise from the ashes. But, for now and unfortunately, this is what we currently have. A game that I can only recommend to loyal and unconditional fans of the genre it offers us, a sort of open-world driving MMO.
Unlimited Test Drive: Solar Crown It is available for Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC. Finally, remember that in Xbox Space we await you daily with all the latest video game news.
Pro.
- Potential to be an interesting proposition in the future
- A huge Hong Kong with many possibilities
- To buy cars and upgrades you will have to work on them
Contra.
- Missing essential content at launch
- Connection failures with the servers, being a game with permanent online connection
- A simply disastrous optimization
- Can’t play races with just AI
I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember, so you could say I enjoy talking about them a little.
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