SEGA's Gran Turismo still has roads to go to catch up with Sony's leading franchise
Written: Jan 04 '03
Product Rating:
Pros: Excellent lighting effects, decades full of cars, ability to create one's own music playlist
Cons: Run-of-the-mill repetition, lacks depth of car manufacturers, robotic AI
The Bottom Line: While being improved over the somewhat troubled original, Sega GT 2002 still shows that it still has ways to go before surpassing the level of Sony's exceeding Gran Turismo series
Ever since Sony's Gran Turismo series has become one of the most popular Playstation franchises not one company hasnt tried to mooch off the success of that title by trying to capitalize on what foundation Sony set with it. Coming the closest ever, SEGA's Sega GT series has been the closest competitor having originally test driven on the Dreamcast, and the results were less-than-stellar. Although the game had the basic principles of a "GT" esque racer, it fell short everywhere were Gran Turismo 2 just improved upon. Generally, Sega GT had a long way to go before toppling the ever-so-successful Polyphony developed Gran Turismo franchise. After going through miles of development and extensive research, SEGA returned on a technically exceeding console as the XBox, hoping to possibly surpass Sony's recent Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec and it's expansions in the overseas Japanese market. It simply wouldn't be wrong to say Sega GT 2002 hasn't done very much of what the framework of the original had suggested, except this time, SEGA had much more to work with as well as inviting a rather popular Japanese developer whose in-house to SEGA, WOW Entertainment.
Being brutually honest, I never liked the Gran Turismo series, it was never my cup of tea. Possibly because I lack the certain interest or patience was sorely the reason but also for other reasons alike. Realistically, Gran Turismo targeted an audience of die-hard car enthusiasts with the dreams of buiilding up a dream ride from the ground up and I was never adept to it. After spending plenty of time with Gran Turismo, and Gran Turismo 2, I realized that the gameplay was the reason the game never quite sparked my interest. The gameplay always starts the game in all of these RPG-styled car builders; you must start with the cheapest heap of scrap metal from the early 80s and try and work you way up to the big time, unlocking more cars, but before perfecting the game's rather steep prerequisite of acquiring a license. As ignorant as I was, Gran Turismo's downright geriatric ugly Playstation visuals always made me look elsewhere; I simply couldn't stand looking at arrays of atrocious looking cars built of of pixelation and grain. If anyone is wondering why I even gave SEGA GT a chance, well here is where were at now...
After trying the original Sega GT for the Dreamcast, it personally sickened me on how boring and unadaptive the game was. Seeing that SEGA GT 2002 was free with the newly packaged XBox consoles, I decided to let my prejudices aside from the car simulations that I had so critically attacked. Surprisingly, Sega GT 2002 is an excellent title, filled with XBox-worthy utilizing visuals and superb lighting, an ample selection of 1960s-2002 vehicles, and plenty of gameplay modes that A-Spec didn't have. Knowing that many players don't want to build up for months just to drive the sleek new Nissan Z, the game cleverly as a demo mode relative to Tokyo Xtreme Racer's where the game will allow the player to take on a vibrant selection of cars it may to earn. We all know how much earning stuff, especially in games, is just plain too time-consuming and unmotivating, right? Sega GT 2002 also offers a plenty array of modes, including an especially intuitive mode, Chronicle Mode, that allows the player to begin on the bottom of the chain, starting from the early 70s up into the current era of vehicular advancement.
Graphically, Sega GT 2002 is a superb looking XBox-caliber title that only the system can accomplish. Most notably is the visually exceeding lighting effects from the glare of the illuminating sun at sunset or the reflection effects are simply marvelous and are styles of graphics only XBox can do. The cars as well are designed with an excellent sense of attention-to-detail on each vehicle making them look extremely tempting to drive. Everything seems to be in order, even the tracks and the individual details on and off the tracks, especially being a jump from the rather bland looking Dreamcast predecessor, WOW definitely designed Sega GT 2002 with the XBox's technology in mind. Being as pompous as the game is, being the visual marvel that it's proved to be, SEGA has licensed Canon to fly-by the replays which is plain silly, being even more laughable, the replays allow the player to snapshot shots to save onto the system's harddrive which is near pointless but an uneffective addition to show off the game's beautiful visuals.
Sega GT 2002 being all it's florished in is still but a mere shadow of the exceeding Gran Turismo series. Whilst having wonderful visuals, the gameplay is what entirely matters in the game and that being said, Sega GT 2002 simply doesn't offer quite as much as it's Playstation 2 brethren competitor. As far as manufacturers go, SEGA GT 2002 offers just about all of the car companies people have heard of and care about. Although not offering nearly the level of depth Turismo did, GT faulters in failing to deliever depth within those manufacturers people care about. Knowing Sega GT 2002 is a chronicle-based game with vehicles from the early 60s, 70s, 80's and 90's up until today, the selection of cars was expected to be greater. Expecting to find the old Nissan 280 ZX came nonexistant, and even the older Mustangs from Ford's line-up was no where to be found. What was impressive however is the arrays of cars the game did include, including the brand-new Nissan Z newly released in 2002, the ever-beautiful Audi TT, and even a bunch of newer import cars that will never be authorized in American territory.
Never straying too much from what Sega GT 2002 is really trying to accomplish, the game competes with Gran Turismo on the base that it is very much like it's competitor. As expected, the player must upgrade the car, constantly buying and selling as more races are won. What makes this gameplay tiring (pardon the pun) is how repetitive it really proves to be, keeping this in mind, the player will constantly be entering the same competitions and races just to acquire more money and advance further to the car you desire instead of the mediocre beginning selection of slow, tired, and archaic junk from the 80s. Luckilly, Sega GT 2002 doesn't force the player to be stuck with a cheapo Fiat or a typical Handa Civic from the mid-90s, but instead includes a fair selection of interesting cars from many different companies, such as a decent looking mid-80's Celeca. On top of the game being somewhat repetitive, Sega GT even has a somewhat mindless AI, being not very active, all the competitors in each race tend to be lifeless and robotic, sometimes hardly putting up a fight if you were to pass them out. As it proves, hard work, determination, and patience will grant the player with the reward of buying newer, sleeker, vehicles and will give the options of upgrading a suping up the ride you're most comfortable with. Personally, Sega GT 2002 is incomplete with excluding one of my personal favorite troublesome vehicles of the early 80s; the DeLorean DMC-12, which has yet to premiere itself in a racing title. That's just me though.
As far as the audio department goes, there is simply nothing to complain about in it's favor. Aside from the somewhat annoying high-pitched tire scretching that can be heard is something that cannot be ignored as it tends be frequent. SEGA even included Dolby 5.1 surround support, which is particularly welcomed for gamers with sound systems. As far the music selection goes, the game offers a rather slim pickins selection of music tracks ranging from widlish techno to sensuous jazz-funk nowhere near on the variteous levels of Sega's recent MSR for Dreamcast. With only a standard music CD sized playlist of at best mediocre tracks, Sega GT 2002 takes advantage of the capabilities of the XBox, allowing the player to upload his or her preffered music into the game. Although the music of Sega GT 2002 isn't the best heard and relatively bizarre to here in a racer, some of the tracks, especially the jazz music in the menus is simply marvelous to listen to, as well as the other slim pickins jazz tracks within the game itself. Personally, all of the other music within the game is noise, with the exception of the chosen preffered few. Of course, the most important factor of it all is the ability to upload your own tracks; which is alternatively better than having a playlist full of tracks that all are painful to listen to like Gran Turismo.
Control wise, Sega GT 2002 handles like any car simulation, straying from simplistic cookie-cutter styled arcade gameplay. The game controls very accurately, having to use technique instead of simple push the gas button and steer. Eventually, when controlling cars with higher performance, using the handbrake and braking more frequently comes into account. Another thing that allows one to adapt to the control is the elevation-styled gameplay, which will slowly allow the player to get the feel of slightly faster, and harder-to-control vehicles. The game does also include the Manual function for those willing to give up automatic transmission for better performance. Personally, I couldn't control anything with manual, but there are those who can. The game will even remind players how much it is to drive sanely and controlled as it includes a damage meter. Driving carefully is intrical to each race, as it will automatically take your winnings of that race into repairing your damaged vehicle, so driving carefully is definitely more important than driving like a pyschopathic Mario Andretti.
Although Sega GT 2002 doesn't quite match the ranks with Gran Turismo, it does somewhat detour gameplay and variety wise especially with the selection of older, classic vehicles. Having a decent amount of tracks, not quite exceeding Gran Turismo's fourty plus selection, Sega GT has a plentyful amount most of which must be (you guessed it) unlocked through more experience driven gameplay. Overall, Sega GT 2002 is a vast improvement over the original and shows promise for the future of the franchise.
FINAL COMMENTS Although I have somewhat of a lack of desire for these RPG car builder-upers, I couldn't help being attracted to Sega GT 2002. The excellent visuals, and lushous vehicles made me reevlaute my prejudice towards these types of games. Although the game is simply a Gran Turismo wannabe, it's certain that SEGA will make improvements on future iterations of an already promising series that had somewhat of a rough, and unnoticed beginning on the helter-skelter Dreamcast. Let me also bring to the attention that Sega carefully (but who cares) licensed Canon to take care of the replays which is typical of big indsutries to acquire gratuitous licenses to help spruce the game's image. If only Sega can implement a greater selection of tracks and cars, maybe even including rally modes as Gran Turismo does, it may then have a easier chance of making the grade. In order to compete with the competition, SEGA is going to need to match the standard of what it's up against, and possibly find a opening to make improvements upon them. Overall, it's a fine racer that seeks improvement in future iterations.
FINAL DECISION
(on a basis of Epinions' stars ratings)
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