Pros: Excellent graphics, create-a-car is nice; though limited, a lot of objectives
Cons: Extreme difficulty, rather erratic control, poor sound outside of FX, boring tracks
The Bottom Line: Nowhere near as good as Gran Turismo, Sega GT's fatal flaws include ridiculous difficulty, bad sounds, boring tracks, despite great graphics and create-a-car.
For all intensive purposes, Sega GT is nothing more than Gran Turismo for Dreamcast. There is very little question of that; and honestly Sega has done nothing to say otherwise. Practically everything screams GT in Sega GT; from the various modifications of the cars being similar, to the general format of the races, to the variety of cars. Sega GT is a shameless variant on the very successful Gran Turismo engine.
Does that make Sega GT a great game? For the most part yes. However, there are a lot of flaws too - ones that keep Sega GT from joining Gran Turismo at the top of the racing simulation heap. The innovative create-a-car mode, and various different challenges within the game add a lot of replay and variation. Problem is, with the extreme difficulty and rather annoyingly hard control, sometimes playing Sega GT can be a chore. Be forewarned, Sega GT requires patience, in bucketloads.
Ways to race - Sega GT has all the usual racing modes - arcade, time-trial, and championship. Arcade mode is the usual thing; pick a car, a track, and race against the computer and see who wins. Good for some quick racing fun, but not a lot of depth, which is to be expected. Time-trial is a race by yourself to see how fast you complete the track. Nothing more or less.
The Championship mode is where everything's at. It's the same formula Gran Turismo made famous - get a license, buy a car, race it, make money, upgrade your car, race it, make money, etc. Same old successful pattern. Nothing new besides the car creator mode, which I'll get into later.
Licensing is a little bit different than Gran Turismo; instead of completing a series of tests, you have to complete a time trial in the given time, for each racing class - E, B, A, and SA classes. You only need to complete one test per license; however, and you may choose between each of the different manufacturers and the set track assigned for that car. Placing first overall in any of the license test will net you the car you raced during the test. A free car. Cool!
The tests are rather difficult - a lot of the time you'll squeeze in barely and pass. Thankfully using each of the different cars will eventually pan out, because you'll finally find the right combination of track and car, something you'll learn to be rather useful in the actual game.
Like Gran Turismo (see a pattern?), Sega GT rounded up some of the biggest car makers, like Ford, Dodge, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi (who have the best car in the game, the GTO or 3000 GT in the US), and that sort. There is also a selection of used cars from these makers, and unlike Gran Turismo, they are all heaped into one category, not by dealer. Each car has a letter by it corresponding to the license it requires; if you don't have the license for that car, you cannot buy it. And if you've won a car from an above class, you can't select it from your garage. You have to earn the right to buy particular cars.
The car selection is similar to Turismo, with the big name cars like the Viper, the Mustang, the NSX, the Skyline, and the Supra. Of course, there are some bottom of the barrel cars that resemble pregnant roller skates instead of vehicles, and the middle of the road street cars like the Celica and Civic. Nothing new, and Turismo veterans will be at home with the various cars.
The championship mode is a bit different than Turismo; at the core it's the same, but there are some minor differences. For one, most of the races are very controlled guideline-wise - if you don't have the correct car, you can't race. Some races are for those cars with N/A (natural aspiration) engines, some are for completely unaltered production cars, others are only for cars made in the Carrozzeria (I actually had to go look in the manual to spell that), and one is only for a specific model of car. While that's good, and allows more fair-play (Turismo sometimes with the open races you could race a souped-up GTO and beat the crap out of other cars), it can get to be a pain to spend money on a car just for a race.
Some things are different though - 5 different tests that aren't races at all, but tests of skill. Two races are time-qualifiers; beat the track within the limit and you win. Ability to handle top speed and control of the monsters will be the only thing you can do to win them. Two others are the 400 and 1000-foot drag races – you versus one other car. It’s not easy though; especially when you’re up against a 1200 HP custom car, which is only beatable with a GTO TwinTurbo from my own gameplay. The last different one is the nearly impossible Max Speed test; one lap around the oval track. I say impossible because the only way you’ll win is if you learn how to properly tune up your vehicle and tweak it for maximum speed.
As like Turismo, you’ll win money and cars and trophies for your wins in different races, as well as sponsors..for which you’ll earn a tiny bonus from them as well. The more sponsored races you win, the more money you’ll get from your sponsors. Which is a good thing.
The Carrozzeria is the big innovation here; building your own set of wheels with assorted standard parts. While it’s not anything like a real factory car creator, because you can only use what they give you, the different combinations are nice.
The ability to create cars also stems on its own license test series; which is more like Turismo in the objective area. Each test has 5 different goals per; none of them are easy. Actually they can be frustrating like the Turismo tests, and can seem impossible. They aren’t impossible but a lot of practice is required. Getting all the licenses will blow open the create-a-car mode for some real monster cars, which is the point and will give you quite an edge over the competition.
However.. - Getting that edge can be a chore. Safely put, the gameplay can be atrocious, stemming from very erratic control. Unmodified, most of the cars handle like dreams, even the flaky handling NSX and Vipers. Add modifications to them like engine and suspension upgrades, and the cars can become nearly uncontrollable as they slip and slide across the courses like the tracks were covered with ice, fishtailing back and forth hitting walls each way. For example the GTO; smooth handling and fast car unmodified; impossible to handle, terrible braking, and extremely fast car modified. Adding one single engine modification to a car nearly kills it; even with a lot of practice, it seems impossible to control.
Sometimes, this problem works out – on an even playing field, Sega GT rewards excellent driving skills over speed most of the time. If all the cars are the same, whoever handles their car the best will probably win. No running off track, no hitting walls, no spinning out. For once just speed alone will not win you races; you need some skill.
However, it does expose more problems with the game. One of the few cars that doesn’t get too out of control after modification is the Celica. I fully modified it and placed it in the races for identical cars (as in, I only raced against the same make as my car), and still did NOT win, even against the bare-bones CPU cars. Even with no blunders and top speed, the computer cars somehow were able to sneak by and win. Fair is fair, but this isn’t. And other times when your car is uncontrollable, and the CPU has no problems flying around the track, the extreme difficulty sticks out like a sore thumb. I’m all for challenge, and I’ve actually knocked off these challenges a few times, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. When you’re racing as a 960 HP GTO and you place 3rd against a bunch of 200 HP Integras and such, because your car fishtails around all the time, there is a problem. Skill wins races indeed, but speed has to come in somewhere.
The track design doesn’t help – a lot of them are not very good. The Night Section courses are beautiful to race in. But there is just too many awkward turns that cause problems, They come up so fast that you never see them coming, while your computer opponents slide through with no problem. The bizarre 90 degree angle turns are not fun at all, and ruin the flow of the races. It can be dealt with after learning the course, but it’s still tough to handle, especially when you see your opponents breezing by.
The rest of the tracks are also boring. None are particularly hard (because it’s the cars that are hard to handle), but they are blah, overall. The Sky Peak Hill track is as close as I get to an exciting course, and that’s not saying a lot. Gran Turismo’s track variety is a LOT better.
Graphics - No complaints here. Sega GT’s graphics are awesome to look at. The Night Section course is beautiful to look at (not good to race however), as are the rest of the courses. While the tracks aren’t very exciting, the visuals are very nice, with minimal popup and draw in..though what there is of those two flaws throws me off due to my own cruddy eyesight, but that’s my problem right?
The cars are also excellent. Think Turismo’s cars, just with a million times more detail and you’ll be right. It’s much easier to see which car is what and who makes it. Plus they just look real. That’s the best that can be said. It’s the best looking racer on Dreamcast for sure.
Sound - Engine sounds – great, and varied, and sound like the real things. Music? Needs work. To go along with the boring courses comes the equally boring (and annoying) music score. Sega dropped the ball on this one; instead of grabbing some big names like they did for Crazy Taxi, the left the original Japanese score in; which is a mistake. Throw in some bands like Turismo has, and then you’ve got a winner. Maybe in Sega GT 2 perhaps?
Final Recommendation - This is a tough call. I personally, despite the things that I dislike, enjoy Sega GT for the most part. Once you practice a lot, you’ll eventually get the hang of most of the cars, and you’ll be so in tune to racing that you’ll forget the design flaws. However, I can’t ignore that the control needs some serious work, and the difficulty is too varied and unrealistic, resulting in a lot of frustration. At the very least it’s the best racer on Dreamcast; but it’s still no Gran Turismo. I still recommend that you at least try it, especially if you like challenging games. If not, then you might want to pass.
Sega GT's unique Car Workshop allows you to adjust your creation with thousands of car options and hundreds of styles. In order to build and race over...More at eBay
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