awoolcott's Full Review: Test Drive V-Rally for Dreamcast
Sometimes it just feels like a broken record to describe a Dreamcast game as underrated and overlooked. Given that the console itself is the most underrated and overlooked system ever released, a majority of the games on the system can carry this claim. So don't mind me conveniently ignoring that this game is indeed quite underrated. As an upgraded and enhanced port of the original V-Rally 2 for PlayStation (published by Electronic Arts), Test Drive V-Rally is a testament to how to do a port to a more powerful console. Sharper visuals, improved gameplay, and excellent controls mean the DC version of the underrated PS1 rally game is definitely the best. With very little competition on the Dreamcast for rally games (only Sega Rally 2 comes close, and that's an entirely different breed of rally game), TD V-Rally is a great game that has enough depth to last a very long time.
There are 3 major gameplay modes for single players. The most obvious is the Championship, which lets you choose a car, ranging from the Hyundai Tiburon, Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and Ford Focus amongst many more rally rides, and roll through 3 classes of rallies, with standard rally rules, to attain the world championship trophy. In addition, there's the Arcade and V-Rally trophy features - both are fairly similar, with a couple small differences. The Arcade mode is plainly a 4 car race with a checkpoint system as you'd see in Sega Rally or any other kind of arcade racer (Burnout, etc), and you progress as you beat each track and win first place. V-Rally Trophy is essentially the same thing, only you race against just opponents with no clock, and you earn trophy points for each victory. Each are built the same, with increased challenge as you step up and win a class. There's also time trials and multiplayer racing, but as rally racing is traditionally a single player experience, it isn't as emphasized as it would be in other racing games.
With these differences in gameplay types, the gameplay itself does change with the mode chosen. The Championship is your traditional rally - you, alone, on a track trying to beat the times of your competitors and win the event and earn the necessary points to win the entire competition. This kind of gameplay is easy, as there's no AI to program, aside from the times which can pretty much be randomly generated. Instead, the gameplay itself must boil down to good controls and challenging courses.
In the case of TD V-Rally, this ends up being accurate, and vastly improved from the original version from the PlayStation. V-Rally 2 was clunky with loose controls that really dragged the game down and made it quite a disappointment. For the Dreamcast conversion, Eden Studios did a great job of tweaking the controls to perform much better. It's nowhere near as easy to roll or flip over making a hard corner, and you feel much more in control of the car, instead of feeling like you were controlling roller skates with jet powered engines. It creates a much more enjoyable experience, and lets you actually have fun with the game sometimes. They do take some damage though, but you can repair them (if you can fit them all in a 30 minute time limit) in-between sectors of a rally. As these get damaged, the car performs worse and worse, so you must learn how to drive without making errors, yet also maintain a lead.
The courses themselves are also pretty good, though in comparison to some other rally games (newer ones though, like WRC or Colin McRae Rally), they aren't top flight. However, they are challenging with some very deceptive turns and corners to really keep you on your toes. Thanks to the improved control, the courses are a bit less intimidating, but still very challenging when trying for a top time. The numerous new tracks added just for the Dreamcast game are also quite tough. There aren't as many "holy crap!" moments as I'd hope for in a rally game, but they're fine as is and the game excels because of it.
On the other hand, the races with other cars on the track rely on track design as well as AI. The other cars are pretty smart and rarely make critical mistakes, making for a tough race. However, as these courses are lapped and not point-to-point like traditional rally games, the design slightly falters as it's usually one big circle with a few rare turns. It's obviously to offset the traffic (don't need 4 cars colliding with each other on a bad hairpin turn), but it does drag these modes down a tad. They're still a lot of fun, and a nice change of pace from solo rallies, and that's the important thing.
The only things that possibly could be suspect are the replay and challenge, but this depends on the person playing the game. Despite loads of playmodes, they tend to be a bit short - the rally races consist of 2 stages instead of the standard 5, making it easy to blast through each rally in a couple days. As the game gets more challenging the replay increases, but some won't want to play through multiple times to see the same tracks again and again. There's lots of cars and tracks to unlock, which helps, but unless you're a hardcore rally fan, or just a race fan in general, the game might wear thin fast. It all depends on who's playing it. The game also has a strange difficulty ramp that will throw some off - at the outset the game is mighty easy, but moving up a class makes the game very tough - there's no middle ground. This will turn off some people, even if others will welcome it. It's all a matter of perspective.
The graphics of Test Drive V-Rally are also greatly improved and look mighty good even by today's standards. The cars themselves are modeled very well, and realistically take damage and get dirty, dusty, and snowy depending on the weather. At the beginning of a race your car will be squeaky clean, but when you hit the finish line, the car will truly look like it spent a day on a dirty track. As the cars take damage they also look worn and destroyed, adding more touches of realism to a game that ever so closely rides the line between real and arcade.
The other stuff looks fine as well - environments are detailed with plenty of animations and designs, as well as the assortment of spectators - some even ahead of you on the track taking pictures, then getting the hell out of the way to avoid getting turned into dinner at the petting zoo. It all zooms along at a steady 60 FPS, and never lets up even with 4 cars on the track and all the details rolling around. It might not be as good looking as some of the newer PS2, Cube, and Xbox games, but for the Dreamcast it really shines and shows the power of this underappreciated console.
The sounds of V-Rally are sparse, with only a few things here and there. As the game requires you to be able to clearly hear your co-driver barking directions, there is no music to distract you, only the cheering crowds and the sounds of your car racing across rough surfaces. And it works, really. The co-driver is accurate and clearly understood (something even the great RalliSport Challenge failed to accomplish), making it much easier to comprehend the turns and their severity. While there is an icon on-screen warning you, it's the voice of your partner that you have to hear to excel at the game. The sounds of the cars racing isn't unique nor outstanding, as it's the same for each car, but it portrays the challenge of racing fast on unusual surfaces (except for the races on concrete). The important thing is hearing your partner, and in this case, is why V-Rally is good in this department.
The Bottom Line
While the Dreamcast is loaded with sleeper hits, Test Drive V-Rally might be a coma hit instead, just like the other Test Drive game, TD Le Mans. It has some troubles that will affect only some players and not even bug others, but for the most part V-Rally is excellent and exciting, with lots of playmodes, plenty of tracks, and some solid graphics to round out the experience. It's cheap too, like so many DC games, so it's not a big investment if you buy it for your Dreamcast if you still use it. You could definitely do a lot worse than Test Drive V-Rally.
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