Recent reviews by 3 taps

redditors without jobs are seething because they can't control their urges to buy optional content that they can't afford!. great game tho!

Reminds me of early seasons Smite 1 which were great, missing quite a few good Gods but everything feels really smooth so far. Still the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Spanish players so beware, if you see one you'll likely have the worst game of your life

I wanted to like this and the map kept me engaged for the most part but the game in its current state feels like it's just banking on the legacy of the Test Drive Unlimited games while having little in common.

I have recently replayed both TDU1 & 2 ahead of this games launch just so I don't have the rose-tinted glasses some people here have but it still falls short.

Pros:

- The map for me is probably the main plus the game currently has. It does feel lifeless, but so do TDU1 & 2s maps. The map is also half the size of the previous instalments but it is also A LOT more detailed and for me that makes up for it. It is also a lot more complex, road-wise, which makes for some of the races feel more engaging (that and the collision model in the game doesn't allow you to wall ride as freely like say in Forza combined with no rewind).

- Handling in the game is good which I honestly expected given KT Racing's experience. Compared to TDU1 and 2 it is night and day. It is not on the same level of Forza Horizon but it's a good enough simcade experience.

Cons:

- Performance does not match the level of fidelity, it's honestly unacceptable. A 4090 can barely run this game on Ultra which is a shame because the graphics difference between Ultra and High is immense, it goes from early PS5 graphics to PS3.

- Lacks any soul of the previous games:

Car dealerships feel uninspired, previous games had specially tailored ones for each brand/brands and they were all mostly unique to each other. It made you feel like you were buying an actual car;

Each car in the previous games had it's own gauges on the screen, a minor detail but still;

Character customization was spread across the map in the form of actual clothing shops you had to go to;

No houses??? The car list is about the same size as the previous games, yet you had limited garage space back then hence why you needed to buy houses, it all made sense. They mentioned houses being added in later updates but I am skeptical on how they'll implement them

They hint at gambling and casinos SO MANY TIMES in the trailers yet they launch this game without ANY of that???

No race variations either, it's just circuits, sprint races or time trials..

- Progression in the game feels terrible, reminds me of a mobile game. TDU 2 had you start the game as some ♥♥♥♥ that lives in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trailer. And it made you buy a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 2nd hand car as your first car. In that game you also needed to clear driver licenses in order to unlock all the different car classes. You actually felt like you earned every single bit of money in the game, you went from a crackhead to billionaire. TDU SC feels like a grind but not in a good way, it's mundane and meaningless. Still better than Forza Horizon's progression tho

- The car list is dated, some of the models honestly feel like they somehow ripped straight from TDU2 lol. Previous car lists were unique and relevant to their time, not to mention it had some niche car brands that to this day you don't seen in other car games. This one doesn't, most of the new cars are from 2018 with a few 2020/2021 ones but the majority are just old.

- For an ONLINE ONLY game, the multiplayer aspect is complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. TDU2 was also meant to be an online focused car MMO but even that one let you play this game whenever you want.

In TDU SC, I had the audacity of trying to play the game the next day after getting it, but KT had to do server maintenance for the entire day that didn't let anyone play because of their crap model. What's worse is that this game is already filled with cheaters despite.

It has none of the Multiplayer aspects that TDU2 had, in that game you could drive to and visit your friend's houses and walk around them to check out their cars or just chill. You could sit in the passenger seat of your mate and drive around, you could feed your gambling addiction with them at the casino and more. You can do NONE of that in this game, and worst of all, you barely meet any players around the map to begin with. Ranked races are also DEAD, no one is queuing them.

- The AI in this game is somehow worse than racing games from the PS2 era. In some races unless you are driving the meta car for the category good luck beating them. In some races, AI on Expert difficulty is 100 times easier than the lower difficulties and each time you run that race they will either smoke you or act braindead. Fun fact, you can use a trainer for this game and completely disable the AI cars in races :)

- The soundtrack in this game feels AI generated. It's all royalty free slop so I suggest to turn it off and play your own music lol. The English dialogue in the game also feels like it's AI, I changed the language to Chinese cos at least it sounds funny


All in all, game is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mess. I probably missed some stuff and other comparisons but the ones I mentioned should be jarring enough. I know they announced Ibiza (in hopes to bank on nostalgia), casinos and houses (something that should've been IN already??) and a potential offline mode, but after trying the game for myself I honestly don't think those will salvage it when at its core it feels like a cheap rip-off Horizon when Horizon already borrows so much from TDU1 and 2.

If you are somehow desperate to try it, buy it from a key seller, it's half the price.

4 medal'd this, got my official certification from Onboard Maritime Gaming.

i gaslit a demon into killing himself

This is what happens when you replace your devs with clowns.

lost a 1m skill chain cos servers disconnected me. 10/10

Good game and based developer

Now this is gaming.

If you liked RUINER, you'll like this.