The organizers of the Solar Crown in this new Test Drive Unlimited entry need to rethink their new competitive racing championship. Who on earth is going to be able to withstand a crown on their head that’s so searingly hot? Might as well bestow the winner of this competition with a frying pan on their head because a “Solar Crown” suggests the king or queen wearing it will melt under the swelteringly intense heat of the sun.
Despite the questionable name of this new Test Drive Unlimited, we haven’t seen the series since 2012’s Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, and it’s about time a new entry popped up to show modern racing games how to drive in style and elegance. However, the dormancy of the series has proven to be its undoing, as Solar Crown feels like an outdated racing game by at least a decade, and will fail to inspire fans of similar multiplayer-centric racing games like The Crew: Motorfest and FORZA Horizon 5.
Little effort has been paid to how Solar Crown presents itself. You play as a generic-but-customizable nobody who doesn’t speak a word, but who listens obediently to Vivian, a suavely dressed business lady who introduces you to what the Solar Crown is all about and sets you up with a comfy abode and an introductory car to settle you in nicely. There is a classy feel to Test Drive Unlimited, but it’s undermined by the absence of character and personality. Contrast Solar Crown with its contemporaries like Ubisoft’s The Crew: Motorfest, then it’s evident that while the latter has a problem shutting up, Solar Crown has the opposite problem where it seemingly has nothing to say.
Once you’ve undertaken a few tutorial races, you’ll start to explore the wide-open map of Hong Kong Island, complete with dingy streets and long winding roads. Various markers on the map include wrenches to repair and optimize your vehicle, a bevy of dealerships to purchase new vehicles from a range of manufacturers, and many speed camera traps to roar through to accrue gold stars. The layout is unexciting and what you’d expect from any open-world racing game, and Solar Crown doesn’t do anything to deviate from the standard precedent laid down from past genre stalwarts.
Progression starts to take shape when you introduced to clans, which you’re able to join once you reach level 12 and have defeated the first rival in a one-on-one event. Joining a clan is a case of representing yourself as a dominant force, so that opposing clans can quake in their racing shoes. You’ll be jousting with your opponents and aiming to accrue all the spoils and leaving your adversaries rasping and choking on your exhaust fumes, relieving them of all their cheddar too if you’re lucky enough.
The club-like and inclusive vibes are Solar Crown‘s greatest strength, as there is a homeliness to this racing franchise that no other series can quite match. Entering a showroom and seeing motors on display in museum-like fashion is pleasant to witness, as is rubbing elbows with clan members at exclusive members clubs, it’s just a shame that other aspects of Solar Crown are underweight and archaic by comparison.
As an open-world racer, Solar Crown does very little to stand apart from its competition. The aforementioned roaring past speed traps has been done to an obsequious degree by many other racing games, the sprint and circuit races are bog-standard, and the track design appears to favour a lot of bunching up of cars without giving drivers the ability to breathe comfortably. Tightly packed racing seems like the DiRT series’ forte, but it feel somewhat exciting to race hard amongst the hustle and bustle, especially when you see the A.I lose control, heralding the thrilling feeling of advancing position unexpectedly.
Handling is smooth and maneuverable, managing to caress the arcade edge without feeling uncomfortably loose or rock hard to steer. Drifting seems like an afterthought though because while there is a dedicated button for drifting, the event types don’t cater to it as much, and it’s a wonder why drifting is featured at all if it feels largely disregarded.
On the car-flip side, there’s little inspiring about Solar Crown‘s Hong Kong. Scenery doesn’t offer inspiration with its dark clouds and storms. This dingy cloudy grey aesthetic fails to inject a sense of awe and adrenaline into proceedings, and it’s difficult not to be left pining for idyllic landscapes and an unbound sense of autonomy – y’know, like modern racing games have managed to achieve where Solar Crown has not.
Car selections aren’t too inspiring, but you are open to getting behind the wheel of Bugatti Veyron, and Alpine have a selection of luscious automotive to choose from. You won’t be wowed by anything out of the usual, but there’s enough here to satisfy a need for speed, but unlike that franchise Solar Crown doesn’t have much in the way of luxurious automotive style to rave about.
Visuals and performance are underwhelming too. Framerate drops during races are noticeable and distracting, and character models lack detail and are generally flat and po-faced. A lingering stench of outdatedness wafts through Solar Crown, and it shows by how the game looks and by the lack of sparkle in its design and features.
Conclusion
If you were looking for the next big open-world racing game juggernaut, you’ll be sorely disappointed by Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. The dinginess of its Hong Kong setting leaves a lot to be desired, the racing events are uninspired even though the showrooms and the close-knit racing can be satisfying. Much of Solar Crown feels like a throwback to racing games at the start of the eighth generation, rather than a current force on current-gen hardware. Thus, Solar Crown doesn’t do much that’s wrong or egregious, it’s just uninspired and dull for the most part, and lacking in charisma or a sense of excitement. Such a blow for Test Drive Unlimited‘s return, but Solar Crown races with the reliability of a Porsche with a punctured set of wheels.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
