Developer: Slightly Mad Studios
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Project Cars 2 – Preview
A short while ago we were invited at the office of the friendly Day One agency to try out the new build for Project Cars 2 with a full racing seat setup with a Thrustmaster steering wheel. The first Project Cars was released a few years ago and we became quite curious about how this sequel would fare. Will it be a great improvement on its predecessor, or will it just be another bland racing sim?
The first Project Cars was well-known for its qualitative simulator feeling, most noticeable was the career mode that followed the story of a beginning driver with karts and you needed to work your way up to faster and more expensive classes. Unlike other race games this gave a real sense of achieving something and feeling the change of everything. Because of the limited time we had due to the showcase we did not dig into the story mode at all, so this is a surprise for the review.
At this moment the game already looks good, the tracks really feel organic thanks to the nature and lighting in place, with a day and night cycle to give a full 24 hours capability (in which we will talk more about later). With the many racing games that we played in the past we must say that Project Cars 2 felt the most realistic in terms of places. The cars themselves look good as well but could use a little more work for the full release. Overall the graphics are very smooth and a pleasure to the eye.
Any car enthusiast knows that the right sounds bring more depth to the whole game and lesser quality could actually hurt the gameplay. This is where Project Cars 2 took us greatly by surprise. At first it is noticeable that the sounds are good, but when comparing various vehicles with each other this is where your heart will start to race. Each ride has a unique sound corresponding to engine type and aspiration, turbo vehicles have different dump valve sounds and some even have anti lag rev limiter (the Toyota GT 86 Rocket Bunny street version has a very realistic one) which just amazes the ears. When testing the Chevrolet Camaro the distinct old V8 sound gave us a huge smile of Hot Rod feelings.
Project Cars 2 may sound like a car mechanic game for the non-gamers but it is actually a racing simulator. The thing that makes this title very interesting is the wide amount of customizations to the options, from all kinds of assists to various difficulty settings for the AI and the ability to create 24 hour races thanks to the option to choose between laps or tracks. Where the first installment was known for a lack of vehicles the developers have now brought us a very extensive car list with classes ranging from karts to street, rally, super sports and exotics to even high powered Le Mans racers and a wicked 1200 BHP drift missile (and it is a challenge to control believe us).
Naturally having a lot of cars is not fun if you only have a few tracks but you don’t need to worry as there are plenty of well-detailed tracks and for each person’s specialties: drift, rally, ice, curvy tracks, straight tracks and so on, even Belgium’s Zolder and SPA Francorchamps are well presented.
When racing you will notice that each vehicle handles uniquely with own characteristics, some races will be easier and some will be harder so mastering each one will be a challenge on their own. Now don’t worry, the game supports many realistic assists that will not only feel authentic like real life but also make it actually easier to understand.
We tried the game on a Thrustmaster setup combining the normal paddle shifter with an H-shifter and tried out how the game was with both settings and it just made the game that more fun. Project Cars 2 really feels like a simulator and it reacted perfectly on each input, making it a must buy title if you own a setup like this.
Conclusion
Project Cars 2 is a title to look forward to when it comes out in September. With a simulator that combines a wide range of tracks with over 100 cars and sounds that is just perfect realism it could give you an eargasm when playing on a decent surround setup. We sure are looking forward for the full release and can’t wait to get our hands on the career mode.
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[…] mentioned in our preview that the sound was one of the biggest things that blew us of our chairs, this hasn’t been altered […]