Pulling out of the gate, Racing Evolution starts off a little differently. You’ve got a single-player story mode called Racing Life that has you taking on the role of Rena Hayami, a girl who goes from ambulance driver to pro racer overnight. The story isn’t much, as at times it’s somewhat cheesy and overdramatic, and a complete yawn inducer at others. Honestly, when it comes down to it, you really won’t care much about Rena and her nemesis Gina Cavalli as they duke it out on the tracks, you’ll just want to race.

So maybe the idea of a "compelling story" isn’t really much more than a vehicle to keep you playing the single player mode. That’s fine, so long as the racing is fun. And in this game, the racing is mildly fun, though far too easy. It’s made more so by the fact that all racers are hobbled by a pressure meter, which fills as you draft your opponent until the meter finally tops out and he makes a stupid mistake. Racing in this game has been reduced to a game of drafting your nearest opponent until he freaks out and spins out, which they’ll pretty much all do, every time. Along with the pressure meter, the lack of solid racer AI kills much of the challenge of racing the other goons on the track. The other drivers simply cruise around the track in hopes that you won’t pass them, and you can trust me in this, you will pass them, there’s little challenge to it unless they have some supercar that you’ve yet to unlock. And lest I forget to mention it, the automatically enabled brake-assist will ensure you can zip through turns with nary a bit of concern about spinning or sliding. If you want to enjoy this game, immediately turn off brake-assist.

For those racing fans who just love a variety of cars, there are plenty here in R:Racing Evolution. The problem is, you rarely get to choose which one you want to use. The cars are almost always chosen ahead of time for you, depending upon which type of race you’re going into (circuit, rally or drag racing). Sure there are plenty of rally cars, dragsters and supercars, but it’s no fun when you don’t get to pick which type you want to use for a race. You can tweak several features of the car, including braking power balances and steering responsiveness, but thanks to the puny AI, you won’t need to, as you can beat any racer in this game using the stock settings.

The presentation is a mixed bag of good and bland, though there’s nothing I’d call "bad." Some of the voice work, particularly that of the other drivers’ is annoying, but it’s not one of those elements that would ruin the game. The musical score has plenty of ethereal electronica that can be switched out before a race, keeping you from tiring of it. Graphically, you can tell this title was built on a PlayStation 2, with plenty of aliasing and flat colors. Again, it’s not bad; it’s just not sparkling and shiny like you’d hope a modern next-gen racer would be. When you set this game alongside NFS: Underground, some of its textures and color palettes are almost laughable. When on the track, vehicles don’t seem to carry any weight, and thus it looks like you’re floating just a hair above the track at all times, and skidmarks only appear when you yank hard on the e-brake. Car models, however, look pretty darned good when you’re in the garage, and the CGI’s, while frequently overdramatic or just plain corny, do have a nice bit of visual flair to them.

In a modern gaming era of online everything, it’s surprising that this title shipped with no online options. So once you’re done the story mode, you’re stuck with the usual allotment of arcade, time attack and multiplayer split-screen modes. Sure those could be considered a great selection of options…last year, but this is 2003 (rapidly hitting 2004) and any serious racing title should have an online option or expect to be relegated the back shelf after being played through once.

For the average gamer looking for a racing title, I’d suggest renting R: Racing Evolution before making a purchasing decision. Sim fans and hardcore racers should skip right past this one and pull their copy of Pro Race Driver off the shelf if they need to see how a good story-driven racer is done. Gamers looking for non-storied racers will do well to stick with Need for Speed: Underground or Project Gotham Racing 2, either of which blows the doors off of R: Racing Evolution.