Last year was a good year for fans of racing games, with Apex, Midnight Club 2, Need for Speed Underground and Project Gotham Racing 2 wowing console owners with their graphics and gameplay alike. As the year came to a close, gamers already expected 2004 to hold much of the same, with Gran Turismo 4 and RalliSport Challenge 2 on tap to continue the influx of top-shelf racing titles.
Then along came Acclaim, announcing it was going to join the fray with a new game in the tricked-out racing genre. Juiced, the name of Acclaim’s upcoming racer, blends simulation-style customization and physics with underground scenarios and arcade action. For those of you who like to categorize games, put Juiced somewhere between NFSU and Gran Turismo, and you’ll be pretty close.
The lifeblood of every racing game is its cars, and Juiced makes this subject matter more user-controlled than most racing games. In games like Midnight Club 2, which has a distinct arcade feel, after-market modifications (modding) is alluded to but not necessarily an integral gameplay aspect. Simulation-style games like Gran Turismo, on the other hand, are rife with customization but seldom address the most popular modding trends. Juiced tries to bridge that gap with deep after-market options that both affect the cars’ handling and make them look cool at the same time.
American muscle cars, European sports cars … you name it, and Juiced has it. When the developers say the modifications will affect how these cars handle, though, they mean it. The 60 licensed cars in Juiced are based on the actual blueprints of their real-world counterparts, meaning that “off the shelf” cars not only resemble their real-life counterparts but handle the same way, too. Add a spoiler or tweak the suspension, and the handling will change realistically.
Unlike NFSU, though, where car upgrades sometimes seemed “mystical,” Juiced gives players total control of their modifications, meaning every change is focused on a customized performance. For example, when altering the suspension, players in Juiced won’t see the height automatically adjusted. Instead, the game will ask players exactly how high or low they’d like the suspension to be. Gear ratios and other enhancements will be treated much the same way.
When the changes are complete, players can take their newly modded car out on the practice track or into the “rolling road” wind tunnel to see how the changes affect performance. In other words, some consumers may want to pick up Juiced to tweak and test their virtual car before even touching their real-world one. Sure, the changes all cost money, but one of those currencies is videogame money, while the other buys real-life food.
In addition to being realistically modeled, the game’s 60 cars will also take realistic damage, which will in turn affect the cars’ handling. Sure, go ahead and slam into the guardrail head-on; your fender will fall off and every dollar you’ve spent on aerodynamics will go straight out the window. Licensing damage is one thing, but making it affect handling increases a game’s immersion tenfold. If you want to drive around like a stylish demolition derby, be prepared to pay the mechanic, just like you would in real life. Believe us, you’ll want to avoid the tried-and-true “car-cushioned” cornering.
Cornering and the rest of the in-race gameplay borrows a page from PGR2 in the sense that players compete for cash as well as respect. If the car drifts, catches air or makes any other stylish maneuver, players get more respect “points.” The more respect points players earn, the more non-playable characters will approach them asking to join their team. Yes, that’s right: to join their team.
Juiced is a bit like organized crime. By that, I mean that players who earn enough respect can build up a team and eventually get so much renown that their “minions” will do their dirty work for them. Are you in a close race and need help bumping a competitor off the road? Command one of your teammates to take care of it. Have you noticed a race that has a nice prize, but you don’t feel like racing? Tell one of your teammates to compete instead, and if he wins, you get the fruits of his labor. Just watch out, because if you or your teammate loses, it could be your car headed to the competitor’s garage instead.
All of this action takes place in the Career mode, which spans seven environments/cities and 28 tracks. Careers start off with players as virtual nobodies perusing the calendar and electing which races they want to enter. Juiced takes a surprisingly open-ended tack in this sense, because players can pick and choose when and where they want to compete. Additionally, some races will only be accessible (or created) by owners of certain cars, meaning there’s no one-size-fits-all campaign for players to work through.
On top of the Career mode, Juiced also includes drag races, a time-trial mode and a cruise mode, the latter of which compels players to do as many stunts as possible in a certain amount of time. And those are just the offline single-player and split-screen modes. Juiced also supports online multiplayer action for both the PS2 and Xbox. Although Acclaim has been mum so far on the online gameplay details, it’s a safe bet that the competition will be for more than just bragging rights. Pink slip races, anyone?
Juiced is aiming to marry deep customization options with white-knuckle racing, and so far it’s looking good. Successfully borrowing elements from various games could be a challenge, though, and if not implemented well, the game could look like little more than a knockoff. Here’s hoping the game gets the attention it deserves, because with the right amount of TLC, this could easily be one of the top three racing games of 2004.