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European Street Racer (ESR) isn’t a complex, intricate racing game but a straightforward arcade-based racer. As soon as you realize that it becomes easier to enjoy. You don’t need to have expert knowledge in tweaking engines to get the most out of a car and nor do you have to be the best driver in the world. The game is a very simple racer but does the ability to pick up and play mean that it’s any good?

To start let’s put ESR in its place. First off ESR isn’t going to smash Project Gotham Racing 4 or Forza off the top spot but arguably it hasn’t been created with that aim in mind. As said before the game can be described in a nutshell by the term; ‘arcade racer’. You start the game by picking your profile name and then subsequently picking a car. The beginning cars you get to choose from are easily comparable to their real life counterparts. For example, one of the beginning cars is a Honda CRX lookalike and so without further ado you set out for your first race.

With over seven different cities that you can race through you’d expect to have a lot of different tracks to get used to. Well sadly that’s not exactly the case and most of the city’s tracks only go two ways; either forwards (the direction you normally start out on) and then backwards. Normally they switch the track around every now and again to try and keep it interesting, but unfortunately the desired effect doesn’t occur.

Once you are familiar with the tracks, it’s quite simple to remember where shortcuts are and what play style you’ll need to demonstrate to win certain events.  Every now and again you’ll be treated to a ‘one on one’ race and this will allow you to unlock a new car; which can either be bought by trading in your current car or if it’s not to your liking then you can just keep the one you have. Unlike most other racing games your car doesn’t really decrease in value and you can easily swap cars and upgrade as you wish, which results in little backtracking to get extra cash.

The other mode of racing available is ‘drift racing’. This isn’t to be confused with the Need for Speed series’ take on drifting where you drive around a track collecting points for big drift combos.  Drift racing in ESR is more like a drag race where you race from one checkpoint, hand break turn and race back to the start. It’s a different take on the overused mode, but it’s questionable whether it can actually be called drifting. Most of the AI opposition seems to know exactly when to turn, to the degree of clipping the checkpoint and then get away from you as fast as they can.

Anyway back to the first race which occurs in London. You’ll be greater by different angles of the start line and you’ll be able to see your car plus three AI controlled rivals. You’ll notice that every single car is already pre-done in terms of customization and there is no modification unless it’s the actual body paint. The timer counts down, hit the acceleration and the three AI cars have already used their Nitrous speed boost, flying towards the first corner.

After you’ve been left for dust you’ll notice that the developers have spent a decent amount of time and effort in detailing the cities. London looks like London and the landmarks are definitely recognizable, but elsewhere (unfortunately) the graphics are akin to Need for Speed Underground. You can argue that detail isn’t as important as the racing and sense of speed but that doesn’t mean it should be slacked on.

Anyway, back to the race. We turn the first corner and one of the AI cars bounces off a NPC car on the opposite side of the road. It’s nice to have other cars on the road, because of the realism and the fact its street racing but instead of having carnage with a huge pileup of cars, and successfully swerving out of the way, all you’ll see is akin to bumper cars bashing into each other. Maybe we’re spoilt by the upcoming Burnout Paradise, but still competition is a big factor in the video games industry.  A further point about the NPC cars is that they keep coming towards you, no matter how fast you are coming. Realistically most people would swerve out of the way, but alas in ESR that isn’t the case.

This leads onto the damage modeling. Cars can be damaged but it switches from clean, complete cars to crazy mashed up wrecks in about 3 bumps. After you get hit three or four things your car will start to fall apart. Your doors will fly open, your bonnet goes up and your bumper crumples. This isn’t a bad thing but no matter where you are hit, the damage effects seem to be generic.

The next corner approaches and the major flaw with the game arises. The cars steering feels like they’re on rails when you corner. For most of the 90 degree corners that you’ll face, a small tap on the handbrake will be enough. In fact, for most of the game I was using the handbrake on every corner as the game grants you more control with it, allowing you to take corners at a tighter angle.

Post race, the lack of depth becomes apparent. You race, you win, you can upgrade your engine or gearbox in the garage, buy new cars, change their color and finally get some more ‘NOS.’ This is where the game stumbles; the linear. It is a racer but the developers could have thought of some other styles of racing. Sometimes the game doesn’t even allow you to repair your car after a race, which can be annoying due to the fact that you will start, will little or no NOS and that’s the main way to win races.

ESR is a mix of old tricks chucked together. It’s a fun arcade racer, but it’s the type of game that you’ll let your little brother play because it’s simple to get to grips with. Also is the fact that you don’t need a really up to date pc to run it. It’s obvious to see what Xider have tried to do, taking from the wave of quality racing titles. Unfortunately it fails at keeping in with the crowd. All in all ESR is a game that grandma would buy you as a present even though you told her to buy you PGR 4. Despite that you can't really blame your grandmother, because it was down to the sales assistant trying to get rid of the stock in the bargain bin.

Score: 5/10

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