DriveClub Review (PlayStation 4)

DriveClub is a racing game where staying on track, being respectful of adversaries and using the brake in the most perilous of curves is necessary to win, and having friends in order to form a social group is a requirement to get access to all the experience.

Evolution Studios and Sony want their players to compete with humans as much as possible and to constantly improve their performances and the resulting experience is a good showcase for what the PlayStation 4 can deliver even if at times it is more austere than it should be.

Story

DriveClub is a game where the racing is all that matters and that means the development team has not included any story that aims to offer clear reasons to explain why the player character jumps into a variety of vehicles and accepts racing invitations all over the world.

Evolution Studios understands that most fans of the genre do not care about NPCs or about dialog because they stand in the way of yet another moment when they race at more than 200 kilometers per hour, looking for an opening which would allow them to get past a rival.

Even if the racing experience does not include any narrative, it does have a solid progression system, easing the player into the action with some less than powerful cars before steadily feeding him new options to try out and a wide variety of events in which to test out the various capabilities of the included vehicles.

DriveClub is focused on the social element of racing, and that means those who are looking for stories will certainly find them in the ability to create Clubs and then manage them, choosing friends or strangers with whom to collaborate in order to stay as high up in the leaderboards as possible.

Gameplay

DriveClub is a racing game on the PlayStation 4, and as such, while it might not be a full simulation experience as the one delivered by Gran Turismo, it manages to be engaging, complex, concerned with good driving practices and a bit unconcerned with the amount of fun that the player is having at all times.

The driving model is not as deep as that of the series from Polyphony Digital, but there’s character to each of the included vehicles and one to two races are required before gamers can learn exactly how to handle them, how hard to push them in corners or how good they are in drifting situations.

One of the bravest decisions in DriveClub is not to include a racing line under any form, which means that gamers need to be very careful at the layout of the road and a bit of time is needed to prepare for the trickiest of the included tracks, even if helpful flags give some info about the difficulty of the upcoming corners.

The events in the racing title include classic point-to-point and lap races, as well as hot laps, time trials and chained championships, which always have some bonus elements other than finishing as close to the top as possible.

DriveClub also gives players a chance to earn bonus points by driving well, which includes having as limited contact as possible with other racers and the edge of the track while also drifting, drafting and reaching top speeds.

Cockpit view

The development team is not afraid to deploy tough love and actively punish gamers for cutting corners or for making room for themselves via collisions, and that can initially be a little frustrating, especially when coming from Forza Horizon 2, but they mean well and want to make most of the community solid virtual drivers.

As players progress through the single-player campaign, they unlock new cars and paints, but they also earn progress towards their club memberships, some of which are mandatory and are based on the vehicles they use and the moves they execute.

Anyone can also join an actual social club created by another live human in order to get access to another entirely separate set of rewards, as long as they take part in the evolution of the group.

The biggest problem with DriveClub is that it is stern almost at all times, even when the crowds release colored balloons as racers go by, with little celebration of the feats the player can achieve and with a set of gameplay mechanics that are a little quick to warn and punish the player when he deviates from the predetermined line.

Graphics and audio

DriveClub is a gorgeous video game, the kind of experience that can easily be used in order to demonstrate the power included in the PlayStation 4 for those who have not yet seen it in action.

The focus is on the cars that gamers can use, which are carefully modelled both on the outside and on the inside, with plenty of detail to linger over and explore.

Initially, the vehicles are so exciting, especially when the pilot view is used, that it’s hard to focus on the road, and as more tracks are unveiled, I heard a few gasps of amazement from the crowd that was watching me win at times and wreck a bit too often for my linking.

Evolution Studios has clearly put a lot of effort into the presentation of DriveClub and the interface is always clean and informative, with a lot of details about the player, his progression, the state of his club and what rewards he can get access to next.

Tunnel time

The tracks are also impressive, regardless of whether they are located in the Arctic, in India or in Italy, even if the level of detail seems to be a little bit lower for the areas which the roads do not actually reach.

Unfortunately, the beauty of the racing game is not matched by the entirety of its sound design.

The cars themselves and their interactions with the road are very well simulated and it’s best to focus on them rather than use the included soundtrack, which is disappointing and is wisely muted when DriveClub is first launched.

Eliminating the tunes gives gamers more time to enjoy the roar of the engines, which is best experienced from inside the cockpit and can at times be distracting enough to lead to less than solid racing performances.

Multiplayer

DriveClub, as the name implies, asks gamers to create or to join a club in order to have a full experience, and those who want to take part in community events and challenges will find a range of such events linked to the new structure, with rewards delivered in the form of cars and more customization options.

During races, short challenges linked to speed, drifting and handling, also pop up regularly in order to give gamers a quick boost to their ego if they manage to do better than their friends, club mates or even random strangers.

Given how much Sony has pushed the social aspects of DriveClub before it was launched, I was expecting a wider range of options linked to this part of the game and more depth to the interactions of gamers who choose to race alongside one another.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion