Straight4Studios have raced onto the scene with their newest racing simulator, Project Motor Racing. Showing off a wide range of classic and legendary cars, does this professional racing simulator win the race or is this one you need to steer clear of? Buckle up!
Vehicle Gameplay
Like I mentioned above, Project Motor Racing has a wide range of cars available. Over 70 in fact. From the Lamborghini Huracan to the Aston Martin, there is a lot of choice here for players. The cars also look amazing. Every car looks incredibly detailed and of course, sound great too. Top tier cars to low tier all look good. But then the gameplay begins and beauty is no longer important.
Every vehicle feels like they all run similar to each other. Even the high end cars, despite having better stats and should be more powerful, handle and drive like crap. No other way to put it. Changing cars seems to not matter as each one is the same. The best cars range from just decent to terrible. I feel like when I pick a better car, the stats should reflect the difference. This leads to the game becoming frustrating to play and makes races boring and repetitive. Feels like no matter what, you will not have a good time. I played on controller on the PS5 and I have seen some people say that the game is broken or a downgrade on controller as the game is better experienced on a wheel. If this is the case, it is hard to even recommend this game for those on console if they plan on using a controller due to how poorly the game plays. After a while, I did kind of get used to the poor handling of the cars but it was still a nightmare to play. And it gets worse.
Stop Hitting Me!
The A.I in this game reminds me of online players in GTA Online. Ramming you off the road every chance they get. Well, the A.I is somehow even more mean than those kinds of players. Every race or qualifier, they act as if you are not there. You may as well be a ghost haunting the tracks. They will smash you off the road every time. At first I found it funny. But after the 50th time, it was just annoying. Even more so when they hit you right off the track. Going off track in a qualifier can lead to your lap time not counting and in a race against the other fifteen racers, going off track leads to the game punishing you and forcing you to stay back a few seconds. The game punishes you for the A.I hitting you.
Countless times this happened which forced me to pause, restart and try again. It happens too often and will drive players nuts with how frustrating it is. I found myself restarting more races than actually participating.
Career Mode And Tracks
Project Motor Racing features many iconic tracks for players to race on. Some retain their real names while some are renamed but are identical to the real life locations. From Brianza (The Monza Circuit) to Circuit Zolder, there are many tracks to choose from. Now, the graphics of this game isn’t the best. Not exactly the worst ever but for next-gen, you would expect more. Some of the tracks can look bland but there are plenty of them to enjoy. Won’t save you from the gameplay but I need to give some credit here and there.
There is also a career mode. Players will have the chance to start their own racing career and compete in the top competitions to move up in the racing world. One of the best parts of career mode is the ability to choose which sponsors you want. This affects pay-outs from races. Some give you a lot, some less, others 50-50. Choosing the right one is important. You can also choose a budget to work with. The money can be used to purchase cars and entry-fees for competitions. If you want to play in the top tournaments, you need to be prepared to spend the most money. Or, you can go for the lower tournaments for cheap entry-fees and work your way up. A cool idea and gives players lots of freedom.
A Dead Multiplayer
Just a quick mention that this game does have an online mode. Players can play ranked or custom lobby. Ranked is for those who wish to play competitively and rise the ranks. Before doing this, players must complete a race in a certain amount of time to obtain their beginner licence. After obtaining it, they will be placed in their skill pool. Custom lobby is a more casual mode and players can join other player’s custom lobbies. Unfortunately, when I went on I only found a small few servers and the most players in one was seven. Just seven players in an online mode that can hold up to 32 players, which is more than double the racer count the single-player offers. The online community seems to be very small at the moment which is worrying if you plan on playing this game for online.
Verdict
Project Motor Racing is not a good game. The frustrating vehicle gameplay, the violent A.I that comes to make your life a living hell and the fact the game punishes you for its own mistakes, really bring this game down. It isn’t fun to play and the online mode is evident that a lot of people don’t care about this game. Despite having nice looking cars, tracks based off of iconic locations and a career mode that does offer lots of freedom, it doesn’t make up for the poor gameplay. This is one race simulator you need to steer clear of.
