Check Drive Limitless: Photo voltaic Crown isn’t only a racing sport, it’s a life-style sport. Developer Kylotonn has endeavoured to recreate Hong Kong Island together with its opulent luxurious and underground avenue scene, and whereas the driving is the place Photo voltaic Crown actually shines, it is the approach to life and technical facets of the sport maintain it again.
You step into the footwear of an upcoming racer, plucked off the streets and dropped right into a spacious suite on the Photo voltaic Crown lodge. Your purpose is obvious: make a reputation for your self on the streets of Hong Kong Island by racing and exhibiting off within the Photo voltaic Crown competitors.
The highway to the highest isn’t brief. Not like different racing video games reminiscent of Forza Horizon 5 the place you acquire a brand new automotive each hour, Photo voltaic Crown is all concerning the bond you kind along with your rides. They price some huge cash, so every buy issues and also you’ll spend a great deal of time in your first whip earlier than you should purchase one other. Happily, you’ll be able to check drive any automotive within the sport as many occasions as you want before you purchase it. You possibly can ignore the stats as a result of they don’t inform the total story — each automobile within the sport feels distinctive to drive, so that you’d higher spend the time discovering after which saving up to your favorite.
That is extra of a sim driving sport than an arcade one. There isn’t any reasonable harm, however if you happen to take a observe automotive off-road it’ll spin out wildly. Even clipping a muddy financial institution or driving over a grass lane divider will trigger you to wobble. The suggestions of every kind of terrain is brilliantly delivered by the DualSense’s haptics, with full rumble occurring alongside the entire controller, and the L2 paddle jittering quickly if you happen to brake too intensely earlier than a good nook. It makes it appear to be you’re actually behind the wheel of every automotive, feeling the highway beneath you.
There are a lot of kinds of highway to cruise alongside on Hong Kong Island. Slender alleyways, extensive highways, winding mountain roads, dusty off-road paths, and sandy seashores. The island is the right setting for a racing-cum-lifestyle sport like this, and exploration is very inspired by the usage of hidden collectibles that may web you just a few new vehicles and further in-game cash. The Cantonese is generally appropriate, and real-world areas are recreated faithfully — however sadly, the setting feels missing.
Hong Kong actually interprets to aromatic harbour in English, however no boats sail between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, simply throughout the bay. Worse nonetheless, the enduring skyline of Kowloon is nearly completely hidden, nothing greater than a mere silhouette obscured by the sport’s shockingly low render distance. Setting the sport solely on the Island is comprehensible, however the full omission of the intense lights and towering skyscrapers throughout the water means a lot of the town’s character is misplaced. The gap actually isn’t that far, and even on a foggy day you’ll be able to nonetheless see throughout the bay simply in actual life.
There’s additionally a stunning lack of individuals on the streets. Hong Kong Island is a crowded place, and what few NPCs there are stand largely idle, transferring in small, looping animations. They really feel lifeless, and drain the town relatively than add to it. Cantonese music can be absent; Hong Kong Island has a vibrant and numerous nightlife, however you wouldn’t realize it based mostly on the in-game radio.
Happily, the races assist elevate the expertise once more. Every race comes with its personal predetermined time of day and climate results — the rain makes driving in cockpit view extraordinarily difficult. The AI opponents are powerful, so coming in first all the time appears like a hard-won, well-earned victory. There’s additionally an excellent number of race sorts, from sprints, circuits, time assaults, and a domination mode that favours consistency over simply crossing the end line first. The tracks make full use of the island, typically going from darkish alleys to treacherous mountain roads, which means you push your automotive to its limits in each occasion.
Whereas shopping for new vehicles takes some cautious saving, upgrading your present ones is comparatively low-cost. You unlock extra efficiency and beauty components as you stage up your status, which you do by finishing races and challenges across the island. The efficiency upgrades are pretty normal ‘make numbers go up’ fare, and the beauty adjustments are restricted to rims, window tints, inside colors, and livery modifying. The latter is a bit finicky, with some stickers changing into warped in the event that they wrap round from the aspect to the again, or entrance to the aspect, and so forth., and whereas the choice feels restricted at first, you unlock far more as you go.
Character customisation begins off equally low key. You get a selection of masculine or female physique kind and may then edit your face and coiffure. All clothes and hair choices can be found for both physique kind, which is a pleasant contact and means you’ll be able to actually inject some character into your avatar. As along with your vehicles, extra clothes turns into obtainable as you stage up and while you be a part of a clan, however it will be good to see extra equipment and even tattoo choices.
The clan function is what’s prone to hold the dwell service sport thrilling sooner or later. There are two: Streets and Sharps. These characterize the underground subcultures and enterprise luxurious sides of Hong Kong Island. Becoming a member of one unlocks new race sorts which are separate to the Photo voltaic Crown competitors, so these contain visitors and add an thrilling dose of chaos. The clan’s identities do not actually come by within the races, nonetheless. The AI opponents don’t put livery on their vehicles, so you’ll be able to’t inform who you’re driving in opposition to at a look, and this appears like a missed alternative so as to add extra character to the sport and its setting.
These are points that ought to be solved by the inclusion of actual gamers, however in the course of the assessment interval and even now into the early entry window, Photo voltaic Crown has been affected by technical points. Logging in isn’t assured, and most races must be began a number of occasions earlier than you’ll really get into one, and even while you do, you’ll have to restart it if the server does not save your progress.
It doesn’t assist that there’s no crossplay, so the pool of gamers you’ll be able to work together with is severely restricted — an odd selection for a sport so apparently targeted on its social facets. You do spot different gamers driving across the island and hanging out within the lodge foyer or workshops, however for the time being, really racing with others is unlikely.
Connectivity points apart, there are common body charge drops on PS5, even when making use of the title’s efficiency mode, and particularly when within the cockpit view. This might be because of the automotive’s rear-view and wing mirrors rendering what’s behind you, however it creates a jarring expertise when the sport slows to a crawl as racers bunch as much as spherical a good nook. There’s additionally a lot of constructing pop-in as soon as they cross the render distance threshold — however in any other case every part, particularly the vehicles, appears to be like nice.
Conclusion
Check Drive Limitless: Photo voltaic Crown is a fully phenomenal driving expertise when it really works. Every automotive is exclusive and also you spend a lot time with them that you simply kind an actual bond along with your machines. Races are hard-fought and the neon streets of Hong Kong Island enjoyable sufficient to discover in free roam. Sadly, quite a lot of technical points hamper the expertise, and the approach to life parts and total environment of Hong Kong Island go away a lot to be desired. That is an ongoing, dwell service sport with many seasons deliberate, so hopefully a whole lot of these points might be ironed out. Till then, although, it’s nonetheless a pleasure to drive round in your favorite automotive, simply absorbing the highway.
