Customer Reviews

SRS: Street Racing Syndicate

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I admit it. I fell into the hype that this game built up weeks before it's initial release and I thought this game would be a real contender. Well, it isn't. It does have a few interesting quirks but overall, it's a mediocre, Need For Speed Underground-wannabe that lack overall polish and finesse.

The usual suspects for a street racing games are here: fast import cars, performance tuning, pimp graphics and parts, and modern urban pop/rap music but the primary attention-getter that gets the lion's share of the DVD bits are the models. Real models. The ones that have graced many of the import tuner mags you see on the magazine racks. This is where it gets tacky in a hurry. In winning certain series races and beating special challenges, you can "win" these models. And you can "hook up" up with them before you start to run more races. If you lose too many races, they dump you like a sack of old cat litter. Win some races and they will want to go back to your place to "give you a reward". And we ain't talking about baking cookies! Is this really appropriate for a video game that will be played by young kids? Even though the rating is for Teens, I can guarantee you that many, young, pre-teen males will probably spend more time watching all the model's videos than really enjoying the game. The videos are sexually suggestive to downright erotic and this type of titillating tripe has no business in a game like this. The amount of space these videos consumed could have easily been used to make a better, more appealing game.

OK, now for the game itself. It's got its good points but it mostly falls short in a number of areas. The selection of cars are reasonable - over 40 in all with Mitsubishi, Toyota, Volkswagen, Lexus, Subaru, Mazda, and Nissan as the manufacturers - but the only problem with the selection is that many of them are virtual duplicates as opposed to truly different cars. If Nissan wants to have 2 Skylines, fine, but so we need more than five? Most of the selections from Mazda are RX-7's. For the fan of these cars, it's great to choose from them, but since there are no differences in how they perform, it's moot and a waste of space.

Overall, the car graphics are about average. The detail is OK but it lacks any real definition. The streets and surrounding areas of Miami, Philadelphia, and L.A. are actually pretty good with no pop-ups. The streets are less "wet" than in NFSU but they do reflect the lights and neon of the streets pretty well

Sound wise, the cars don't always sound authentic but it's decent enough. As far as the music is concerned, it's your usual rap/hard pop fare but since I always take out the music in these kind of games, I can't say if it's good or not. All I know is that it's distracting.

Playability is good. The learning curve for controlling the car is easy which makes it nice to jump right in and drive. The feel of the different powertrain configurations (rear, front, all-wheel drive) is accurate and precise which is kind of surprising for a game that feels more arcade-like than an actual driving simulation.

The goal of SRS is to gain money, respect, and girls. In Street Mode, you can run in the Respect Challenges and earn respect points by completing certain task. The Crew Meets offer you a chance to participate in series races. You win money and respect for winning these series while the street challenge races let your opponent (and you) puts up a wad of cash that can be all yours if you can beat him (or all his if you lose). The only thing that can improve here is to have a greater variety of drivers and cars in these challenges since the same few people in the same few cars will challenge you over and over again. There's also the Roll Up Races where you flash your lights behind a challenger with a "Race Me" arrow above the car, very similar to the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series. There's also a Cruise Zone you can go into that lets you cruise the city (controlled by the AL) but you can control the camera so you can get some pretty nice angles of your ride.

The game also comes with a multiplayer feature, Split Screen, and online play as well as Quick Race, Checkpoint, Iron Man, and Speed Trial in the Arcade Mode.

I could go more into this game but I'll let it stand as is. It has such potential to be a much better game but it only comes across as a cheesy, assemblage of parts, experience that is made worse by the equally cheesy, assemblage of "parts", female models. OK, the game itself can be fun to play and it's involving to a point but it needs more than gyrating, overly exposed women with suggestive lyrics to make this game worthwhile. Rent if you must, but look for something better.

I got bored of this game after about 10 minutes. The level is lousy, the car control is lousy, and it's a total waste of time to even try to complete it. Online is boring as well.

The girls in the game is probably an attempt to cover the lousiness of this game. Even if you're just buying this game just for the girls, it does have hot pictures of them on the menu in skimpy clothes, but it's not really much. You can also earn videos of real models dancing, but it's not really that sexual if that's what you're expecting. It's just a girl in slightly skimpy clothes like at the nightclub. They don't dance in skimpy bikinis like at a gentlemen's club. Don't expect that kind of stuff. This game is rated Teen, not Mature or over.

Anyways, this game is lame and a waste of time to complete. If there were no models, this game would have nothing to show but it's lousy gameplay.

a lot of people will not like this game because of reality.
It is challenging to race the tuner,also to fix the body damage when you wreck.The girlfriends are a added bonus to fix up your car or cars quickly.There is more driving time on this game and does not have set tracks like NFS.The police chases are fun to get into make sure you escape or pay a fine.The graphics for the tuners are different,but nothing like NFS. Yes the bodykits are only simple but when you are a street racer(like myself)you do not want to pull attention from the police.In this game you set your own destiny(where you race,who you race and the cruise spots are a plus)
Overall this game ranks under NFS because of the accessories for the tuners are limited.But if you like (NFS Hot Pursuit) the police chases are fun.
If you want to play and see how the real underground racing happens then this is a game for you. But if you like fantasy cars and like an easy way to earn your cars then NFS andNFS2 are your games

This is definately one to buy. The pricing is very accurate on all the products. The slight downside is the body kit selections. Other then that the game is tight. Get it for Xbox if you have one since online play is awsome. Dont do a pinkslip race too sooon otherwise you might have to start all over. Multiple cars is the key, trust me. Start out with either an Eclipse 99 GS-T or a Golf GTI or a Jetta. They are your best bets. Goodluck.

it's the best tuner game for anyone
and it's very easy hours of gameplay
with more

I know this game didn't get awesome reviews when it came out! I agree, it does not match the quality of many other racing games on the X Box system. However what if lacks in great racing capabilities, it more than makes up for in featuring very hot and bangin' hotties! I am really into the Import scene and being like any other red-blooded male love seeing the Honies get filmed and displaying their assets in front of the flashing cameras, while not taking away from the hot vehicles behind them.

I love how you can unlock hot dances by the featured import girls and various strippers. I love how they become your "girlfriends" as you advance through the game.

Definitely worth a rental!

MC White said: Check it out, my import loving gamers!!!

I jus rented this game seeing the reviews were ok but i highy regret wasting 6 bucks at blockbuster. This game isnt even ok. Its horrible. the graphics suck, theres not alot of choices to make out of vehicles and u think ure goin 10 miles an hour WHEN YOUR REALLY GOING 70!! WUTS UP WITH THAT!?!?!?! This games is a waste of time. The only reason i give it 2 stars is because one the girls on the loading screen are hot and two they explained the parts correctly but thats it. Everything else is C-R-A-P.

Street racing has become quite the hit in pop culture lately with movies like Fast and Furious and 2F2F coming out. These movies are somewhat of an exaggeration on the import scene these days. A lot of companies are trying to get their piece of the action as well, whether it be movies, books, or in this case videogames.
Street Racing Syndicate seemed like it would be a solid racing game. Great cars, great tuning options and real parts from real manufacturers. Unfortunatly the only good part of this game is the tuning aspect. The racing in the game feels very unrealistic and just doesn't play that well at all. The controls aren't that great, and the races seem pretty easy as well. If nitrous is equipped on the car, its pretty easy to get back into the lead if you push the nitrous button. The A.I isn't that smart as well. They are not very aggressive and make it an easy win.
The graphics are not that great but do hold up pretty well. There isn't any stunning visuals.
All in all, I think anybody that likes the import scene these days would enjoy the tuning aspect of the game, but actual racing in the game ins dry and boring. Keep it a rental.

Everything about this game is lame, the graphics , the user interface, and the very slow since of speed, car's going 150 mph feel like 70 mph! you can pump up your ride to 600+HP! and cars with 200HP will beat you! If you are a fan of need for speed underground stay away from this stinker!! This game is very dissapointing! avoid it at all cost's!!!

I rented this game thinking that it would be awesome and now I want a refund plus some money for gas for my wasted trips to blockbuster. It doesn't matter if you choose a front wheel drive car or a RWD car, they both will have crappy handling. What's worse is that you can completely hook up your car and the handling stills sucks. This game is a joke. Everytime you take a corner you have to brake so much or you will crash into a wall. Trust me you will crash. So there's no point in getting a sweet bodykit because you'll smash it up after your first turn. Even if you get on the brakes too much you'll lose control, and thats on a fully tricked out ride. The game actually looks decent and sounds good, but what the point if I can't take a corner without crashing? And after you crash, your once sweet ride that you paid so much for is going to look like crap while the computer's cars are showroom fresh. There's no point in getting it fixed because you'll crash in Turn 1 unless you slow down to 20 mph. Who would create a game like this? Need For Speed Underground is 20 times better and that game got on my nerves toward the end.