Customer Reviews

Test Drive: Eve of Destruction

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Test Drive Eve of Destruction is a strange title for a game all about 'contact racing' (demolition derby, figure-8 racing, etc).

There are 3 modes of gameplay: Action, Career, and Dare. All three modes accumulate points to unlock goodies.

Action mode has most of the cars unlocked and a handful of tracks and lets you jump right in and drive whatever car you want in whatever event you want. Pick the school bus, head to the trailer races, and you'll be a school bus with trailer racing a bunch of cars with trailers (how fun is that?).

In dare mode you race in a set of races with a predefined car. You must to finish first in each race to move on to the next 'dare'. There are multiple dare levels with 5 races per level.

Career mode is what you'd expect. You start out with the worst car, little cash, and no reputation. Within career mode you have different ways to race as well. You can race at the various tracks, go to the diner to race the local boys for money, and run time trials at places like the local gravel pit. There is also a junkyard where you can buy new cars, and a garage where you can purchase upgrades and paint your car.

Painting your car is pretty funny. When you paint, it's with spray paint and it looks real...and real bad...just like real spray-painted cars at the derby.

Any given race night is called an 'eve' and there are a number of events per eve. The events are fairly comprehensive and include: Figure-8 Jump (where the cars have to cross an intersection with jumps at high speed), trailer races (trailers attached to the cars), chain races (cars chained togethor), king of the hill, car soccer, flag-pole races (circle a flagpole while racing), the gauntlet (you drive a hearse and try to elude the chase cars), and of course the demolition derby. There are quite a few more race types besides these.

As far as gameplay goes, it's fun but this isn't a driving sim. It isn't PGR2. It's an Atari title and they don't seem to be putting out the top-shelf games these days. The various cars do handle differently and the upgrades to make the cars better. You just have to get the hang of how each car drives and not unlike PG2, the action mode is the way to get used to the various cars.

This is also one of those games that is super fun to play with your friends. You better have a big TV screen though since there's no Live and no system link. The game does support 480p video and Dolby 5.1 audio.

To parents, the only reason I can figure that this title got a T (teen) ESRB rating is because of two fairly common four-letter words (one starts with an H and the other starts with a D) that you certainly don't want your little kids repeating. That inclusion is unfortunate because the announcer is so lame that you tend to ignore him anyway and the context in which those two words are used doesn't add much to the game.

All in all this game is really fun and does a pretty good job at recreating the fun and spectacle of race night at your local full contact speedway. If you've never been (shame on you, you're missing out) the in-game video clips will give you a taste of what you are missing.

The whole reason I purchased this game was because my older brother had it and was playing it with my nephew and said they were having a blast. So I went and purchased it for my son and me to play and we have just as much fun as they do.

I have rented this game three times and I played it non-stop each time!

the best crash and bash game out there.

it offers car customization including: paint,parts,and body.
the track choice is very nice and the cool cars including:buses,an ambulance,and a hearse are very fun to drive and crash!

5 stars.

First, the bad: this is an older game, and it shows. The graphics are sub-par, there are some laggy parts on the tracks, the cut-scenes are choppy, and the controller on the options menu doesn't match the new controller.

***Be warned that if you have an Xbox Slim, you have to have a hard drive to play it. AND you have to have a connection to Xbox Live to download the updates necessary to play it***.

That being said, it's a fun little game. You start off with a decrepit Yugoesque car and race/battle your way to #1 ranking. You earn money by racing single racers, beating times on tracks, and finishing well in multi-race events. You can buy other cars or upgrade the one you have. The upgrade options weren't really thought out well- basically, you can only buy a +1 to one of three performance areas.

The races are fun and who doesn't like smashing into stuff? The events vary from strict demolition derby to jump races and figure eights. It isn't very challenging to make it to #1 ranking, but getting there is a lot of fun.

This game is the most entertaining original xbox game that I've ever played. (I own around 135 original xbox games.) Up to 4 players can play at a time on the same console and the game is backwards-compatible on the xbox 360. The only improvements that could have been made are better graphics and more realistic physics. The soundtrack is great, though there are only ten or so songs. There are many, many gameplay modes, tracks, cars, unlockables, etc. This game is a blast! MUST BUY!!!! Also, tremendous replay value. I originally beat the game on the first xbox and then beat it on each of my 3 xbox 360 consoles. Great multiplayer game for friends and family.

I got this game after my husband and son played it at a friend's house. They play this almost every night. You can play 2 players at a time, so they are able to go against each other. There are many different races you can play. A lot of fun for them to play together and fun for just one as well.

Perfect game. Great graphics, glitches almost non-existant, and extremely fun for kids and adults. Shipping was prompt and condition of game was excellent.

This is a great game. I bought it for my husband when I bought him the XBox Elite. He used to play the game on our friends XBox and has been looking for it. The game is a blast to play and it arrived on time just like the supplier promised. It was in brand new condition in a sealed box.

Test Drive could easily be one of my favorite racing games because there's nothing quite like the feeling of demolishing your enemies into nothing but a pile of smoking wreckage (especially with a bus as your weapon). This is a must-have racing title for Xbox owners because it is absolutely wonderful and awesome to play. Plus, I can't see why Atari has gone back to sim/racing gameplay with the Test Drive franchise instead of continuing this game's arcade gameplay of destruction.
WHAT THE GAME IS: Well, it's a racing game. You go through a career mode, get new cars if your own gets wrecked, earn money, and be the greatest. But, you don't have to do a career mode to unlock the extra content. You can just do the events which are amazingly fun, and are even better if you play with a friend. It's also easier to unlock things if you go there and win.
GRAPHICS: Look good for the time, and still hold well to this day. You mostly see dirt tracks because this game is all about demolition racing. Though, the car damage modeling seems a little shallow considering how good Driver 3's damage modeling looked.
MUSIC: A good selection of tracks to listen to, too bad you can't skip through songs you don't particularly care for.
SOUNDS: Vehicles crashing, metal twisting, cars scraping against walls, you know the basics in destructive racing.
GAMEPLAY: Works like it should most of the time, though I can't quite figure out why I have to press the B button if I want to reverse instead of L, but other than that it works almost perfectly. You can also adjust the driving view if you want to. Virtually everything is fantastic about this game. The flaw is the fact career mode can get a little tedious and difficult, but who cares this game is totally awesome!
OVERALL: Absolutely fantastic, there's hardly a flaw present you really should buy this game because it is well worth the investment, unless you like Xbox Live too much to enjoy games that don't have it, because this game does not have Live play. But there are so many events to challenge a friend to, so it doesn't matter if it has Live play or not because it's just too much fun.
THE GOOD: Hella fun racing destruction, awesome events, decent graphics, good soundtrack, a great selection of vehicles to unlock, a good career mode, and fun old-fashioned multiplayer.
THE BAD: No ability to skip through tracks, damage modeling is a little weak, career mode can be a little tedious and difficult.

My family and I play this game alot. It's a great way to unwind after work, cause some mayhem, and destroy some cars, all without leaving the couch. It's even better when you get your friends together in the evening just to hang out.