Review by:   Tim Wright

Game:        Megarace 2
Publisher:   Mindscape
Format:      CD-ROM
Available:   Out now

Requires:
 
O/S:         DOS 5+
Processor:   486DX2/66+
RAM:         8Mb+
Graphics:    SVGA 1Mb
CD-Rom:      X2
Soundcard:   All major cards supported

Tested on:

O/S:         DOS 7.0 - Windows 95
Processor:   Pentium 133
RAM:         16Mb
Graphics:    2Mb Matrox Mystique
CD-ROM:      Toshiba Quad Speed
Soundcard:   Soundblaster AWE 32
Controls:    Keyboard & Joystick

Megarace 2

Megarace. It wasn't very good was it? A tedious slog through some admittedly very pretty rendered racing tracks, blasting your opponents' one at a time while trying not to fall off your chair in boredom. Bearing this in mind, it is a brave software company indeed who decides to release a sequel to such a clunker, but this is what Cryo have done. Naturally, all sorts of improvements have been made to the game, but do they make any difference? Read on...

Megarace is a Virtual Reality (God what a tired old phrase!) game show of the future, where a variety of contestants battle it out on a weird and wonderful selection of racing tracks for cash and prizes. Think of it as a take on Wacky Races, except with heat-seeking missiles. The show is hosted by a =complete= tosser called Lance Boyle, the sort of man who could out-sleaze Shane Ritchie any day of the week. He's annoying, sleazy, self-confident and you end up wanting to reach through the screen to break his neck while the stands there. Just like any other gameshow host in fact.

Upon loading up the game you are greeted with a long (too long) FMV intro featuring Lance Boyle. This is a gameshow host so cheesy and annoying he could get a job on ITV. His co-star is a token bimbo sidekick, banging on about the show and making a fair few genuinely funny jokes at the same time. Once you have passed that endurance test, you get to choose your vehicle and kit it out with whatever weaponry and other oddments (such as tanks of oil to make life slippery for your opponents) you can afford. Having stocked up, you are taken to the first track: The Foundry.

First the good news...

Well, for a start you no longer have to fight one car at a time. In fact, because the cars are all built up from texture-mapped polygons, you often find yourself jostling for first place amidst a field of trigger-happy opponents. The game is also considerably harder than its predecessor, which even Cryo admit was 'So easy even losers could play'. As a matter of fact, the game is very tough.

Winning a race is no mean feat and my stomach sank into my boots, when, on completing my first successful race, I had to go round the same track again! Wasn't the hour and a bit I put in on my first attempt good enough for you? Wasn't all the snarling and swearing and frustration enough for that smug git Lance Boyle? No, it was not (Just for the record, I lost that second race and had to start all over again, because my saved game vanished). The opponents put up quite a fight, firing missiles and nudging explosive devices across the road for you to crash into. It's hectic, frustrating fun and no mistake.

Having completed a race you are given a cash boost and allowed to choose a mystery prize from either door number 1, door number 2 or door number 3! Then you are taken off to the next round and later, the next track.

This is a Cryo game and as anyone who has played their games before will tell you, they do not stint and presentation and graphical beauty. The cut-scenes look fab, using every camera trick in the book and the rendered tracks are amongst the best looking graphics I have ever clapped eyes on. That's right - I said 'rendered tracks'.

...and Now The Bad News!

For all the gameplay enhancements that have been made, the game is still very much 'on-rails'. Now I loathe and detest on-the-rails games with a passion that some people may find disturbing, but fortunately, it is not nearly as bad as some other games I could mention, but won't. Like Rebel Assault. The game engine is flexible enough to speed up and slow down with you and if you turn off down junctions the rendered footage will turn with you.

It's not all good news, however. As clever as the game engine is, it commits a capital offence for any driving game. You can't drive the wrong way around the track to smash up the cars head on, which I love to do (and I know many other people do as well). Well all right, you can, but as the rendered footage is one way only, you end up with an unplayable flick-screen affair (Imagine Alone in the Dark with cars and you should get the idea: Weird camera angles and an inability to point yourself in the right direction in time). This is a serious black mark in Megarace 2's book I can tell you.

It doesn't end there. As fun as the basic game is, it failed to drag me back for more in the same way Screamer did. It's fun, but it lacks that certain something that the other game has. This wouldn't matter as much if there was a multi-player option, but I've hunted high and low and I'll be damned if I can find a modem/network play option anywhere. Oohhh deary me.

It's a shame really because the game is so very nearly there. If Cryo could ease off the 3D Studio button a bit and make a full-blown Screamer-style game engine they could be onto a winner. They certainly seem to have mastered the fine art of doing Gosh-Wow graphics but they still haven't quite caught on to the fine art of perfect gameplay. What happened to the five-mile-wide addictive streak of their first game, Dune? It's a shame.

The Concluding Closing Bit At The End!

So should you buy it? Well, this is a tough one. The driving action is good fun and very challenging and it kicks the --you know-- out of the original Megarace, but then there is that on-the-rails feel, the lack of network support and a complete inability to drive the wrong way around the track. Don't get me wrong, I just lurve driving games so there has to be a problem when one of them fails to excite me.

If I were to walk into a shop clutching 30 squids in my sweaty, eager hands and saw Megarace 2 sitting next to Screamer 2 or RAC Rally Champ on the shelf, I wouldn't buy Megarace 2 I'm afraid. However, if I could find this for around £10 - £15 quid I would definitely consider it.

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Rating: 6/10 (Fair Effort!)
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