I had great expectations from this title. I am a fan of Alfa Romeo's cars and products so, I was looking for a game that could represent the italian Alfa Romeo's motto "Cuore sportivo" (=the passion for cars that have high performance engines under their "skin").
And SCAR does it very well...
Graphics 7
It's no GT4, do not try to compare these 2 games. The cars are shiny enough and the tracks are good. Yes, some are better than others, but Milan city track or Toscana's hills are a well reproduced and designed.
There are also some old Alfa Romeo models (60s-70s) that I liked very much because remembered me when I was a little boy...;)
There are car damages in the game, but aren't so important as in Colin McRae or Toca series...because car damages have a "different function" in SCAR, see below for details...
Sound 8
Very good, IMHO. Alfa Romeo's engines are well reproduced, expecially the shift gear noise.
I drove an Alfa Romeo 147 2.0ts and I am sure that the in-game sound is the same of the real one :)
Gameplay 9
I liked it very much. Milestone indroduces a RPG-style gameplay, so you upgrade not your car but your virtual pilot.
You win or unlock suits, shoes, helmets or gloves that upgrade your pilot's skills (so car's handling/speed/acceleration will improve).
It's up to you to decide which object is worth to be dressed by your avatar, and this type of gameplay (the same of rpgs-in a simplier way, obviously-but a good new feature in racing games) is never boring 'til the last race in the game.
The AI is also one of the best I've ever seen in a game. It's more like Toca Race Driver 2 than GT4: the drones are smart, put you under pressure (that is shown by a green bar that decreases when they are close to your tail), do mistakes and can be very challenging.
Also the car damages are reproduced by a red bar that decreases every time your car touches one of the other cars, goes offroad (!) or impacts with a wall/guard-rail.If the bar reaches 0, your car wrecks.
Overall
I gave SCAR a chance and I was satisfied. I consider it as "some fresh air" in racing game genre and I enjoyed it.
The overall presentation is obviously not so impressive (Milestone hasn't as much money as Sony...), but the game is fun and worth buying (it costs about 19.90 euros in Europe).
If you want "something different", try it!
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