| Enthusia Professional Racing review |
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Often the Japanese can be left sounding somewhat over-zealous in their attempted adoption of the English language, spouting all manner of twisted variations on words that are often stronger than their desired meanings. Nonetheless, Enthusia is a labour of obsessive attention to the realm of physics which stretches out to offer an alternative to the familiar Gran Turismo layout and feel of more conventional simulators.
The physics exhibited by Enthusia are, on the whole, exemplary. It takes only a short while to notice quite how much weight and feel each car has as each vehicle pitches and rolls with satisfying consistency. It’s this weight, more than anything, that provides each car with its own individual character as the physics engine lets them behave as they want to allowing them to fishtail and slide as they should. In fact, the whole game has been designed around the weight and physics of each car as ensuring the vehicle’s centre of gravity is in the right place in the approach to corner becomes just as important as the turn-in point and apex.
Enthusia appears quite eager to stress this asset through its Virtual Gravity System: a visual representation of the forces placed upon the car as it moves and corners. The VGS does help remind the player to think more about how the car is set to handle the next corner. Yet a reminder is all that it provides; the inertia diagram does not supply any information that isn’t already traceable from the position, heading and movement of the car on the track and therefore can feel a little redundant. The VGS’s representation of the car’s four tyres and the loads borne by each does offer something to learn from but none of this is missed when it is removed.
With attractive vehicle models and eye-catching trackside details, Enthusia is solidly presented. Attention to increasing the sensation of driving is also evident in the game’s smaller touches. A darkened border around the edges of the screen moves with the momentum of the car, simulating how the player’s head would fly into the windscreen under braking and be pulled aside in a corner; blur effects successfully heighten tension at top speeds; the ‘life-flashing-before-your-eyes’ slowdown effect preceding a high-speed impact is magnificent. All these ideas are effective at increasing immersion yet subtle enough not to be invasive, although the inability to look behind your car is absolutely criminal, especially given the inadequately tiny rear-view mirror.
For all the attempted realism on the physics side of the game, Enthusia’s handling model actually feels like a combination of simulation principles combined with a hint of arcade approachability. The game rarely feels punishing which makes it a lot of fun to play around with, though the emphasis on weight and gravity leaves the handling model feeling a little woolly. Handling often lacks the bite that you would expect form a tuned racing machine but instead they tend to wallow in corners; even slides with the traction control turned off don’t feel like real losses of control but more like slow, inevitable arcs.
The game opens by first pointing the player to its Driving Revolution mode which, on first inspection, looks like an optional and arguably unnecessary training school. In reality it’s a poor tutor: whilst it introduces the basics of control competently enough, the markers and their speed requirements take the focus of the challenges off the track and onto the markers themselves, some of which actually lie off the racing line. However, when viewed as alternative challenges in the same vein as Project Gotham’s cone challenges, the numerous tests on offer amount to a worthy and enjoyable diversion from the game’s central Enthusia Life mode.
Enthusia Life is a career mode of sorts that includes many fresh ideas that make progression quite unique. The familiar notion of car collection is present with over 200 cars stretching over a wide time scale of production lines, but rather than buying cars they are simply unlocked by randomly selecting an opponent after each completed race. Race wins cannot be bought from the tuning shop either as cars are upgraded through a simple experience system. Each race awards experience points based on length and driver aids used, though deductions from this are made whenever mistakes are made in the race such as colliding with walls and opponents or running off the track.
As little attention has been paid to how cars physically react to collisions, this system is largely responsible for punishing mistakes and it proves to be a very effective way of encouraging players to drive cleanly. Pleasingly, the AI drivers behave in a similar manner, making clean overtaking manoeuvres with only a handful of moronic rear-ending situations. However it is a shame that so many of the rivals found in Enthusia are such walk-overs, with a vast majority of the challenges being saved until the later stages of Enthusia Life.
As cars can be fully tuned relatively easily, Enthusia encourages the player to try several different cars as they race, though the random unlocking progress can also unwittingly award the player with an embarrassingly powerful motorcar early on that may not require replacement. The rewards of winning races in underpowered vehicles are outweighed by the ability to win more prestigious and subsequently more rewarding races by using more powerful cars. Whilst the ranking system is a refreshing method of progression, it can feel a little unpredictable and inconsistent.
Though the many tracks on offer (which amusingly take inspiration both from reality as well as other racing games), varying weather conditions and racing styles (including rallying, desert-crossing and touge racing) offer a lot of variety, the Enthusia Life format itself proves to be a little too simple and short, as reaching higher ranks does not involve as long a road as possibly it ought to. Its simplicity in tuning options and racing content may also attract criticism, however such comments are to miss the point of the game; the game plays upon its simplicity as a strength. Progress and improvements are made through actually driving thanks to the experience system and it's this arcade mentality of focusing on play that makes Enthusia such great fun to enjoy toying around with. |
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System: Sony PlayStation 2
Genre: Racing
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Players: 1-2
Version: Japan
Reviewed: Apr 2005
Writer: Edd Hewett
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Pros:
- Convincing sensation of weight and momentum
- Compelling growth aspect
- Easy to pick up and have fun with
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Cons:
- Can be quite a walkover to complete
- Slightly vague handling
- Frustrating lack of rear-view
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