There is a fair amount of apprehension over spending time on what at first glance looks like a very old-school racer. The poor choice of dull introduction races only serves to build this into trepidation, but as soon as you unlock the first off-road section, things start to pick up and the fact that there’s decent variety in the missions keeps the interest level from dipping. For example, this level gives you a big bouncy 4x4 and sends you flying cross-country via waypoints to beat a time-limit. Along the way, you have to cross roads that might have traffic on them, avoid rocky outcrops, trees and buildings, bundle through undergrowth and crop fields and generally act like a loon. This came easily. The style of the game-world with low polygon-count terrain means instead of smoothly rolling over the ground, a lump of rock or a road edge might send you barrel rolling sideways, or driving along on two wheels fighting for control. This is a good thing in our book.

The inquisitive amongst you will quickly ignore the waypoints and time-limits in favour of exploring. The maps, set in various parts of the World (in which you can go Racing, 2) are fairly expansive, and deviating from the set path shows the scope the developers intend, with interconnected routes through each area, which are revealed in later levels as parts of race routes. Familiarity grows with play-time and there's a joyride mode explorers. Variety is the spice of life and certainly there’s plenty here, finding yourself firing through crop fields, across the deck of an aircraft carrier, inside an old Roman amphitheatre, through market streets, under houses on stilts and along the beach, as well as traditional racetracks. Everything looks good enough, but there aren't any standout visual moments.

Other level types include examples such as street racing (replete with traffic), desert sand drifting, knockout races, catch-up races and track lap-time missions. It is worth noting that most of the missions are difficult, at least to achieve the gold awards or 1st-place finishes, which is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it keeps the challenge high and gives a sense of achievement, but on the other, it can also be extremely frustrating. The drift levels are fairly special in this respect – baldness through the frequent ripping out of hair is a distinct possibility. It took us ages to figure out the correct technique for successful drift levels and armed with that knowledge, it’s still a complete lady dog. Later drift levels compound matters further by adding an amusing minimum average speed to the mix.

The huge variety of cars (strictly limited choice within each race) again have a mixed-up look of Arcade Vs Realism about them, but as objects to overtake in races, they do the job. Driving each one reveals a noticeable difference in handling and engine characteristics, but adjusting from one to the next is easy so the model must be doing its job fairly well. They can be decaled pointlessly, but not modified. Some of them have Nitrous, use of which is essential when available. A certain amount is available and when it runs out, is only topped up again on the next lap - a method that works well, leaving you to concentrate on using it, rather than trying to earn it in nefarious ways. However, the overall impression the driving model gives is lacklustre. It doesn’t do anything particularly poorly but also doesn’t go all out to impress. Functional if you will.

Progress through the career mode can take a while, with the difficulty level ensuring it can’t just be raced through. It also takes a while to get used to the different driving techniques required in the variety of mission modes and some people may be put off too early on to let the game click into place. Those that persevere will get their money’s worth for sure, although it’s a bit of a roller-coaster ride, with some levels leaving us with an empty feeling in the stomach and others ramping up the fun a few notches, feeding the will to continue a bit more. It could so easily have been a dull game, but it manages to provide enough fun arcade driving spread throughout to rescue it. A very different experience from all the driving games released recently, which might well be its saving grace.