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The Dominator reviews
Eidos Interactive Limited
- MS DOS 5.0 (or higher) or Windows 95
- Pentium PC 90 Mhz
- 12Mb RAM
- 50Mb Hard Drive Space
- Dual-speed CD-ROM Drive
- Soundblaster and 100% Soundblaster compatible sound cards
- Modem and Network game support
Test Drive Off-Roadis a rally racing game in 4×4 vehicles, in whichyou initially get to choose from the following four: Hummer, Land RoverDefender 90, Jeep Wrangler, and Chevy K-1500 Z-71, and race themalong 12 courses in 3 different environments (Forest, Desert or Snow),accompanied by the realistic sounds of the engine, plus grinding rock musicfrom Gravity Kills.
Installation
The game can be installed in both DOS and Windows 95, and whichever environmentyou choose to install it in, you can run it from either. Installation is simple,and can be easily followed from the instruction manual including how to setyour soundcard correctly. If you install from within Windows 95, thenuninstalling is a quick affair by using the uninstall button. If you’veinstalled it in DOS, then you’ll need to delete the files by hand, but thisis easily done by deleting the entire TDOR directory, or whatever name you havechosen to call it.
Main Menu
Practice Race
Before you get started, you may want to have practice run around each of thefirst six tracks. After entering your name, you can select your 4×4, as wellas a number of different paint jobs tailored to each different type of 4×4.
The next screen allows you to select which track you want to race round, as wellas the number of laps required. A further six tracks are available whencompeting in and winning various Mixed Leagues.
When each race is done, if you’ve switched on the Action Replay functionyou can replay the entire race, and choose whether to save it.
Mixed League
In this mode you’ll be in a tournament competing against 23 other competitors,but in six races of four vehicles at a time. Any vehicle can be chosen, andyou’ll be racing against a selection of other vehicles.
The first of the trophies is the “King of the Mountain” one. You’ll need tofinish in the top three in the first three races, and the top two in the lastthree races, if you’re to qualify for competing for the next trophy.
For the “King of the Mountain” trophy, you’ll race the first six tracksin random order. 3 laps for the first two races, 4 laps for the next two, and5 laps for the last two. Upon completion, you’ll have access to track 7 inthe practice mode, and when you start the next trophy, “Speed Demon”,you will be racing along the 7th track along with any 5 of the first six tracks.Similarly, as you progress through the trophies, you will gain access toanother track, with the other 5 tracks being taken at random from the previoustracks already completed.
The scoring system is thus :
- 1st place – 10 points
- 2nd place – 8 points
- 3rd place – 4 points
- 4th place – 1 point
Class League
In this league, you’re also racing against 23 other vehicles, each roundconsisting of six races with four vehicles in each race. This time, however,the leagure is Vehicle-specific. You can choose from: Hummer League, JeepLeague, Land Rover League and Chevrolet League.
Again you can choose your vehicle’s colour scheme before moving onto the randomtrack selection. The number of tracks that six will be picked from is dependenton the number completed during the Mixed League races. On completionof 1 to 6 Mixed League races, you’ll have 7 to 12 (respectively) tracks to pickfrom. As in the Mixed League, you’ll race 3 laps for the first two races, 4 lapsfor the next two, and 5 laps for the last two.
The scoring system remains the same as the Mixed League.
Bonus Vehicles
You will access and drive four bonus vehicles, providing you win the ClassLeagues on either the Medium or Hard difficulty settings, each league givingyou access to a specific bonus vehicle, thus :
NB. The bonus vehicles are only available in practice mode.
Racing
When driving during the game, the controls are simple – accelerate, brakeand turn, with an optional small map showing the positions of yourself and youropponents on the track.
When choosing a camera angle, some people prefer a first-person view (keys 0and 1) or third-person (2-9). Number 6 worked best for me as a third-personview with the camera positioned above the car with enough space to see thetrack and the other cars.
You must go over the checkpoints as you drive around, otherwise a voice willtell you that you need to go back over it and that’ll cost you.A small arrow appears on the screen to tell you which way to go, if you strayfrom the track or miss a checkpoint.
The figure in the bottom-right corner of the screen is your race position(1 to 4). You can try to smack into other vehicles to roll them over, but yourun the risk of rolling over yourself, and if you do roll, you’ll probably lose.
Options
There is a numerous supply of options in this game.
1. Sound FX
– Volume settings for the game and speech sound in the game, plus theability to select set or random tracks from Gravity Kills.
2. Graphics
– Toggle on/off buttons allow choice of Action Replay, Onscreen Map, Race Info (speed, time elapsed, lap counter), Sky animation, Dust animation, Player names above each car.
3. Display
– Allows selection of :
4. Control
– Choose between keyboard, joystick, Gravis Pad or Thrustmaster
5. Driver Setup
– Toggle settings for Anti-skid, Power steering and Friction, plus difficulty settings for Easy, Medium or Hard.
6. Load Replay
– Allows loading in of any saved replays.
7. Hall of Fame
– Gives current lap records of all 12 tracks.
Graphics, Sound and Playability
As more and more games these days are using polygons for graphics, this oneuses sprites. I had the game set to VGA mode as my P90 isn’t fast enough forthe SVGA setting. While the cars and tracks are well-designed, the on-trackgraphics aren’t a lot to shout about, being a mixture of various road-humps tojump over, and a number of track-side elements to keep you going the right waysuch as trees and oil drums. However, if you want, you can leave the trackitself to go exploring the terrain, although you’re not going to win if youdo…
The sound quality is limited to various engine noises, and gear-change soundsas you do a three point turn when you’ve inadvertantly gone off the track. Don’tworry, you don’t have to get involved in actually changing gears, but thecrunch as you turn is a nice bonus.
There’s also a number of speech phrases in the game with an American bloketelling you to “Hurry Up!” when you’re lagging behind, “Turn Around!” whenyou’re not facing the right up, “Awesome!” as you go over a big hump, and heenthuses “We’re jammin’ now!” when you’re going at top speed.
The rock soundtrack is courtesy of the group Gravity Kills, and you can choosewhether to hear a particular track all the way through the game, random tracks,or the tracks preset to accompany certain tracks.
The playability of the game is what’s most important, and the game certainlymanages to get the cars moving along the tracks at an impressive rate. The gameis also very easy to get into with a wide variety of options available.
Overall
Overall, this is a competent above-average rally game, which also has built-insupport for modem and network games. In comparison with some recent othergames, Test Drive Off-Road has more tracks than Screamer 2, butthe graphics aren’t as smooth as the latter uses polygons.
The recent Carmageddon also uses polygons, but the effective speed ofthe cars feels about the same at times, even though the car in Carmageddon ismeant to reach over 200 MPH. Also, it depends whether you’re more into playinga straight racing game such as this, or Carmageddon’s more violent style ofincreasing your time left by running people over.
Graphics : 3/5
Sound Effects : 3/5
Playability : 4/5
Overall : 3/5
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.