Late PSX titles always get a bad rap. They are either overlooked, unjustly compared to the PS2, or even compared to current gen games, which baffles me. 007 Racing is way too ambitious and creative to be compared to that sort of cut and paste crap.
007 Racing is not an overlooked gem in the PS1, it's too infamous for that. Unfortunately for me, as you can tell this is going to be a positive review, i can't even say it is the best PS1 game that came out in 2000. CMR2, DC2, THPS2, Driver2, Persona2, Smackdown2, MOH:U, man a lot of sequels. Oh and WCW Backstage Assault. A stacked line up that year, maybe the busiest the PS1 ever had. Nah, 007 Racing doesn't have Twisted Metal's variety, Gran Turismo's precision handling or Driver's tense car chases, but it has enthusiasm for the I. P, a bats sample based soundtrack, a single player with a story full of fan service and an underrated multiplayer mode. Yes, the cars and tracks are sparse, but me and my brother had a banging time trying to blow each other up in the airport. Me trying to do that machine guns 'n' smoke drifting from No Time To Die. It wasn't easy, but i got it a few times. Great stuff.
The nostalgia is strong with 007 Racing, i will accept that. But it looks great for it's time, especially the cars. Comparing the rendering to GT would not be an overstatement. The single player missions, though finicky at times, are varied and like i said, the story is great fun for a bond fan.
The few gripes i have are yes, it's in the lower half spectrum of PS1 racing controls, and like i said, the car selection is sparse as are the multiplayer maps, with possibly only five each respectively. I mean, where's the V8, the Alpine, the Bentley, the Toyota, the DBS, the Citroen? I could go on. And all of the locals you could have based a map off of.
So yeah, not perfect, but far from average. 007 Racing is a decent title that is worth checking out for anyone interested in Bond or the racing games of the time.
007 Racing is not an overlooked gem in the PS1, it's too infamous for that. Unfortunately for me, as you can tell this is going to be a positive review, i can't even say it is the best PS1 game that came out in 2000. CMR2, DC2, THPS2, Driver2, Persona2, Smackdown2, MOH:U, man a lot of sequels. Oh and WCW Backstage Assault. A stacked line up that year, maybe the busiest the PS1 ever had. Nah, 007 Racing doesn't have Twisted Metal's variety, Gran Turismo's precision handling or Driver's tense car chases, but it has enthusiasm for the I. P, a bats sample based soundtrack, a single player with a story full of fan service and an underrated multiplayer mode. Yes, the cars and tracks are sparse, but me and my brother had a banging time trying to blow each other up in the airport. Me trying to do that machine guns 'n' smoke drifting from No Time To Die. It wasn't easy, but i got it a few times. Great stuff.
The nostalgia is strong with 007 Racing, i will accept that. But it looks great for it's time, especially the cars. Comparing the rendering to GT would not be an overstatement. The single player missions, though finicky at times, are varied and like i said, the story is great fun for a bond fan.
The few gripes i have are yes, it's in the lower half spectrum of PS1 racing controls, and like i said, the car selection is sparse as are the multiplayer maps, with possibly only five each respectively. I mean, where's the V8, the Alpine, the Bentley, the Toyota, the DBS, the Citroen? I could go on. And all of the locals you could have based a map off of.
So yeah, not perfect, but far from average. 007 Racing is a decent title that is worth checking out for anyone interested in Bond or the racing games of the time.
