Take a look at Drive Limitless: Photo voltaic Crown isn’t only a racing sport, it’s a way of life sport. Developer Kylotonn has endeavoured to recreate Hong Kong Island together with its opulent luxurious and underground avenue scene, and whereas the driving is the place Photo voltaic Crown really shines, it is the approach to life and technical facets of the sport maintain it again.
You step into the footwear of an upcoming racer, plucked off the streets and dropped right into a spacious suite on the Photo voltaic Crown lodge. Your aim is evident: make a reputation for your self on the streets of Hong Kong Island by racing and displaying off within the Photo voltaic Crown competitors.
The street to the highest isn’t quick. Not like different racing video games resembling Forza Horizon 5 the place you gather a brand new automobile each hour, Photo voltaic Crown is all concerning the bond you type along with your rides. They price some huge cash, so every buy issues and also you’ll spend a great deal of time in your first whip earlier than you should purchase one other. Luckily, you may check drive any automobile within the sport as many instances as you want before you purchase it. You may ignore the stats as a result of they don’t inform the total story — each automobile within the sport feels distinctive to drive, so that you’d higher spend the time discovering after which saving up on your favorite.
That is extra of a sim driving sport than an arcade one. There isn’t any real looking injury, however for those who take a monitor automobile off-road it’ll spin out wildly. Even clipping a muddy financial institution or driving over a grass lane divider will trigger you to wobble. The suggestions of every sort of terrain is brilliantly delivered by the DualSense’s haptics, with full rumble occurring alongside all the controller, and the L2 paddle jittering quickly for those who brake too intensely earlier than a decent nook. It makes it look like you’re really behind the wheel of every automobile, feeling the street beneath you.
There are a lot of varieties of street to cruise alongside on Hong Kong Island. Slender alleyways, extensive highways, winding mountain roads, dusty off-road paths, and sandy seashores. The island is the proper setting for a racing-cum-lifestyle sport like this, and exploration is extremely inspired by way of the usage of hidden collectibles that may web you a couple of new vehicles and further in-game cash. The Cantonese is generally right, and real-world areas are recreated faithfully — however sadly, the setting feels missing.
Hong Kong actually interprets to aromatic harbour in English, however no boats sail between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, simply throughout the bay. Worse nonetheless, the enduring skyline of Kowloon is nearly fully hidden, nothing greater than a mere silhouette obscured by the sport’s shockingly low render distance. Setting the sport solely on the Island is comprehensible, however the full omission of the brilliant lights and towering skyscrapers throughout the water means a lot of the town’s character is misplaced. The gap actually isn’t that far, and even on a foggy day you may nonetheless see throughout the bay simply in actual life.
There’s additionally a surprising lack of individuals on the streets. Hong Kong Island is a crowded place, and what few NPCs there are stand largely idle, shifting in small, looping animations. They really feel lifeless, and drain the town fairly than add to it. Cantonese music can be absent; Hong Kong Island has a vibrant and various nightlife, however you wouldn’t realize it based mostly on the in-game radio.
Luckily, the races assist elevate the expertise once more. Every race comes with its personal predetermined time of day and climate results — the rain makes driving in cockpit view extraordinarily difficult. The AI opponents are robust, so coming in first at all times appears like a hard-won, well-earned victory. There’s additionally an excellent number of race sorts, from sprints, circuits, time assaults, and a domination mode that favours consistency over simply crossing the end line first. The tracks make full use of the island, usually going from darkish alleys to treacherous mountain roads, that means you push your automobile to its limits in each occasion.
Whereas shopping for new vehicles takes some cautious saving, upgrading your present ones is comparatively low-cost. You unlock extra efficiency and beauty components as you degree up your fame, which you do by finishing races and challenges across the island. The efficiency upgrades are pretty normal ‘make numbers go up’ fare, and the beauty adjustments are restricted to rims, window tints, inside colors, and livery modifying. The latter is a bit finicky, with some stickers changing into warped in the event that they wrap round from the aspect to the again, or entrance to the aspect, and many others., and whereas the choice feels restricted at first, you unlock way more as you go.
Character customisation begins off equally low key. You get a selection of masculine or female physique sort and may then edit your face and coiffure. All clothes and hair choices can be found for both physique sort, which is a pleasant contact and means you may actually inject some persona into your avatar. As along with your vehicles, extra clothes turns into obtainable as you degree up and whenever you be a part of a clan, however it will be good to see extra equipment and even tattoo choices.
The clan characteristic is what’s more likely to hold the reside service sport thrilling sooner or later. There are two: Streets and Sharps. These symbolize the underground subcultures and enterprise luxurious sides of Hong Kong Island. Becoming a member of one unlocks new race sorts which might be separate to the Photo voltaic Crown competitors, so these contain visitors and add an thrilling dose of chaos. The clan’s identities do not actually come by way of within the races, nonetheless. The AI opponents don’t put livery on their vehicles, so you may’t inform who you’re driving towards at a look, and this appears like a missed alternative so as to add extra character to the sport and its setting.
These are points that ought to be solved by the inclusion of actual gamers, however through the evaluate interval and even now into the early entry window, Photo voltaic Crown has been suffering from technical points. Logging in isn’t assured, and most races should be began a number of instances earlier than you’ll really get into one, and even whenever you do, you could have to restart it if the server would not save your progress.
It doesn’t assist that there’s no crossplay, so the pool of gamers you may work together with is severely restricted — an odd selection for a sport so apparently centered on its social facets. You do spot different gamers driving across the island and hanging out within the lodge foyer or workshops, however in the mean time, really racing with others is unlikely.
Connectivity points apart, there are common body fee drops on PS5, even when making use of the title’s efficiency mode, and particularly when within the cockpit view. This may very well be as a result of automobile’s rear-view and wing mirrors rendering what’s behind you, however it creates a jarring expertise when the sport slows to a crawl as racers bunch as much as spherical a decent nook. There’s additionally numerous constructing pop-in as soon as they cross the render distance threshold — however in any other case all the pieces, particularly the vehicles, appears nice.
Conclusion
Take a look at Drive Limitless: Photo voltaic Crown is a fully phenomenal driving expertise when it really works. Every automobile is exclusive and also you spend a lot time with them that you just type an actual bond along with your machines. Races are hard-fought and the neon streets of Hong Kong Island enjoyable sufficient to discover in free roam. Sadly, a wide range of technical points hamper the expertise, and the approach to life parts and general ambiance of Hong Kong Island depart a lot to be desired. That is an ongoing, reside service sport with many seasons deliberate, so hopefully a whole lot of these points will be ironed out. Till then, although, it’s nonetheless a pleasure to drive round in your favorite automobile, simply absorbing the street.