Zzap


Test Drive 2: The Collection
By Accolade
Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Zzap #79

Test Drive 2: The Collection

An odd sort of compilation this as there's one only game on it! The game is Test Drive 2, pitting the Ferrari F-40 against the Porsche 959 in an illegal road race across nameless American states. The compilation brings together all four data disks: both classic car and scenery disks.

The Muscle Cars disk sees five legends roar back to life from the '60s, while the Supercars gives you the chance to race the monster cars of the modern age, from Lamborghini Countach to Lotus Turbo Esprit - all with their own authentic facia. Bring these wild ride machines together with the California Challenge and European Challenge disks and you have enough combinations of cars and scenarios to satisfy any dream car driver (even Phil 'Door Wobble' King).

Thankfully The Collection is a disk-only product as a tape version would be a nightmare - the amount of disk swapping to use the scenery and car disks is considerable. However, you can create a Play Disk on which favourite car and scenery data can be saved, this cuts down on a lot of swapping but the disk access is still heavy.

The original Test Drive didn't fare too well (46%, Issue 35) and isn't included, but Test Drive 2 got a respectable 77% (Issue 51). The presentation is still first class, the various cars are shown in some brilliant side-on pics and are slickly shown wheeling across the screen - it makes all that disk-swapping worthwhile! Unfortunately the actual racing element is a very workmanlike affair with slow screen update and a sluggish illusion of speed due to slow-moving roadside objects. To cap it all it's made rather dull if you opt for the slower top speed, Auto-shift gear option.

Nowadays it seems technically rather dated, not coming out very well in any comparison with Super Monaco GP and Stunt Car Racer, but it's still rather playable. Although lacking graphical thrills, the game scores due to its emphasis on realistic driving with realistic gears, rear-view mirror, oncoming traffic, engine blow-outs and police cars handing out speeding tickets. Add to this some of the most desirable cars in the world and you've got a fairly attractive package - even if the various scenery options don't make much difference. Once you've tried out all the cars the tough, and rather irritating gameplay could become ultimately discouraging, but setting new saved-to-disk race times has some long term appeal.

Recommendation

A good value-for-money compilation for the car freak. Gamers more addicted to stunning graphics and brain-blurring speed than exotic cars should approach with caution though.