Juiced – Review

Juiced is one of those games that had so much promise when it was announced that gamers sat up and took notice, this was going to be a great street racer and then it happened, through no fault of its own Acclaim got into bother and the game slipped, it slipped a whole year until THQ finally got their act together and bailed it out of the place all gamers despise, ‘the gaming ethereal plane’ (That’s the mystical plane that is presently home to True Fantasy Live Online and BC). Due to this huge time lapse I’ve a feeling Juiced isn’t going to do as well as it would have but I’m going to aim to review it on its own merits and fairly because I’m professional like that… no honestly…

Seems good thus far, on starting a brand new game you essentially have to set up your ‘crew’ (your driving team), you choose a logo, a phone (used for contacting other racers) and give your crew a name. After this comes the other game options with Career, Arcade, Custom Race, Multiplay, Xbox live, your gaming choices along with the extra curricular options and extras.

You play in Angel City, where you’ll need to impress other crews and win their cars and more importantly their respect. You’ll meet TK, who will most graciously lend you his wheels so you can head out onto the streets and try and win some wheels of your own. Getting your own car is a great feeling and where this racer differs to others is that as opposed to collecting a garage load of cars you’ll spend more time modding and upgrading your car of choice, mine being a very stylish black beetle. You do however have the option of purchasing other cars care of the handy dealership who contact you to let you know when they’ve got new wheels in store. The funky thing is that the cars range from the ordinary to the stereotypically sporty and you’ll see amongst others, Clios, Puntos, Mustangs and Nissans in there. There’s also the opportunity to ‘play for pinks’ which means you’re playing for the pink slip (ownership papers) of other racers cars, this is both a good thing and a bad thing. Racing for pinks is one of the ways in which you can gain new vehicles, the downside is that it’s also a way to lose your cars since whoever wins the race wins the opposing car. The same can be said of the betting aspects of the title, where you can wager money with other drivers; this is a nice touch and adds to the game but can become frustrating as you lose more than you win.

The controls in Juiced are somewhat similar to Burnout as opposed to Forza, for those who haven’t played these titles it means the handling is more of the arcade style racer than the slip slidey simulation style of something like Forza. I found the controls to be fairly tight from an arcade standpoint. For me this made the game more enjoyable as I’m not a big fan of overly realistic racing games. The thrill of hitting the Y button and getting a nitrous oxygen boost sending you fleeing past your opponents is fantastic.

The customization aspects of juiced are brilliant, with an almost ‘pimp my ride’ style as you can not only mod the aesthetic by tweaking things such as tints, paintwork, fin, bodykit, wheels, neons, decals, dial colour, in car entertainment, horns and of course buy various cars but you can also tweak the performance by adding components to the vehicle. The box blurb cheerfully states ‘over 7.5 Trillion car customization possibilities’ which is insane but one heck of a lot of fun. New mods are opened as you race and gain respect and these all tune your car up to be a super stylish racing machine. They are very easy to use and understand and unlike some racing games where the mods and specs can be understandable only by mechanics, Juiced simplifies things for you so you know exactly what you’re spending your money on.

Sound has the soundtrack option allowing you to play your own ripped songs from the xbox HD but if you’d prefer to utilise the in game music then you’re in for some urban tunes from those you may have heard in a 90’s rave environment to modern rap numbers. The deaf gamer is going to be at a severe disadvantage since much of the betting and repartee between drivers is done in speech with no subtitles. That said it is still playable given you can work out what’s happening anyway by way of summation style text at the beginning of each race.

Graphically speaking Juiced is a nice effort, though not as gobsmacking as some of the other Xbox racers currently available. The cars are well detailed but the environments just feel a little flat. There are some nice touches though such as the weather conditions all of which are done well with severe rain cutting down visibility and the now expected ‘speed blur’ as you hit the nitrous. As mentioned this is an arcade racer and with this in mind, it should come as little shock that even after sideswiping a steel railing at 100 miles an hour your car remains fairly pristine and shiney, the worst I had happen regarding damage was the dreaded nitrous leak which means you lose that speed boost just when you may need it most. Although the damage is not overly visible in race (slightly moreso in the garage) it will need to be paid for and can severely cut into your winnings and crashing into opponents can take down your reputation, so drive safely people. The character graphics are pretty funky and it’s easy to distinguish between them. The cars are hip and the more you customize them the better they are so this certainly adds to the feeling of fun in this title.

Hellooo Ladies! Yes you can’t help but think of Angelina Jolie in Gone in Sixty Seconds when you read that can you.. or perhaps that’s just me.. ahem.. where was I, oh yes the female gamer, well it’s safe to say the assumption here is that you’re a boy racer since you’re referred to as ‘man’ or ‘fella’ throughout and your blank avatar has a more than manly feel to it. That said there’s nothing definite since you get to name your character so it’s not all bad. As for those game characters there are a few lady racers out there and they’re pretty cool for the most part. All in all it’s a fairly generic racing title with more male than female characterisation.

Overall I can’t help but feel a lot of pity for Juiced which appears to have been dealt a bad hand not due to development as such but due to external business problems. If this title had been released when it was supposed to, that being prior to the enslaught of racers such as Burnout 3, Forza, Midbight Club DUB and the ever delayed GT4, this would have got a far better ride than it has. As it stands the year plus delay due to acclaim going bust and THQ finally taking over the reigns has meant this title has missed the boat and that is a damn shame because now you can’t help but compare it to the other racers available.

It is still great fun to play and the feeling of having a story mode built in makes it interesting, though the ease with which you can lose a car or money is actually fairly daunting since there is no restart function meaning a car that you may well have spent over a hundred grand on upgrading was belonging to you one minute and some smart mouthed racing nemesis the next. That said it’s definitely worth a look if you’re into racing games and I found myself whooping and hollering at certain points which certainly means this game has something good in it.

Review by Angela