Game: Supercar Challenge
Publisher / Developer: System 3 / Eutechnyx
Genre: Driving
Verdict: Excellent driving simulation let down by lackluster career
Pros: The driving engine is pretty much as good as you’ll get
Cons: The career is weak to the point of detracting from the whole game.

When System 3 and Eutechnyx released Ferrari Challenge last year, it was met with some pretty mixed reviews. The game was generally well praised for its excellent driving engine, yet it fell down in many other areas, mainly its Challenge mode. Determined to create a more complete game and hoping to steal a march on the delayed Gran Turismo, System 3 and Eutechnyx are back with Supercar Challenge.  The focus will be moving away from a Ferrari themed game and hoping that the addition of other car manufacturers, as well as a revamped career mode, will be enough to earn them a place in the hearts and game collections of driving fans worldwide.

One thing that people need to realize right away is that this game lies firmly in the “driving simulation” category. If you love Burnout style racers where you can powerslide around corners doing 150MPH while using a nitrous boost to overtake the lead car, then this almost certainly isn’t the game for you. Even on the most basic of difficulty settings the game still feels like a driving simulation. Sure, it’ll hold your hand for you and won’t let you spin out if you approached a corner too fast and forgot to brake, but you can still see the game’s target audience. This is aimed directly at the gamers out there who love the challenge of learning a car inside out, understanding its strengths and weaknesses, knowing exactly how far you can push it before it gets away from you, and then using that knowledge to attack the various tracks as aggressively as possible.

And learn the cars you must, if you hope to do well in Supercar Challenge. One of the beauties of the driving engine is that it helps each car feel different. You’ll be able to tell how certain cars can be pushed that little bit extra when going into and coming out of corners, how others may tend to get a little tail happy if you step on the gas too soon out of a bend, and how others can start to wobble around if you hit the brakes too hard, even if you’re travelling in a straight line. After playing around with some of the vehicles you’ll find yourself naturally moving towards certain cars, as their characteristics better suit your driving style. It’s a real testament to the engine Eutechnyx has created, that the differences between cars are so noticeable.

As punishing as the driving experience can be should you get it wrong, Eutechnyx has gone out of its way to make the title accessible to gamers of all skill levels. As mentioned earlier, at the lowest of the 3 difficulty settings, the game will effectively hold your hand for you, making sure you don’t brake too late and any mistakes you make aren’t too costly. This is the perfect mode for any driving novices who are unwilling to start diving in with simulation handing. It can also be a perfect way to start learning the tracks. In the Arcade setting, which is effectively the medium difficulty, things are ratcheted up a bit. The brakes are sharper and the handling is more forgiving than in full simulation mode, but poor mistakes will be punished by trips into the nearest wall. You’ll still need to drive exceptionally well to get a podium finish. Simulation mode is for the real hardcore driving fans, with even the smallest mistakes can be met with real disaster. Quite often you will need to drive like Michael Schumacher on steroids if you want to even consider making a challenge for the podium places. It’s brutal, unforgiving and not for the faint of heart, but should you manage to master a car and find yourself winning a race on the Simulation settings, you can give yourself a pat on the back. Just be sure to allow that smile to show through, because you will have certainly earned it.

In addition to these driving difficulties, there are 4 other settings you can select pre-race which allow you to customize your drive even more. For example, the Rookie setting will show you the complete racing line, showing green when you can put your foot to the floor, changing to orange and then red when you need to start braking, while also showing you the perfect driving line. It will also keep the race short at only 3 laps, and there is a zero percent chance of rain. At the Elite level the racing line has been completely removed, placing the emphasis completely on you to make sure you know where you need to brake and when. The number of laps has been increased to 4, giving you one extra chance to make a mistake, and there is a 50% chance of participating in a wet race. The addition of wet weather gives you an obvious extra challenge to face, and in no game have I seen it implemented better. By the time you have finished a few wet weather races, you’ll certainly have a better idea of exactly what impact the elements will have on your car and what adjustments need to be made as you approach corners.
Not only will the driving engine itself give you a challenge, but the AI is not exactly weak either. Even on the standard Arcade setting, the AI will present a challenge, racing ahead if you get caught in traffic, drafting and slingshotting past you, even aggressively nudging you in an attempt to pass. It will make mistakes from time to time, such as two AI cars colliding and knocking each other off course, but that happens in real racing as well, so it’s good to see the AI is fallible, even when you’re not directly involved.

Unfortunately, the area that lets Supercar Challenge down is the same area that Ferrari Challenge struggled, the career mode. There are five different stages to take part in, the first four of which are held in a particular country (such as Canada or the USA) with a fifth stage being a multinational affair. Canada is the first stage, which consists of two races.  In order to progress to the next stage, you need to unlock it by obtaining a certain number of race points. These points can be earned through your finishing position in a race, or by completing bonus objectives.  Some specific examples of objectives include finishing in a podium position, racing with 2 different cars or completing a race with no penalties. Once you have accumulated enough points the next stage becomes unlocked, and you repeat the process.

The main problem is how linear and repetitive this grind can be. Unless you’re a truly exceptional driver, the likelihood is that you won’t get the required number of race points the first time you go on each track. This unfortunately means that you may be forced to repeat the same race multiple times, until you get the points you need. Adding insult to injury, once you finally manage to unlock the next stage, you have to start all over again to unlock the subsequent stage. While the tracks are different and bonus objectives vary with each stage, there’s simply not enough variety in what each track has to offer.

One thing that doesn’t help is the fact the game only features the top supercars. While it’s great fun to have cars like the Ferrari Enzo available to you from the start of the game, in most other games the fun was in the journey to earn it. Starting out in an underpowered production car and working through a series of races and cars to get the supercars is the road most games take, and there is a solid reasoning behind that. With some of the best cars available straight away, some of the incentive to go through unlocking cars is perhaps missing.

Also, while the game now offers more variety in that it is no longer all about the Ferraris, your still left wishing there were more cars available. With only 44 cars in the garage, it’s sad that over three quarters of them are still Ferraris, leaving a great number of other exceptional cars missing. This is not knocking Ferrari of course, but many upcoming games like Forza 3, Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed: Shift offer much more variety than is on display here. Where are the Lamborghinis? Where are the Porsches? How about cars like the TVR Tuscan, or the Audi R8? It is unclear if licensing was the issue here, but is seems like a huge loss to not have a bigger roster of cars. When you consider how impressive the driving engine actually is, it feels that much more deflating that you can’t go around the track in a Lamborghini Gallarado or Porsche 911 GT3.
Say what you will about the lack of car and track variety, but what is available looks very good. The car models are all of a very high standard, and there are some very nice effects that you’ll notice as you drive, such as leafs kicking up from the track and the sun bouncing off your bonnet. Even with 16 cars on the track at one I never noticed a single bit of slowdown, even during the occasions we all piled into one another while attempting to gain a place or two at the first bend. Sonically the game is also strong, with the car engines sounding as powerful as you’d expect. You will be able to appreciate every growl and roar, as you rev the engine looking to squeeze that extra little bit of speed from the car. The classical music featured while in the menus also fits in perfectly with the pomp and majesty you’d expect to go along with some of these amazing cars.

Supercar Challenge is a game that gets the hardest part of any driving game right – the simulation aspect of the game is absolutely spot on. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better driving experience anywhere. Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5 both have their work cut out for them, if they expect to match it. However, the game struggles badly when it comes to the career mode, something that can be just as important as a solid driving engine. What good, after all, is a driving simulation if you’re not inspired to turn the key? Supercar Challenge is by no means a bad game, and hardcore racing fans will absolutely love it, but if you’re looking at it for a driving game to keep you entertained and a career that will last for months, you are looking in the wrong place.