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| | Title:
Juiced
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System:
Playstation 2
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Genre:
Racing
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Publisher:
THQ
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Developer:
Juice Games
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Release:
June 13, 2005
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
Teen (T)
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In the last few years, street racing has become a popular activity. Most people love it because it's usually illegal, fast, and there are big risks involved. Very similar to extreme sports, activities like this get your adrenaline pumping and get you going. And what would be a better idea then to make a game based on this speedy and high risk sport? Unless you haven't played any games in the past three years, you would know that many game developers have tried the idea, Some made it to the finish with a checkered flag, and others stalled at the start. Juiced, the newest street racing game available, won't be taking the gold, but luckily it's one of the few that makes it across the finish line.
Gameplay
Juiced, like most other street racing games, has a story or career mode. Your goal is to gain respect and become the top racer in the town of Angel City. When you first start out you will only be able to enter low-level races. You take each day one at a time and, using your calendar, you always know what is going on and when races are going to happen. On your calendar, races are dated and you can view the information about the event before that day starts. You can also jump right to that event, but once you do this, you won't be able to go back to previous days. As you progress through the days, months, and years you will gain more and more respect for yourself, make good contacts with other racers, buy new cars, customize cars, bet on races, and even build your own racing crew from the ground up.
Juiced's gameplay mirrors that of most other street racing games with a good amount of extras. When you first start the career mode, your buddy lends you a ride and challenges you to a race. The first extra feature that you will notice in this game is the betting feature. You are asked to bet on the race. If you win the race, you win the bet, if you lose the race, their goes your money. You can only bet as much as you have, so if you are broke, you can't bet $10,000 on collateral. You can even bet in races that you are not racing in. If your car class doesn't fit what is being raced in the event, you are still able to watch the entire event and place high bets. Betting is extremely risky, so unless the odds are great it's best to bet low or to not bet at all. If you know you have a good chance of winning then placing high bets can pay off big time. With the betting system, you can literally go from rags to riches (or vise versa) in a matter of minutes. If you win a big bet, don't get too proud because if you try it again, chances are that you will loose the bet and all your dough.
If you bet often, or accept other people's bets, you have a chance to gain respect. Respect is another neat new feature that has been included into this game. There are a number of characters that either watch your races or participate in your races. Once you finish a race, depending on how well you did, the different characters will give or take away a number or respect points. For example, if you purposely spun everyone out, repeatedly rammed their cars and still finished last place you would be flushing your respect points down the toilet. On the other hand, if you race clean, always traveling faster than the people behind you, and finish first, the respect points will come piling in. Respect will eventually earn you privileges. As your respect continues to move up you will be able to attend events, then race in events, then race for pink slips, and then finally you will be able to host events on that person's turf. To complete the game you have to gain maximum respect from all eight people.
Yet another unique feature included in Juiced is the use of crews. When you first start the game you will be asked for your crew name. Of course you can use anything you wish and as you progress through the game you will be able to recruit racers into your crew. To enter a crew race, you must have one to three other people in your crew. In a crew race, the winner is not the person that crosses the finish first, rather the first crew (all the cars in the crew) who passes the finish line first. One person in a crew can easily screw it up for the crew if they are lagging behind. Another thing about your crew is that you have to provide them with cars. If you give them a crappy car to race in, chances are they won't be one of the first to cross the line!
After you have played a good amount of races you will notice that the physics of the game are not that great but about par with the other street racing games out there. The sense of speed is there, but taking turns does not take much skill. Often times it is easy to speed through a turn by just cutting it short. The HUD (Heads-Up Display) also displays a number of messages that suggest how to race, such as "Slow Down" or "Break Now" when there really isn't a need to. Other than that, the physics are great and each car as a different feel as well as when you upgrade the parts of your car.
Besides the career mode, you can also race online with Xbox Live. Once you enter Xbox Live with Juiced, the normal options are available. You can use the "Quickmatch" to jump into the first race available, use the "Optimatch" to find the best type of race that fits what you are looking for, create your own race, communicate with some friends, or check out how you rank up with the rest of the world. You can begin playing on Xbox Live as soon as you get the game in your hands, but it is best to wait until after you have finished the career mode. By doing this, when you first get on Xbox Live you will already have a large amount of good cars to race with and you will also have experience from playing in the career mode. However, if you enjoy playing against actual human opponents, Xbox Live will be a major plus.
The Cars
What is a street racing game without good cars? Juiced has a fairly solid lineup when it comes to the cars. The game contains a little more than fifty licensed cars. The cars range from classics to modern. Just a few of the car manufactures included in the game are General Motors, Dodge, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Fiat, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, and a few others.
In any street racing game, customization is a must. Juiced claims to have 7.5 trillion car customization possibilities, but who is really counting? Once you enter the workshop and select your car, you can either upgrade your cars performance, or its look. Both aspects of upgrading are fairly in-depth and you could spend hours doing both, as well as a few hundred thousand if you really get carried away. If you decide to modify your car's parts to upgrade its performance you will be given a number of (licensed) aftermarket parts that you can purchase and install. The parts range from tires, to suspension, to exhaust, to nitrous injection systems. After applying the changes you can check your car's new performance on the Dyno.
Changing the look of your car is something that almost everyone enjoys. If you decide to paint your car you can have up to three different coats of paint. The base color, a metallic color that overlays the base color, and a pearlescent color that will really get some attention. With all these three coats and virtually any color you want, you truly do have trillions of possible looks. You can also choose to modify the look of your car by adding body kits and other neat things such as neon lights, decals, window tint, and even the sound of your horn!
With all the time you will most likely put into your car, it is almost a shame that car damage was built into the racing. Although there is a fair amount of cosmetic damage after you hit about a dozen walls the only real damage you will notice in your car's performance is a nitrous leak. Once this happens it is best to use your nitrous a.s.a.p. because in just a few seconds your entire can will be empty. Although there is no real side effect (besides the nitrous) during the race, after the race is over you will have to pay to have your car repaired.
Graphics
The overall graphics of Juiced are great. The cars are well modeled and the customizations give your car a very unique feel. Car damage is also well illustrated and will make you feel like you are really racing dirty if you have a substantial amount of damage. Effects such as rain on the road, smoke from the tires, and sparks during collisions all look excellent. The graphics used in the career mode when communicating with other street racers is also another major plus. The characters look very realistic, talk like street racers would, and their animations flow well with their character. The only real downer in the graphics of the game are some of the environments. Some of them are great, but objects such as street lights, trees and buildings could really use more depth.
Overall
Overall Juiced is a pretty good street racing game. The number of unique extras built into the game is great. The crew racing, earning respect, and betting all give the game more flavor (or "juice" if you prefer). The graphics are great and fit the mood of the game well. But in the end, Juiced is far from being the next Forza. Although Forza isn't a street racing game it still has greater graphics, more cars, and more depth. The physics engine of Juiced is mediocre and so is most of the audio. Although it's not the next Gran Tourismo or Project Gotham, it still deserves plenty of respect.
| The Core Score |
Overall
7.3 |
| Fun |
|
7 |
| Gameplay |
|
7 |
| Graphics |
|
8 |
| Audio |
|
7.5 |
| Replay |
|
7.9 |
|
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