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The Test Drive franchise has been a name in the gaming industry for quite some time. While the titles in the series have all varied in quality over the years, the Test Drive brand is blazing a trail to stardom in it’s latest iteration: Test Drive Unlimited. While most race titles are happy to recreate a portion of a city to let you cruise in, TDU gives you the entire Hawaiian island of Oahu to speed through, with so much detail involved that you could use it as a road map for your next trip.

In the most general sense, Test Drive Unlimited is unique, but if you want to get technical about it, TDU is a work of genius. In a genre with such finely drawn lines between game modes, TDU does away with the old way of things and presents and idea we’ve always been longing for, even before we knew of it’s existence: seamless single to multiplayer gaming. As soon as you finish the games tutorial, you’re placed into an online server to do as you please. Think of the island as a large gaming lobby. As you go about your business, you’ll see other cars (which are actually other players) driving around. You can choose to challenge any of these racers to a match, or you can choose to ignore them and go about your business doing single player challenges. It sounds so simple, and in essence, it is, but it’s something that is executed so well that you can’t help but appreciate the beauty of it. It’s only a matter of time before the competition lifts the idea for use in their own games, mark my words.

The single player mode is mission based, as most are, and is handled similarly to Need for Speed Underground 2: you drive around, and are given instructions via your pager about race locations, missions, etc. Each successful mission is rewarded with cash, or coupons that you can use to buy some new swag for your player character. You deal with timed challenges, speed challenges and race challenges. In timed and race challenges, your goal is simple: beat the other cars, or beat the time. Sometimes the game will throw you a stimulation such as having to race clean in order to be successful. They’re small touches, but they help to keep the game from getting monotonous.

As fun as single player is, it’s completely shadowed by the games incredibly satisfying multiplayer experience. All the single player options are available in multiplayer, as well as a couple additions. Anyone in the server is able to create a challenge for players to try, which is awesome, and will surely keep the game feeling fresh for months, if not longer. TDU also takes a unique perspective on clans, which are so common in fps titles. In TDU, they’re called Auto Clubs, and they act just like any other clan, only instead of shooting, you’re racing. It’s not Earth shattering, sure, but it’s still something the competition is missing.

Okay, the game has a ton of amazing features, lovely, but it doesn’t mean anything if it plays like crap, right? Well, thankfully, TDU doesn’t play like crap, but having said that, it could still use another layer of polish. The cars handle well for the most part, but it seems like every unpaved surface you drive on is ice, or mud. An even larger offender of control issues is the motor cycles. The bikes are hell to control, with jerky turning, and missing crash animations. Instead of any form of elaborate crash, running into something on a motor bike awards you only with a dead stop or skid. It’s almost as if the programmer responsible for the bikes was home sick the last few weeks of development, and they released it without his finished work. With such a sleek overall package, such an oversight really stings, and stands out multiple times more than it would in a mediocre title.

Test Drive Unlimited features a roster of 90 real-world vehicles out of the box, but we can expect to see that number grow over time thanks to updated via the Live Marketplace. Storing your cars is easy as you purchase houses on the island to use as garages. Upgrading is somewhat weak, only allowing you to upgrade three aspects of your vehicle, which is a shame given the bevy of options available through competing games in the genre.

Of course, no Hawaiian island would be complete without a police force that allows you to speed 200mph down the road without bating an eye lash at you. The system the police run off of is almost as broken as the motor cycles. You’re allowed to speed anywhere and everywhere, but hit a cop, and the sirens blare. The first time, they’ll give chase, but then they’ll eventually give up. The second time, they’ll try to give you a ticket… by ramming you off the road. When they hit you, though, it registers in the system as another crash, and more cops will come after you. Excellent. Eventually, they start setting up road blocks and come at you in full force.

Test Drive Unlimited looks good for the most part. The game slips a lot when it comes to the character models, though. They look like they came out of a first generation PS2 game. Also of note is that the island is a ghost town, save for the other cars driving around. Either no one in Oahu walks, or everyone gets their groceries online. The island itself looks great, from the lush trees and brush to the houses lining the streets, the entire island was created with an eye for detail, and the work really pays off.

Thank heavens for options, for without them, this reviewer would have probably driven his head through a wall listening to the GPS voice bark at me which direction to go. Do yourself a favor and turn this option off before you even get started. The way it works is that the GPS will tell you when to make turns, and if you’re going the wrong direction from your destination marker. Even worse is that it will tell you that you’re going in the wrong direction even if you’re going towards the marker, but are on a one way street going the opposite direction. The game offers a great variety of tracks to cruise to, but with only thirty songs to choose from, you’ll be picking through your custom soundtracks before too long to keep things fresh. Cars have a tendency to sound a bit like a lawnmower before you get around to adjusting the sound levels, but I suppose that’s what sound levels are for, anyway, right?

Overall, Test Drive Unlimited is an innovator of the racing genre. It features some of the greatest elements to find their way to the genre since pink slip matches were introduced, and the competition is sure to follow suit in the near future. A few unfortunate short comings mar an otherwise excellent experience. With an extra layer of polish, some improved gameplay, and a more real-world feel, Test Drive Unlimited could have rolled with the big boys of the genre, but for now, we’ll have fun speeding through the island and day dreaming about what the next installment in the series will bring.