Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
Genre: Racing
Number of Players: 1 or 2

It's amazing to see the progression of racing games. There's the old school titles like Pole Position, Super Sprint, and Hard Drivin' that were really the beginning of racing games, and the genre has progressed from arcade style drivers to realistic simulation games like the title that always comes up, Gran Turismo. Midway has been making their Rush series for quite a while, but with the latest, they've decided to take the series to a different level and incorporate a storyline and put players into the world of street racing.

LA Rush takes you into the underground world of street racing as the character Trikz Lane. He's paid his dues and has become a legend in the world of illegal racing amassing a fortune in both money and cars, and now he has another big race coming up sponsored by Lidell Rey. The problem here though is that Lidell starts trash talking Trikz and his cars, and Trikz responds by hitting on Lidell's girlfriend. Trikz leaves for preparations for the race and when he returns, he finds everything in his mansion has been wiped clean and he only has one car left; the one he started his career out in. Now he's trying to get everything back, with a little help from his friend Ty and Lidell's girlfriend Lana.

I really didn't have any opinion on LA Rush before receiving the review copy. As many know, I'm a huge fan of Gran Turismo, so that ends up being the game that I base all of my opinions on, but in this case things are slightly different. LA Rush isn't meant to be a simulation game, but something of an arcade style racer with some modern revisions. There are a number of things that I really, really love about this game, and needless to say, I've been putting hours of time into playing this.

The game is set up with missions of various types. As you begin, the first thing you will want to get into are street races. This is all about trying to place first as you will be awarded cash based on how you place, and as you move on to other levels of street racing, you will have to pay an entry fee. This is where the game becomes incredibly fun; you have nitro's that you can pick up to increase your speed and should you happen to slam head on into a car you'll be treated to a glorious crash sequence. If you've played Burnout, you've already seen something very similar. You might lose your place in the pack, but usually catching up is easy.

The races themselves involve you moving to different points of light, all of which can be seen on your map. LA Rush has included another fantastic feature with the map however, and you can pull up a GPS that will show you the location of different races, your garage, and so forth. If you move your cursor over the top of it and select it, returning to the game screen will point you in the right direction and show you the quickest path to follow to get there. This beats roaming around for hours trying to find a location and I really would love to see this added more into other games, and not just racing titles.

Besides racing and earning money though, you will also have acquire missions. With these, you've been given the location of one of your stolen vehicles and it's your job to get it back home. Lidell's crew however is out to stop you and you have vehicle damage to worry about and after you finally reach your garage, the damage total will be taken from your available cash, so it's best to try and get home in one piece. You also need to get a little revenge against Lidell and you'll find two types of missions that will allow this. There are retributions missions, one of them will let you steal Lidell's prized rides and then part them out for some money, and then there are damage missions where you will wreck some of his property.

You will need to be wary as you travel the streets as the police are out in full force. They aren't too appreciative of crazy drivers and should you act recklessly, you'll find them hot on your tail. This is done much in the way of Grand Theft Auto. You'll have stars at the top of the screen and the more you get, the more police will be after you. If you get stopped, you'll pay a fine and this can happen in a race as well.

Another mission that you will find are stunt missions. Here you will be trying to grab the stunt icons as quickly as possible to add precious time and should you finish you will unlock a cars for your garage and even in the free race mode. Doing them again however will only give you the satisfaction of knowing that you completed the stunt more than once and that's it. You can also pimp out your whip at any of the West Coast Customs shops scattered in various parts of the city, however you will be doing an overall custom and not selecting what you want to add into your car. Honestly, I'm fine with the game having been set up this way as it avoids the time consuming upgrading that is found in something like Gran Turismo.

If you're not up to going through the story mode, LA Rush also features a quick race mode that will let you participate in various races across the city. In this mode you can either race against the computer or have a friend join you. I'm a little disappointed that the game didn't feature an online mode of play, but perhaps this will be something that is seen in the next Rush title. I also want to make note that the game does have an auto save feature, something that isn't uncommon, but if you're doing poorly in a race, simply resetting isn't going to help you get your money back as it's already been deducted from your total, meaning that you may have to enter some more low paying races to get your funds built back up.

LA Rush looks sweet. The designers did a fantastic job at recreating sections of Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Compton, Santa Monica, and other locations around Los Angeles. The game also goes through different phases of time, so you'll find yourself racing day and night . . . . though I'm not a big fan of night driving. Traffic can get nasty, seeing your cars literally fall to pieces after hitting oncoming traffic, a wall, or anything else that's in your way really becomes fun. LA Rush also features a number of real cars, not some imagined auto to race, giving the game more realism. Midway I guess didn't want to go for a full GTA feel though as you can't run over people in the streets. They dodge out of the way. I can't say I'm a fan of the soundtrack for LA Rush however as it's all hip hop, and that's not the type of music I'm into. I seriously doubt however that we'll ever see a racing game that has music that is all Industrial, Goth, Death Metal, and Grind Core, but it would be nice.

LA Rush isn't just another racing game and takes street racing to a completely new height. LA Rush is a blast to play, it can become highly challenging, and with options to customize your car and open up hidden cars and features, it has a high amount of replay value. Cruising the streets of LA has never been so much fun, or so addictive.
 

-mike-