Drifting into a New Era of Street Racing?
Having reviewed CarX Drift Racing Online back in 2020, I was obviously in Pole Position to review the next game in the series to release on Microsoft’s various consoles.
Going by the name of CarX Street, from the team at CarX Technologies, this game promises to be about more than sliding around corners with smoke pouring from your tortured rear tyres. Obviously, if you want to go sideways, then that is still possible, but now there is a selection of actual races, and even (whisper it) a smidgen of a story to be found.
So, let’s head down to Sunset City (where the girls are green and the grass is pretty) and hit the mean streets. Buckle up!
Sunset City Saga
The story that I mentioned is a little bit light, to be fair, but an effort has been made, so I’ll try to explain what is going on.
It appears that Sunset City has a somewhat relaxed view of illegal street races, and thus a new industry was born. We start by flying into Sunset City, signed up for StreetNET, an app that allows people to join clubs and partake in a bit of racing. We start off with someone’s second hand car, and from there the world is the mollusc of your choice. The question is, can we work our way up through the ranks to the elite level, and build a collection of cars to keep us there? Well, that is the challenge…
Living, Breathing City
Presentation of CarX Street is jolly nice, all things considered. It plays out as an open world game, much like Burnout Paradise – which this game reminds me of a great deal. Sunset City is a good size, and you can drive wherever the whim takes you. Fancy going up into the hills, or spending time drifting around the docks? No problem!
The city looks great, sunny in the day and moodily lit by street lamps at night, whilst the road network is just the right amount of complicated, with multiple routes available as you look to get to where you need to go. The rest of the city carries on its life while you are hooning around, and the rest of the drivers take absolutely no prisoners: if you are in their way, they will smash into you, usually inches from the finish of the race you are engaged in. CarX Street makes a decent fist of portraying a living, breathing city, so a tick there.
A Symphony of Cylinders
Sound is equally good, with some voice overs forgiven when you hear the engines roar. The weedy four pot of the MX-5 that is one of the choices as your first car sounds different from the straight 6 of the BMW M3 I bought next, which is different from the V8’s and so on and so forth.
Not since Forza Horizon 5 have I heard such a symphony of cylinders, and this makes the game a bit more immersive. Other than the fact that the cars don’t have the right names (a factor I noticed in the last game as well) this is pretty much bang on.
Online and Offline Races
Now, let’s have a look at the gameplay on offer.
The action is split into two sections, in the online and offline worlds. Starting with the online world, when you select to join (and turn on cross play, which is off by default for some reason) then you are presented with a plethora of rooms to join, scattered across the globe. Given that I was playing before release, the online world was very well populated, and I had no trouble finding like minded players to race with.
Once a room is selected, a choice arises as to what to do next: do you want to just hoon about the place in free roam (ideal if you have friends online to play with) or would you prefer to organise a race. Racing online requires at least two people to sign up to your event, or it will be cancelled, but assuming you can find like-minded people, the racing action is extremely good indeed.
Speed Leagues and Battle Modes
There are drifts to enjoy, sprint races (point to point across the town) or circuit races to blast around the city streets. There are a number of modes to choose from when racing online too, such as Speed League, where you can bet anything up to and including your car on the outcome of the race; Battle Mode, which is a head to head race to prove who is the greatest, and Chase Mode, where you have to get more than 300 M ahead of your opponent; as seen in Need for Speed Carbon!
The netcode is well up to the task, and I have had zero issues here.
Offline Progression and Tuning
Offline is where the story based part of CarX Street comes in, allowing the chance to join various clubs across the city. And once in a club, you’ll get to defeat the members of the club in order to get a crack at the boss of the club: beating them will lead to the climbing of ranks, getting access to new clubs, and more! There are a lot of options for races to take part in, from standalone time trials to the aforementioned club races, and you’ll never be short of things to do.
Of course, winning races leads to us gaining credits, and we all know what credits mean, don’t we? That’s right, either a whole new car or some bits to nail on to our existing one, helping it to be faster/driftier, whichever target you are going for. The tuning options seem pretty deep, and some are locked behind progression; you’ll need to reach a certain level in order to access them. This is a spur to keep playing, and no mistake! Of course, you can customise the look of your ride just as much as you can fiddle with the oily bits, and the results are pretty deep.
A Drifting Delight in a Dynamic City
CarX Street does a lot of things right. The drifting is a little weird, where any attempt to counter-steer leads to the car immediately straightening up, but you learn to adapt to the particular style of things. The most important bit, the racing, is good fun, with the kamikaze NPC cars offering a stiff challenge, quite apart from the other racers.
With an expansive city to explore and collectibles to find, CarX Street will keep dragging you back behind the wheel.
Important Links
CarX Street – High Speeds, Adrenaline & Drifting on Xbox Series X|S! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/carx-street-high-speeds-adrenaline-drifting-on-xbox-series-xs/
Buy CarX Street on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/carx-street/9NN082LMVV2C/0010
