Juiced was originally a title from the now defunct Acclaim. This game was then given new life when THQ picked up the title to polish off and release. It has been a while now since its initial release date, which would have seen Juiced, hit the streets last summer. THQ put some extra work into the game before its new release under their own label.
Juiced is a true street racing game. Though it lacks some of the features that set the other street racing games apart such as the free roaming cities found in Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition or EA’s Need For Speed Underground 2, the game is still a fun title to play with it’s own unique features.
Starting off, you must prove your skills in one of the AI’s rides. The game starts you off with a solid amount of money, and you are on your way. At first, there are a handful of cars to choose from, and as you progress throughout the game, you are able to choose from a larger group of over 50 vehicles. The manufacturers include the likes of Dodge, Honda, Chevrolet, VW and even Mitsubishi to name a few. The cars range from muscle cars such as Ford Mustangs, all the way to high-end imports like the Nissan Skyline. These cars can be tricked out with a large variety of parts including both performance and cosmetic components. This makes
"...a fun title to play with its own unique features..."
|
over 7.5 trillion possible car customization possibilities. This allows you to create sweet custom cars, but you must complete races in the car you want to trick out in order to unlock other parts. The system is sort of set up like other street racing games where there are different levels of upgrades available, but this is where Juiced adds a twist. The classes of cars in the game are based on horsepower. Classes like 200-299hp and so on, so you must be careful when putting new parts on your car, to make sure that it is at the top of it’s classes, possibly even a lower class, then being a low end car in a higher class.
Juiced has a story mode that is sort of hard to explain. Unlike a totally rigid storyline where you must follow event by event, Juiced has a calendar full of events that are geared towards specific classes, cars and regions. These events win you money and you can even win prototype parts for your vehicles, these are the best upgrades you can get for your car, and these upgrades add a ton of power to the car. They can also turn your car into a prototype vehicle if you have enough of the prototype parts on your car.
The parts selection in Juiced is quite large and includes parts from manufacturers like BBS Wheels, Borla Exhaust, HKS, Neuspeed, Veilside and even Brembo to name a few. The exterior customization is great, allowing you to choose a large variety of wheels, bodykits, spoilers, and even unique paint schemes. You can turn your car from stock to a wicked looking machine with these upgrades. The performance parts also give you the ability to create awesome rides. You can upgrades parts like turbo, nitrous systems, suspension, tires and even exhaust systems, creating more power, and some are even customizable such as suspension ride height and exhaust tips. The possibilities in this game are endless, giving you a large amount of vehicles with a large amount of parts for you to buy for the car creating the exact, look, class and even handling that you would like for your custom ride.
One neat feature in Juiced is your crew. Your crew is a group of racers that request to be in your crew throughout the game. Your crew can participate in crew races, and if you don’t feel like racing, they can even race for you. They use your cars, so if you enter a class specific race, you have to make sure you have enough vehicles. The crew races are found on the calendar and you can choose the crew members taking part in the race. You can even control their aggressions during races with button controls given to you at the bottom of the screen. There are three settings and each come with their own actions and consequences. The highest setting will make the crew member highly aggressive, looking for every opportunity to pass and they could even spin out because of this, while the lowest setting will make them take it easy and just try and hold off their position while helping them to stop from crashing or spinning out. The crew races allow you to participate in races with a lot of money on the line. Make sure that you let your crewmembers practice though so they have enough skill to be able to race well.
The story mode of Juiced is essentially based off of the respect given to you by different crews in Angel City. The crews each have their own preference to raise your respect including pink slip races, circuits or even sprint races. As the respect meter goes up, you are given various opportunities from the crews including the ability to go to their events, host events in their turf and even race for pink slips. There is a handy graph showing you your respect from different crews and what level you are at which is very handy to look at after races. As a side note, crashing into other racers during races will dock you respect from the crew that they race for.
Juiced has a ton of racing features in the career mode including the ability to organize your own races and choosing the cars that are allowed to compete, the track and even the type of race. Juiced includes circuit based races, sprints which are essentially drag races and even the showoff mode where you race around a track trying to do as many moves as possible such as 180 spins, j turns and even drifts around the course racking up
"...a mix of arcade and sim..."
|
points to gain crew respect. This is a great mode and allows you to push your car to its limits.
Juiced also includes an arcade mode that allows you to progress to unlock different cars to use outside of career. You race in specific tracks with specific cars and then you can go over to the custom race option and set your own tracks, race options and cars. You have the option to auto customize vehicles which will randomly deck them out in various cosmetic and performance parts allowing you to test drive the cars before you buy them in the game, or just try a handful of cars you haven’t raced with before.
Xbox Live is included in Juiced and allows you to race online even with your own crews. You can race with up to 6 players and play the mode found in the game, and even race for pink slips online, with the risk of winning someone else’s car or losing your own. The online mode is done well and is set up in an easy to sue and play manor. Split screen is also included in the game allowing you to race locally with friends on a single Xbox.
The controls in Juiced are very easy to learn, and the game plays quite well. However, one issue with the game is the handling of the vehicles... they easily allow you to spin out of control and put you at the back of the pack. The physics seem to be a mix of arcade and sim, and you can easily slip around corners, and the built in driving tips such as when to turn can be ignored as you can enter corners quite fast and still drive out very quickly without damage. The physics aren’t the best, but they are far from the worst seen in racing games. Juiced is quite a solid game, and for street racing, is a lot of fun, even though it lacks some of the features of other games such as traffic or free roam.
The graphics in Juiced look good during the game. They may not be the best graphics seen on the Xbox, but the details on the vehicles along with the racing environments look good throughout the game. The car models are done very well and look good, especially when you have customized a car with a custom paint job that shines in different colors from every angle. The lighting in the game is done well and the sense of speed, while not as good as games such as Burnout 3, helps portray the fast, street racing style racing portrayed in Juiced. The cut scenes, especially the game intro look very good and give help tell a story through the videos about the game.
The game does include damage on the vehicles and you will see bumpers hanging for dear life on the car and even paint scratches off the damaged parts of your car. The damage does look good, and being able to customize the exterior of the car allows the game to show how different the car can look while still looking very good in motion. Seeing a damaged car drive around the racetrack looking like it will fall apart at any minute shows the realism Juice Games tried to put in this game, though it doesn’t affect the performance of the car with the exception of the nitrous leaks, it still looks great.
The audio in Juiced get the job finished, but does not blow you away. The sound effects are done fairly well, and the soundtrack sounds good throughout the game, but lacks the luster of large soundtracks in games like the Need For Speed Underground series or Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition. One thing that
"...a great assortment of gameplay modes..."
|
stands out are the sound effects of the cars. You will hear different exhaust notes from the different cars with varying engines and hear the car squeal around corners during races. This adds to the fun and playability of the game making it feel even more fun to play because of the audio that makes you feel as if you are actually there racing. The voice acting in the game is done quite well and also adds to the street racing experience in the game.
Juiced is quite a solid street racing game in this every growing sub genre. The career mode of the game plays well and is quite unique with items like the crew races and the respect meter. This game is just a lot of fun to play with it’s tons of customizable options along with the multiplayer and other game modes. The graphics and audio are solid throughout the game and don’t leave you wanting more wondering why with this extra amount of development time didn’t yield better results. The additions by THQ make this game even better and have changed the game for the better creating an all around fun game.
Juiced could use some tweaks in items like the career mode by making it more structured, and also tweak the handling of the vehicles to a more determined well rounded model. Juiced is a great street racing game, but with many others on the market, gamers must play to find the one they enjoy most. Juiced includes a great assortment of gameplay modes and allows you to break away from the career and play on Xbox Live or even just play the arcade mode to unlock cars to race with. Hopefully we see a sequel to Juiced fixing some of the problems with the game and add features to make it even more competitive in the street racing market.
