LA, the city of angels and also a place for gangsters and upper class Americans to hang out. LA is also the setting for yet another racing game in the form of LA Rush. To cut a short story long you assume the role of a street racer from the ghetto who has it made. This includes fancy cars, fast women, lots of friends and a stylish home in one of the more well to do parts of town. Everything you could ever dream of except it all gets taken away from you by some guy who looks like a pimp. After some smarmy remarks and after taking a shine to his woman the only place you are heading to is downwards. Well after all of your possessions (ok you get to keep the house) are gone it is down to you to reclaim them by winning street races to earn bucks, some respect and to exact revenge on the guy who looks like a pimp!

Gameplay

Playing LA Rush is pretty straight forward as you are presented with the aforementioned story mode as well as quick race mode, multiplayer and an online component. The real meat and veg of the game other than the online and verses is the Story mode as it is here where you will be able to unlock cars to use in the quick race modes. LA rush features a living breathing city full of other traffic, people and of course the cops and with such a high emphasis on raising money, the last thing you want are some hefty fines from the police! You basically have the whole of LA to explore and if you look at your GPS system you will be able to participate in a number of racing events which either progress the story or help you raise some more cash. A lot of races require an entrance fee which means if you don’t have enough cash then you simply have to race a little more in the non entrance fee events and get some. This can be a little tiring especially if you lose all of your money on an entrance fee!

The races themselves are point to point races where towering markers outline the course; and with the nature of the city having many paths means that players can choose their own route to each checkpoint. There are only three opponents to contend with but obviously as a racer you have to contend with the masses of traffic that litter the streets. There are also cops to outwit who will try and stop you for your traffic offences thus costing you valuable time. I did find it annoying when jumping from a ramp into a checkpoint that at a certain height it wouldn’t register hitting the checkpoint which meant having to turn around on landing, wasting valuable time and costing my lead.

If your car isn’t to your liking then players can also boost their cars by visiting a garage where the car will be upgraded but this isn’t free and can prove quite costly. Players are also encouraged to experiment with different unlocked cars for the various events if one car seems unsuitable. I guess with all the traffic in the game and the fact that the CPU cars never ever crash means that there is a ton of bonus frustration here. There are other race types in the game such as when you get one of your cars back. This requires you to get it home whilst being chased by a gang of crazy drivers who have one thing on their mind; smashing up your car. This breaks up the normal racing but still requires you to navigate the heavy traffic.

The quick race mode is more of the same but is let down by the fact that story mode is where you’ll unlock the cars. The cruise mode was the most interesting to me which sees you driving between two checkpoints whilst keeping your speed above a set level and not crashing at all. There is also a free roam mode to mess around with, which is actually quite fun especially when sticking two fingers up at the cops and then driving off!

Graphics

The graphics in LA rush are reasonable and feature plenty of character especially when crashing or jumping over a ramp which treats you to some slow motion action. The cars are modelled on real life counterparts but are no way accurate depictions. The frame rate remains constant and smooth despite there being loads of traffic on screen most of the time, which is a good thing! Racing can occur at different times of the day so it is nice to see the various parts of LA during the morning, day, dusk or night time. Not bad for a free roaming game.

Sound

The sound is solid and features the usual car engine and crash sounds that you would expect from a city racer such as this. The music is a mixture of various styles ranging from dance to rock and you can choose which style to have playing. Sadly and maybe this is criminal for a game of this type, there are no custom soundtracks supported. The voice acting during the cut scenes is suitably cliché and will either make you cringe or laugh out loud.

Longevity

LA Rush has plenty of races to get to grips with and although the game might not have as many cars as in some other racing games, makes up for it with the free roaming environment. Should you tire of racing the CPU then you can race some friends or better yet get online and have some racing there. I think LA rush will last as long as it takes for you to get bored of hitting the traffic whilst watching the cpu dash ahead with ease.

Overall

LA Rush isn’t a bad game per se because at times it’s quite fun. The problem is that there are other racers on the market that do the same thing but are much less frustrating. I guess if you live in LA then there will be some appeal here but other than that then LA Rush simply fits into the average category as a no frills racing game based around some loose gangster type storyline. I suggest renting the game first for a weekend before deciding on a purchase.