The first encounter with the game made me roll my eyes, and more than once. It starts with a presentation that tries its best, probably to impress thirteen-year-olds. You create your character and then see yourself landing in a luxurious Gliding.
Then, a lady who looks like Charlize Theron starts talking about this or that. These moments were supposed to be shocking, but they weren't, in my opinion. I felt like I was in a five-hour timeshare presentation. The graphics were nothing special, and the character models looked like they were from the PS4 era.
After the “timeshare presentation,” I found myself behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Huracan Performante, which was nice. However, you're only supposed to use it for a few minutes during a race or two. After that, you hop back into the VTOL with the not-Charlize Theron and land at the top of the Solar Hotel, where you check into your luxury room and walk around in first-person mode (for some reason).
Next, you go to the dealership to choose between three starting vehicles: the Alpine A110 Legende, Ford Mustang GT, and Nissan Z. I eagerly chose the Ford Mustang GT, but oh boy, was that a mistake. The controls felt sluggish, like I was trying to drift a boat through a swamp. I didn’t enjoy the driving experience, but I didn’t know that it was the car itself and not the game.
Photo: Autoevolution
Much later, when I purchased the Audi TT RS Coupé, it was as if a light bulb suddenly went off in my head, turning the entire experience a complete 180. All-wheel drive The sports car was fast and light, the exact opposite of the Mustang.
After about five hours or more, I was finally enjoying the racing title. I wasn't just playing because I had to write this review, I was playing because the dopamine centers in my brain were finally firing on all cylinders.
So if you end up buying the game and don't like it at first, wait a bit until you get a nice sports car that shows you what Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown can really do. Not to mention the off-road races that you unlock when you reach level 20.
How to do
The game was published by Nacon and developed by French team KT Racing, who also worked on the WRC series, V-Rally 4 and TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge 1 and 2. Alain Jarniou was Game Director on Test Drive Unlimited 2 and took on the role of Creative Director here.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is designed to be played alone or, preferably, with or against other players. There is also in-game PvP betting, which can make you richer or poorer, depending on how confident you are in your skills. Like Forza Horizon 5 or The Crew Motorfest, Solar Crown's game design is also centered around a unified online experience.
Photo: Autoevolution
It all takes place on a 1:1 reproduction of Hong Kong Island, which measures 373 miles or 600 kilometers. The more you level up, the more accessible the map becomes, unlocking new types of events or races and dealerships with new and more powerful cars.
I'm happy to say that (at least to me) each car felt very different from the other. Some, like the Stang, felt heavy and stiff, while others felt snappy and responsive.
An interesting feature of the game is the cabin controls. You can tinker with features like turn signals, windows, wipers, headlights, hazard lights, and even the roof or spoiler when appropriate. Aside from initial curiosity, I haven’t touched them since.
The races themselves are nothing special. No matter what you do, you have to finish in the top three to get more money, unlock more cars, enter more races, and so on. The gameplay mechanics of upgrading cars are, again, nothing special. You buy better parts to increase those rookie performance numbers, and that's about it.
Photo: Autoevolution
Oh, and at one point, you have to choose between a faction of poor, hipster, and slobsters or a faction of evil rich kids. The first 20 levels of progression felt okay, but after that, the experience started to feel very boring.
For example, if a race only rewards a maximum of 18,500 Credits and a Lambo costs 1.5 million, you have a lot of work to do. Of course, there are still the gambles I mentioned earlier, but you could also lose even more money that way. I played a pre-release version of the game that was actually canceled at one point, so there is room for improvement.
Overall, it's a simple but fun racing game, like many others you've seen before. It has a bit of that urban feel of Need for Speed Underground, so perhaps NFS veterans will find some solace in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.
Approximate performance
I played Solar Crown on a PC with 32GB of RAM, an Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU, and an Intel i9-13900k CPU. Fortunately, my processor was fine and I didn’t experience any crashes, freezes, or anything like that. In fact, I don’t recall any bugs at all. I’m not saying there aren’t any, but I didn’t find the game to be technically broken. Quite the opposite. I also have a 4K monitor for the best gaming experience.
Photo: Autoevolution
On a beefy PC like this, 60 frames per second with everything on Ultra should have been a given. Unfortunately, the case was far from that. At 4K, with everything set to 11 and no DLSS, I barely hit 40-45 fps. With DLSS on Quality, I still barely hit the 50 fps mark.
I had Nvidia's upscaler set to Balanced with Frame Generation enabled to get a stable 60-70 fps. I don't recommend Frame Gen unless you really have to, because the HUD, like the speedometer, has some display errors or artifacts. Nothing serious, but it's noticeable.
The game has good graphics, but it's still no Driveclub, and it's lacking in the car reflections department. Visually, I found Motorfest and even the 3-year-old Forza Horizon 5 to be better looking.
I started playing around with the settings and found that everything on Medium with DLSS on Quality is enough to keep it above 60. Otherwise, set it to High with DLSS on Balanced to get pretty much the same experience. The graphics won’t change much, though. Developer KT Racing still has a long way to go before they can optimize this game for PC.
Conclusion
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is a perfectly good racing game that kept me hooked as I played. Unlocking more of the map, purchasing more vehicles, and participating in different races made me want to dive deeper into the world of Solar Crown.
In other words, the game's formula is right and, with a few tweaks here and there, over time I'm sure it will become a great game that will keep its fans happy and satisfied for many years to come.
Rating 75/100