"Another game fails to stand out in a crowded genre."

L.A Rush is the latest offering into the crowded genre of street racing games. It boasts the license of West Coast Customs the stars of the hit show Pimp my ride as well as many car brands but the game is a real let down and like many other street racing games it fails to stand out in the very crowded genre.

Story: 3/10

The game has you playing as Trikz an underground street racer. The story goes that a rival named Lidell steals all you cars the day before the opening of his big racing event begins. You now have to try and reclaim all your cars while competing in the tournament. Yep the story is pretty daft but credit has to be given for at least an attempt at a story in a genre that does not particularly lend itself to one. However the story is never developed, you never really get involved with the characters bar the occasional cut scene and it is a disappointment because the framework was there for a story but it's not used at all.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics on LA rush are impressive and is the games best aspects. All the cars are realistic to their real models and also have a very nice shine. Some may say that the shine is overused but I love it as it gives the cars a nice glossy feel that cannot be truly appreciated unless you do play. The gloss is best seen during the night and at times you wish it always was dark as it is when the graphics best show. The streetlights act as highlights for the cars and the puddles on the road and the effective is well done. The buildings graphics are not quite up to this level but are effective and work well. The one problem I have with graphics is the pedestrians. The graphics are a complete let down here especially when compared with the brilliant cars. The pedestrians have little detail and when you see close-ups in replays you see that they really are just blocks. Hands are merely odd shapes with no detail to show even basic fingers shapes. It is a really let down but to be fair it is not a major problem as you do not see the pedestrians too much but considering the graphics elsewhere more time should have been spent making the pedestrians realistic and as good looking as the rest of the game. Cut scenes look very effective and it is a shame that they are underused as they are very good.

Music: 3/10

The music is a real disappointment. There are about 9 songs split in to three genres (Techno, Hip Hop and Rock) as you can imagine these songs get very annoying very quickly. The songs themselves are not very good at all and you will very quickly turn to your own personal collection of songs.

During races there is an announcer but he quickly comes annoying with an incredibly odd voice. Cut scene music is alright and you certainly know the voices of the West coast custom crew when they speak.

Controls: 8/10

The game has three control options which is annoying as it limits the choice for you as you play. The layout for the standard setting is similar to many racing games and should not take too long to get used to. The controls are effective but the lack of complete customization means you do have to get used to them instead of simply putting them in your standard format.

Gameplay: 2/10

Gameplay is the games weakest area. At times it can give some reward but far to often it is incredibly frustrating and you will get very tired of playing this game.
A lot of the game will be spent entering street races. To enter the races you have to pay a entry fee and this is the biggest problem with the game. This is because bar winning races you cannot earn money so as you lose races you have to win others a lot of times to raise the money to enter the race you lost. If the race is particularly difficult then you will be doing this a lot of times and you will end up in a circle of repeating races over and over again.

The races themselves are very poor. The Ai jumps from race to race when sometimes you will race old grannies and others the next F1 champs. Also car's speed varies greatly. Sometimes a Lotus will drive like a scrap car and other times a truck will drive like an F1 car. It means you are never too sure what you are driving against and at times you stand no chance and others you can do it with your eyes closed.

In between these races you can drive around LA. The game claims to be accurately mapped and I cannot comment on this as I have never been there but the city is incredibly large in the game. However all this space is never fully used and you will have to drive large distances at times to get from race to race. It would have been much better if there was actually something to do as you drive from place to place instead of the occasional ramp or weaving through the very slow traffic on the roads.

If as you inevitably will do crash during the game while all your opponents fly past you are treated to a crash scene very similar to the Burnout crash. However you cannot do anything but watch your car be crumbled to pieces and then in possibly the fastest car repair ever drive on. As you can imagine this gets very repetitive and when it happens two or three times in a row you get very annoyed as the rest of the game does not slow down so the gap to your rivals increases by a great amount.

Another of the problems with LA Rush is the cop system. As I mentioned earlier I have never been to LA but if the cop levels are anything like they are in the game then no crime will ever be committed. This is because cops seem to be magnetically drawn to your car even if you are driving at the speed limit. At one time I counted 15 police cars surrounding me as I drove at 20 mph. The police also seem to completely ignore anything else going on. For example if your car is being rammed by 5 large jeeps then the police's concern is not about this but that your driving at 60 mph. This is incredibly annoying especially when you are about to win a race you have attempted several times only to be rammed out of the way by 3 police cars and then watch as they sit back and watch your rival win.

There is some variation to the constant races. You might get a phone call telling you to destroy something such as billboards, booths or a Ferris wheel – don't ask why but this will come up as a mission.

Once you have one several races you will get a phone call from someone telling you where one of your stolen cars is hidden. You then drive to the site where it is and via a loading screen get transformed into your new car while your old one is transported several miles away to your garage. But all is not good, out of nowhere several jeeps will appear and attempts to destroy you and your car before you can safely return to your garage. When you get back you will then be given a bill dependent on how much damage was caused. Once this is done the car is yours to drive around and attempt another race.

For all my knocking of the gameplay there is one redeeming feature. What would a game with West Coast Customs be without some customizing? You simply drive your car into one of the garages in LA and then the familiar music will play and then your car drives out and you get that little chat about all they have done to your car. Unlike the show there are more performance changes to appearance but this feature is very good. It would have been nice to have some control over the pimping of the car but it is still a lot of fun to see your beat up car come out with a good paintjob and many other new features. However even this feature has its problems. Once your car has been pimped you can never drive the old version. So if you do not like the new appearance that's tough there is nothing you can do about it without starting again. This is the same in the quick race multiplayer mode and is a same because if this was not the case then at least one area of the game would have been very good without much criticism.

Lifespan: 3/10

The game is a real challenge to play. Lifespan is more a case of how far you can go before the constant cycle of repeating races finally takes it toll and not a case of features or bonuses. The game would be a fairly short one if it was not for the repetitive races which you have to do several times to get anywhere and you will very quickly turn to the money cheat. However even with this the AI will eventually get so annoying you will stop playing this game and will turn to one of the many better racing games available.
If you successfully manage to cope with the game up to when you complete it there really is not anything you can do. There is a multiplayer mode which can be fun as you race pimped cars against each other but this has nothing that sets it apart from the many other racing games on the market that have much better single player modes.

Plus Points:
Pimped cars look very good and inclusion of West Coast Customs is a cool feature.
All the cars have a very nice shine which looks good.

Negative Points:
Very repetitive system of racing.
Poor Soundtrack
Very frustrating AI

In conclusion I recommend you stay away from this game. If you do want to play it I recommend you rent it. This is because at first this is a good game it is fairly enjoyable and if I had written this review then it would have had a higher score. However after a few weeks of play you realize just how frustrating and annoying this game is and how it was not worth the money you will have to spend on it. Luckily my copy was given to me by someone else who was frustrated with the game so I did not have to pay for it. If you wish to buy a street racing game then you can do much better than this and there are plenty of options for you, games which are far more enjoyable and less repetitive then this game. I really hope that LA Rush is the last game that disappoints so much in this genre because they keep producing them and they all seem to suffer from the same flaws. The last thing to say is thank you for reading this review and I hope it was useful for you.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/06