Even a split-screen mode, available on the Playstation version and advertised on the official web site, is absent.īeyond all that, the worst thing about TDOR3 is the muted feel of the game. TDOR3 won't acknowledge LANs, modems or even the Internet, so the only opponents players will ever face are AI driven. Totally unforgivable is the mysterious omission of multi-player support that no racing game should ever be without. Force feedback is totally ignored, which is shocking considering the rough and tumble nature of the gameplay. There's no sign of 3D audio support, for example. The developers chose to ignore important technologies and omit de-facto features that have come to be expected in every title. So what's wrong with this title? Besides the smarmy graphics engine, Test Drive Off-Road 3 can be defined by all the things it lacks. Races ensue over mountains, along the sides of rocky cliffs, through dense forests and snow covered hills and other places unreceptive to anything but the most determined four-wheel-drive vehicles. They're etched into the rugged mountainsides and sloppy swamps that pickup truck-advertisers dream about. The tracks themselves are the high point of the game. The list of vehicles is certainly impressive, including 4x4 monsters ranging from such common workhorses as Ford, Nissan, Chevy, Subaru and Dodge pickups and SUVs to more exciting and exotic off-roadsters like the Chenworth, DV1-V buggy and, yes, the mighty Hummer. That's right, multi-player is notably absent. Audio and graphics menus are limited to three and two options each and the only modes of play available are single-race and career mode. The bare bones menu interface feels like a placeholder awaiting the final treatment. In fact, the game is short of options all around. Worse, the game trudges along at a jarringly choppy frame rate even on a powerful PC, and it doesn't offer sufficient graphic options to compensate. Tracks and locales are visually pleasing except for some sprite-based obstacles that stand out on the otherwise-3D landscape and call to mind the horrors of TDOR titles past. The officially licensed, testosterone-injected vehicles look fine, even if they are a little light on the polygon count. The most obvious improvement lies in the graphics engine, which is brand new and doesn't look half-bad - compared to games that came out a year before (1998).
That said, TDOR3 is a tall step up over the first two TDOR games. Though the somehow-venerable series continues to strive toward competing against Microsoft's infinitely superior Monster Truck Madness line, Test Drive Off-Road 3 doesn't give the giant anything to worry about. That doesn't, however, make it worth so much as a second glance. The third title in the ever disappointing Test Drive Off-Road line is a massive improvement over its two unfortunate predecessor.
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