fter playing Street Racing Syndicate, I’m left with two overriding feelings: the racing itself is pretty good, and the rest of the game feels like a total hackjob. The title offers free-roaming cities, which it delivers on with versions of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Miami. The wide-open feel is really there, and each gameplay option is available from this mode – you just ride up to people and start burning rubber.

From a racing physics standpoint, SRS is pretty solid. Each car feels different, and the upgrades available tangibly change your experience. These are very good things, and the high point of the game. The rest of the required pieces are generally cobbled together and left me thinking that this game was supposed to come out years ago…many years ago.

The interface for nearly every action is convoluted and hard to follow – you’ll go into upwards of four menus before seeing exactly how a particular turbo kit changes your car (if you can remember the ride’s base stats before you go in). Also, the free-roaming city is a great idea (one that other racers are introducing in the near future), but I almost always warped to places because I just didn’t feel like cruising. It’s not really much fun.

Also, I don’t like the reward system. Here’s where it comes down to a little personal preference – the biggest and easiest to find rewards are low-res videos of models dancing. Me? Not interested. Other offerings for good performances are things like cars, parts, and new events. The showroom doesn’t readily tell you which cars are newly available, the tuning options are aggravating to implement, and the races are exceptionally short.

SRS could have been a contender; instead it feels like an unpolished, exploitative dud that falls short in the margins.