IHRA Drag Racing 2004 Review (no fat)

Game Description

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 lets you enter the world of professional Drag Racing, a speed demon’s dream, as some of the fastest cars on the planet square off in record breaking times. But does that mean a good gaming experience? Definitely not.

No offense meant to the Drag Racing fans out there, the sport is truly one to give you goose bumps with the feel of speed and power that is generated. But the feel so crucial in the enjoyment of drag racing is never a part of IHRA Drag Racing 2004.

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 Gameplay

True to its real-life counterpart, IHRA 2004 consists of spending a huge part of your time tuning your car to the extent of making it the fastest beast on the track, trying to get off to a perfect start, and repeating. The experience does not translate to stellar gaming and only seems to fit as a side mode in a more established titles around the gaming scene, ala NFS etc.

The customization is truly deep, but will only make sense to racing buffs who are interested in the technicalities behind the actual on-track action. (…and if the world makes any sense, that’s not a big number). The game’s entire emphasis is on preparing your car for the races and not on the actual racing. Meaning, if you don’t know your stuff then you are pretty much done for before the race really kicks off.

The anal add-ons and upgrades are a major part of the game, so much so that if you are a novice, it would be pointless to even attempt to try. The learning curve is steep, and will only please diehard fans who are more into the engineering side of Drag Racing.

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 –The Races

Racing, oh what a joy this part is (yes, this is sarcasm). Drag Racing is entirely about the speed, the thrill and the absolute blood rush. For most gamers, the customization means the tenseness is translated into a sense of fluking out or not being so lucky, the speed and thrill are replaced with patchy frame-rates and frustration. However, the blood rush remains in tact, albeit because you remember that you actually paid to torture yourself like this.

Racing in IHRA Drag Racing 2004 means you will be performing a burnout to get your tires properly smokin’ and then you’ll be off jet-straight. All you do during the whole race is keep your racer straight and change gears for proper acceleration until the chute comes out and you slow down to a stop. This entire process is so amazingly quick that you may as well be happy for the slow frame-rates… at least the race lasts a little longer!

That’s the meat and potatoes of the racing, a few seconds of revving up and creeping to the line, a few seconds of racing, and that’s the end. Hours of customization rewarded with a few seconds of racing time (as ridiculous as this idea seems, it is actually very entertaining-in real life).

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 Saving Graces

Xbox live is supported offering downloadable content, but specific to the sport making it more of a gem for fans. The multiplayer support is pretty good, but it is only offline which makes the entire idea stink.

Weather conditions can be adjusted, which will put you back in your shop to readjust your car for said conditions. Unless you are truly a gear head, it is best to leave it nice and sunny.

Controls are simple, but that has more to do with the little that is required for button pressing than a stellar effort by the developers.

Modes of play are single, event, season, and practice. Practice won’t be as much help as you think (…what is there to practice anyway?).

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 Graphics

No reflections, blurry graphics and odd looking proportions for the cars, please don’t expect any kudos in this section. The best thing about the visuals is, perhaps, the custom cameras; you can watch the race with different angles. This could have been good had there been anything worthwhile to watch.

On the whole, the game looks more like a launch title than a modern day Xbox game. Common sense prompts that the acute lack of content in the game should have made it incredibly easy to make this the highest detailed Xbox game in existence…but if common sense were to prevail, then IHRA Drag Racing 2004 wouldn’t even exist.

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 Audio

Drag racing sounds should be deafening, unfortunately the sounds in IHRA are timid, bordering on meekness, and don’t really capture the monsters these cars are geared up to be. The announcer is a nice addition, but both the commentary, and the style in which the announcements are made, really tax your mind when you are out to decide which aspect can beat the lows of the visual department.

To keep things sane, there is an option to play your customized play list with the game (…see, there are limits to torture even).

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 Summing up

For those who are tempted by the low price tag, the game could do fairly if you play multiplayer online and test your car customization against other players from around the world. Except for that, there isn’t anything to recommend IHRA Drag Racing 2004. The Xbox has definitely seen better titles…though this could be a nomination for the worst (watch out!).

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 cost

IHRA Drag Racing 2004 retails for $19.99US at the time of this review.