Quoth Murray Walker, "Nevermore… and there it is again!"

Finally. In some ways, it’s a miracle this game’s reached us at all. It was originally touted several years ago as a sequel to Project Botham, but marketing concerns forced a rethink, and the game was retooled to appeal to a younger demographic. However, despite these early development problems, there's been a buzz around Project Goth Racing II for a while now, with some believing that this could finally be the racing game that knocks Gran Tourism off it's perch at the number one spot. Can it live up to the hype?

From the loading screen onwards, the first thing you notice about the game is how dark the graphics are. No matter what TV we used for testing the problem persisted – leading us to suspect this darkness was a deliberate design choice. The gloom extends to the whole game, with a distinct lack of variety in car customisation - the only colour available on most models is black, but some can also be trimmed with purple or dark red. Whilst this does lend the game a certain dangerous sense of mystery, it’s also important in a racing title to be able to see where you’re going - and racing black cars on black circuits through a moodily lit environment doesn’t help much here. The “dangerous mystery” ends up being just where the hell the track, other drivers, and the brake pedal are.

It's a racing game, so going fast is obviously going to be key to your success, but here, STYLE is important too. However, it's not clear from the manual exactly how you're meant to get this elusive 'style'. A great fuss is made in the documentation about individuality, and tackling the game in your own way, but in reality if you deviate too far from the established 'line' on the circuit, you'll quickly be shunned by the other drivers and unable to enter some of the more exclusive races, or, in extreme circumstances, the pit lane. Your style is kept track of with “KuGoth” points, which can be spent on acquiring new cars, tracks, and trenchcoats. You can also unlock new songs for the in-car radio.

In fact, one of the of the real strengths of this game is its soundtrack; as long as your tastes stretch to new romantics and grinding industrial numbers. Some highlights include Gary Numan's "Cars", and a re-tooled version of a Depeche Mode classic: "Personal Lexus". This is one of those games you could just leave running and listen to the music. There's even an option to race around to a spoken-word track made up of the collected works of Edgar Alan Poe. The licensing doesn’t end there either – all the car tyres in the game are officially branded New Rocks.

But what about the gameplay itself? Well, we’ve already mentioned the issues with the graphics, but there are also problems with the actual driving itself. Cars occasionally seem to get stuck when going round bends - tending to park in the corners of the circuit and make disparaging comments about other people's fashion choices. This can be immensely frustrating, especially when you’re winning a race.

Racing’s not your only method of getting Kugoth points. There are also special forms of racing which almost count as mini-games in their own right. - modes such as "eyeliner challenge" - you can score Kugoth points by putting your makeup on right in time to get in the car and put down a hot lap. It’s not as easy as it sounds – in our first attempt, we managed to poke both the driver’s eyes out with a mascara stick and had to drive the course blind. Strangely, this also yielded our fastest lap time.

In a nod to Burnout, points can also be gained for really spectacular crashes, as they show how your inner pain is, in a very real way, greater than anyone else's. This is just as well, given the aforementioned problems in seeing where you’re going.

The game features an interesting mix of real world tracks, such as Highgate Cemetery in London, and a series of courses built round a castle in Transylvania. There's also a particularly challenging track based around Camden Lock market – the section by the canal itself really stands out, both in deign and for the nice water effect they’ve used. All of the races take place at night – a nice touch on some of the Transylvanian circuits is that unless you finish the course by dawn, your car crumbles in to dust.

PGR2 also shows it’s heritage here – there’s a level which recreates Lords Cricket Ground which was obviously first intended for the original Botham sequel. Whether or not this is laziness on the part of the developers, or a sly reference to their previous work we’re not sure, but we have reason to suspect the latter. Especially when you realise that the soundtrack for the level features Botham himself ramping up the spooky atmosphere by making “Woo-Woo!” ghost noises.

Despite touches such as this, overall the game turns out to be something of a disappointment. Any game centring on Goths is always in danger of being a style-over-substance affair, and this one is no different. Whilst the soundtrack, imagination and sense of angst are all top-notch, they’re let down by the fact that basic gameplay elements have been sacrificed in order to make the visuals look as atmospheric as possible. However, if you’re after something loud, moody, and dark, this game offers an experience you won’t find outside of buying a teenager a Marilyn Manson record. While possibly not a ‘keeper’, this is definitely one you’ll want to rent for a weekend; You’ll never have played a racing game quite like it.

This review was kindly written and submitted by Rifiri
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