Forever Drive – addictive futuristic 3D racing game, create & contribute your own race tracks!
by Paul Wilks
Jul 26, 2012 8:08 AM –
Install
Forever Drive is a futuristic 3D racing game. It features lush, buttery visuals and addictive gameplay. The game includes tracks created by community members which flow into one another continually. In addition to all the racing activities, you can also create your own tracks and contribute!
Price: Free, plus In-App Purchases
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Low Maturity
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Beautiful graphics!
- Addictive gameplay!
- Challenging tracks!
- Lets you create your own tracks!
- Sublime music!
Cons
- Controls do not always feel particularly natural.
- Some text is very small.
Features:
Forever Drive is a gorgeous non-stop futuristic racer that includes community built tracks, great music and addictive gameplay. You delve into a world of Tron-like visual imagery, high speed courses and smooth 3D environments. Added to this is a subtle but professional musical score that immerses you deeper into the Future Drive world.
The aim of the game is to complete track after track of racing goodness and this happens essentially non-stop until you run out of time. The tracks flow into each other so you only get a brief pause before the next one starts- principally to give you your score and the opportunity to like or dislike the track. All the tracks have been created by players themselves and there is a separate section to build, and then race, your own track. It has to be said this is a relatively original feature that’s lots of fun and allows you to express your creative side- also letting you contribute to the Forever Drive community.
Watch on Mobile
There are a few different ways to control your vehicle; ‘digital pad’ which consists of a left and right arrow on the left hand side of the screen. There’s also ‘analogue pad’ which is a left/right slider controller. ‘Arcade’ is the one I favoured the most- this places wide paddles on either side of the screen for left/right thumb control. There is also tilt control. ‘Arcade’ controls seemed to be the most intuitive, but controlling your vehicle in general is quite tricky, especially to begin with. Controls are not perhaps as responsive as you would like and the tilt steering is even more counter-intuitive than the others. Be sure to give each a try though, see which suits you.
The game is fun but I found some of the text remarkably small, leaving me squinting at the screen as text flashed up. It’s so small in fact- and the game so fast paced in places, I didn’t at first notice the bar at the top which allows you to give the track you’ve just raced the thumbs up or down. As it is, this only flashes up on the screen for a couple of moments before disappearing. Therefore, while I like the game, I think there is definitely room for small improvements here and there.
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Future Drive – In-play view 1
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Future Drive – Avoid traffic where possible
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Future Drive – Every track is very different from the last
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Future Drive – In-play view 2
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Future Drive – In-play view 3
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Future Drive – Starting new track
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Future Drive – View your own track
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Future Drive – Stunning 3D visuals
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Future Drive – Time extended!
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Future Drive – New track record
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Future Drive – Create your own track
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Future Drive – Collect stars and time boosts
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Future Drive – Shop
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Future Drive – Settings
Fun Factor:
Forever Drive is lots of fun and, because of the perpetual nature of the tracks, it is also extremely immersive. I loved the fact you can build your own tracks in a mostly intuitive and simple way; adding scenery, increasing and decreasing inclines, etc. While there are a few utterly rubbish community related tracks that are poorly created, most are brilliant- beautiful to drive yet challenging too.
The game is a freemium title that offers in-game purchases to do more things. So, when creating tracks you can add more scenery with purchases, create more than one track and so on. While the fruits of such purchases are ‘nice to have’, I don’t think they are essential. This means you can get a lot out of the game without the need to pay if you don’t want to. The game is very immersive, however, and it’s easy to see why some players spend a little money to invest in the game. As ‘freemium’ games go, this is one of the best I’ve ever played in terms of playability.
Addictive:
Again, because the tracks just flow one after the other, if you find yourself on a winning streak, it’s very difficult to put it down. You are really racing against the clock and the game only ends when you run out of time. This somehow gives Forever Drive that all-important ‘one more go‘ factor that makes games so captivating and un-put-down-able.
Graphics:
The graphics are incredibly smooth and vivid. Each track throbs with a different coloured pulse and the tracks are often surrounded by scenery and other visual elements.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
I did find the tilt controls pretty poor to be honest so wouldn’t recommend that option to anyone- it seems either over responsive or under responsive and never quite finds that user-friendly balance.
The sound is utterly, utterly brilliant however. It’s like a series of futuristic, Tron-inspired dance beats that feels as if they are fusing themselves with the gameplay. There is the opportunity to turn the sound off, but you’d be missing part of the experience. There’s a kind of symbiosis between gameplay, visuals and sound which is really engaging.
Tags:
3D,
3D Games,
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Game,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Forever Drive,
Futuristic,
HD Games for Android,
Racing
Categorised in: Arcade & Action
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