by Adam - November 4, 2004

It's a thug life but street racing pays the bills. In Namco's new game Street Racing Syndicate , life as a racer is a challenge.

Shut up and drive

Getting behind the wheel of one of the cars in SRS requires a little patience and dedication as you learn the physics of this game and how the car handles. This game is mostly head to head races from stage to stage. There is a point to all this racing though, as gambling on races lets you upgrade your car and make money to buy new cars. This game has many highly customizable cars too. Money won from winning races will be spent either fixing your car's damages, upgrading your vehicle, and saving up for a new ride. Winning races earns you respect, which in turn brings you lots of women, no seriously (more later). The controls feel responsive and all the buttons are appropriate for the slim PS2 controller.

Keep your eyes on the road

This game is meant to be a slick "underground" driving game. Graphics in this game are fairly decent, but a few problems do arise. The games attempt to making the races look "underground" does a dis-service to the graphics of this game. All of the pavement game looks wet but it doesn't effect the vehicles abilitiy to drive. Secondly damage done to cars is cheap and unimpressive, usually a dented hood or a loose hatchback. Crashes look non-serious and really aren't too impressive. Nitrous boosts to your vehicle seem slow and overall the game doesn't look incredibly fast.

Hear that kitten purr

The in-game sounds in SRS are pretty impressive. Customizing your exhaust will make your car sound throaty and aggressive. The games soundtrack unfortunately drags down it's over all quality. Different vehicles even make different shifting sounds. The lame music from some small cover band is annoying and often leaves you uninspired to race. I suggest turning the music down and in game sounds up and listen to a good soundtrack.

The fast life

This game is fun and takes a little sit down time to master the controls. Once that is done you can really get into the game and look forward to some mean racing. Opponents are challenging and different races keep the game spicy. In regular mode you can earn "girlfriends". You earn these either by beating them in races, or beating their boyfriends in races. Earning respect will increase your prowess among these ladies as well. The game even rewards you with fun outtakes of these real live girls. Split screen races are fun and challening once you and your opponent have learned the controls. This game is definitely worth a run the first time though.

Smoke 'em

SRS requires slight dedication to the controls. Proving that your the best racer is a lot of fun with all the upgrades you can earn for your vehicle as well as being fully customizable. Earning respect from racers and impressing women make this game worthwhile. Also the aspect of real cars, and the ability to put your car on a dynometer makes the game interesting.

Not first but strong finish

Overall SRS is a fun game. As far as an "underground" racing game there are better ones out there. This is a fun game and worth a look at. I'd suggest a rental or borrowing it from a friend. Serious fans of the genre might consider renting it then buying it.