Review: Street Outlaws: The List – PS4

Do you know how exciting it is to drive in a straight line for a quarter of a mile? I do. It’s not fun at all.
Street Outlaws: The List wanted to change my mind and convince me that racing games are too busy with their turns and tight corners and what they really need is just one stretch of straight road. I’m not convinced. Not in the slightest.
When I offered this one up to the rest of the Pure PlayStation team, everybody said “no” and so I was left to take review duties this time around. I didn’t think much of it. I actually thought “great, a new racing game” and wondered why nobody else wanted such a thing. Then I redeemed the code on the PlayStation Store and started the download. The game’s icon appeared on my dashboard; four men who wouldn’t look out of place on a low-brow American reality TV series. Then I Googled Street Outlaws and found… yep, it’s a low-brow American reality TV series about a bunch of grown men who love their cars a little much and are content with driving in straight lines their entire lives. Great…

Street Outlaws: The List is truly uninspired. There are two main events in the game. The first is the meat of the game: the drag races. Here you’ll drive your car in a straight line for around 10 seconds and then be done. The other part is where you drive these muscle cars around set courses to try to beat the given times. Both are rubbish.
I’ll come right out and say it: I’ve only played around an hour of Street Outlaws: The List, but I think I saw everything the game had to offer inside the first 15 minutes.
Drag racing is inherently boring, so props to the developers for trying to add a little pizazz to proceedings. Each race starts with a coin flip that determines which side of the road you will be racing on. It doesn’t matter and no side has an advantage over the other. Then you play a mini-game of sorts where you need to rev the engine and get your back wheels spinning, all the while keeping your car straight. Once this is over, you then need to nudge towards the starting line by tapping the trigger. Once you’ve gone through this tedious procedure, it’s time to race. The countdown begins and on “go” you’ll pull down the trigger and try to keep your car from steering off to the sides. You need to change gear every couple of seconds to keep the speedometer rising. You tap triangle to do this. It’s not fun.

After those 10 seconds are over and you’ve crossed the line, one of the show’s cast will speak a few words about how you’re doing well and blah blah blah. I didn’t care for what they had to say. I just wanted it to be over.
Progression is made by completing races through a series of chapters, each of which ends with a top-end racer who is more difficult to beat. Honestly, though, it all comes down to getting the opening mini-games right. Get them in the bag early and keep your left thumb busy on the stick and you’ll win every time. It’s not fun, it’s not challenging, and I seriously do not know why this is even a thing.
The second event type sees you driving your monstrous muscle cars around set courses. While this adds a little more variety (actual turns!) it’s poorly made and frustrating to contend with. Achieving the minimum score of bronze is difficult due to the game’s poor vehicle handling and sometimes glitchy collision detection, so forget going for gold. In fact, just forget this game at all.

The gameplay is poor, but I guess if you’re a hardcore drag racing enthusiast, you’ll find something to enjoy in those very short races. I can’t see the appeal myself, but you do you.
On a technical level, Street Outlaws: The List isn’t a looker, nor does it sound particularly good. The graphics wouldn’t look out of place in 2009 and the audio work leaves a lot to be desired, with the car engine’s whimpering rather than roaring. It’s just a lacklustre experience from start to finish, and I can’t see why anybody would sit through it for more than an hour. Unless you’re a massive fan of the TV show, I wouldn’t recommend this one, not when there are far more competent racers available.

Street Outlaws: The List PS4 Review

• 3/10
  Overall - Really Bad - 3/10

3/10

Summary

Street Outlaws: The List has no redeeming qualities. The gameplay is boring, the cars are awful, and the general presentation is about what you’d expect from a game based on a trashy reality TV series.