Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Season 2 is now live, and with it comes the return of Ibiza; the main location from 2011's Test Drive Unlimited 2. While this is a cutdown version of the party island compared to its Xbox 360 counterpart, Ibiza is still a very nice addition to the game - it's just a shame that the fundamentals of Solar Crown are yet to be properly sorted out.
Once the Season 2 maintenance issues had cleared up, we hopped right onto the new map to see what's what. Bear in mind that you must be Reputation Level 12 to be able to access Ibiza in Solar Crown - thankfully, we'd sailed past that point around release and were ready to get the party started straight away.
On landing at Ibiza, the party is indeed in full swing, and KT Racing's new map expansion definitely nails the vibe of its Mediterranean location. The new hub area here already has miles more personality than the towering hotel structure you're based in on the main map - and that makes it feel much more TDU than Hong Kong island. So, top marks there.
Ibiza is good fun to drive around on as well. This Solar Crown rendition feels like it has more off-road tracks per square mile (which still feel a bit odd to drive on, physics-wise), but there remains plenty of high-speed asphalt to tackle here. The map is less visually dense than Hong Kong island which is perhaps to be expected, but thankfully, the team has still managed to cram in lots of road and track variety across this more tight-knit location.
Unfortunately, they haven't managed to pack in quite as many meaningful things to actually do in it. Just like the base game, Ibiza struggles to deliver much meaningful content outside of simply cruising around and exploring the map. You've got a selection of race events to take part in (some of which require higher-level cars), and a small array of side activities to do like speed traps and such, but this game is still missing some major TDU fundamentals. Ibiza could have been a great way to bring back features like car delivery missions, hitchhiker pickups and maybe even the fan-favourite Casino mode, but alas - we're still waiting for those additions here.
Naturally, we quickly got stuck into some races, and yep - this is the same old Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown. AI is completely unpredictable — some races you'll come first by miles, while others feel impossible to win — and there's still a fair amount of gated content. A handful of races require higher-level cars locked behind certain Reputation Levels, so unless you've been playing Solar Crown more regularly since release, you can probably expect some of Ibiza's content to be unplayable right off the bat.
It's not just races, either. TDU2's famous cover car — the Ferrari California — is present and looking well in Solar Crown's Ibiza... but it's locked behind Rep. Level 60. We put extensive time into the base game for review, and only just surpassed level 20 - to be honest, we ran out of things to actually do on Hong Kong island aside from discovering more roads. There's a selection of other new level-gated cars featured in Ibiza too, so yeah, Solar Crown's progression issues are still in play.
Conclusion
Overall, jumping back into Ibiza in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown has been fun, and the free map is certainly a welcome addition to the game. However, Solar Crown's biggest issues are still in play (even day one server problems cropped up again on Xbox), and all of that continues to drag down the experience. The team says that more fundamental changes are coming to the game during Season 3, so we'll look forward to those, and in the meantime, it might be worth delaying your flight to Ibiza for now. While the new map is fun to cruise around on for a few hours, the core of Solar Crown still manages to just about spoil the party.
Are you jetting off to Ibiza? Tell us your TDU plans down below!
Comments 6
Isn't it silly how they leave the game broken on so many levels, but add a new island with no reason to drive it? Some teams are just asking to be laid off....this has been such a massive disappointment.
Because this has been the new "normal", no testing nothing, get the game near half done, ship it out and then follow up for the next 2-3 years with patch after patch after patch, if only someone could actually FULLY finish a game then omg what an idea of play testing before you release your dumpster fire of trash....
How can people even consider buying games that clearly needs far more time in development.
I need an offline mode to even consider it
They still haven't fixed basic braking your all in the same cars but they manage to get around corners without slowing down to a dead stop.
Good article. Interesting to read up on what’s been happening with this game. I played Test Drive Unlimited 2 on PS3 and loved it but being able to have things to do around the map was a big part of it and so I have to wonder; what’s the point bringing back the map if there’s nothing much to do?
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