Review: ChaseHQ2 Evolution
Score:
45%
Version Reviewed: 1.2
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At first appearances, ChaseHQ2 Evolution looks like a winner. The in-game graphics are incredible, with 3D vector objects, with texture mapping, moving at high speed. Scenery, track surfaces (cobblestones, water, mud, etc.) and the car itself are modelled impressively. So why on earth has this game just scored a meagre 45%?
My problems with ChaseHQ2 start with its rapacious hunger for RAM. Needing 8MB of running memory on a smartphone may be OK in the world of Windows Mobile, where many programs are that hungry, but it's totally out of order in the Symbian world. This is the RAM-hungriest program I've ever seen on a S60 smartphone. In order to get it running properly, I had to close down everything, including TaskSpy, my utility which was monitoring ChaseHQ2's habit! In the real world, especially on the RAM-challenged 6680, installing this game on most S60 smartphones is going to result in white-screened resets and general frustration. It's hard to crash a Symbian OS device, but grabbing all the available memory seems to be one way to achieve this result....
Another hurdle, for relative beginners to mobile computing, is that the game is distributed as a file set, to be copied manually onto your memory card. There's no SIS install option here, presumably through laziness on the part of the developers, since the game itself is 'only' 7MB.
Still, if the game itself was extraordinary, maybe the RAM hunger could be accommodated, in the same way as most people have to close applications down before launching TomTom MOBILE 5, a killer application in its own right. First impressions aren't good though, with most of the cut scene graphics being obvious resamples from original graphics designed for a different screen resolution. There's a decent 'pumping' soundtrack though, and the usual choices of championship versus single race mode, plus a choice of tracks and cars, although car technical details are part of the original cut scene for each vehicle and the resample has left them completely unreadable.
Once underway, there's a good turn of speed, arguably too much. With gear changing set to automatic (the way most people will tackle the game), your car's speed is such that the jerk-left, jerk-right all-or-nothing steering sees you crashing into the sides of the course (e.g. walls, fences), along with a digital 'Oww!' that in my case was sounding every few seconds. Maybe the programmers have finely honed reflexes and maybe they just know the courses better, but first impressions of playability are that the game's too clumsy and too hard.
In addition, there are no other cars to race - it's strictly against clock here, which is a shame. Maybe the polygon count would simply have been too high for the smartphone processor? One feature I found very exciting was the 'replay' option on the main menu, in which your last run is replayed in real time and you can switch between a variety of 'cameras' in true TV style, with glinting headlights and a first person perspective option.
ChaseHQ2 has the core potential to be a terrific driving game. But the steering needs finer control, the cut scenes need redoing and the RAM usage needs addressing before it's in any way ready for success.
Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at