We get hands-on with Chillingo’s near final build of their sequel to DrawRace…
For those not familiar with Draw Race, the premise is pretty simple, but different to your typical racing game. Instead of direct control of your car, you instead must draw the route of your vehicle. Each race consists of two laps, for which you must draw. To be successful you must master the best route by utilising the optimum apex of a corner. Do that and your car will glide through a corner with minimal problems. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and even if you draw a great route for the first lap, you may screw it up on the second.
Once you have drawn your lap you then start the race. New to DrawRace 2 is the ability to control the power of your car mid race with the addition of a turbo button. This adds a little more strategy to races and something to occupy you instead of idly standing aside as your cars race.
The biggest update to the game is the presentation. The game is in full 3D this time, it’s still top down, but the environments pop out upwards towards you. The environments and cars are also far more detailed.
The content includes 32 tracks, 16 cars and 5 different genre of race including Stock Car, Formula, Rally, Arctic Rally and V12 Supercars. A same screen multiplayer mode has been added this time round, which let’s up to four players play at the same time. each player takes turns to draw their rout, and then can all control the power of the cars in different corners of the screen. For me this is the best addition, as while the AI is quite a challenge, playing against other humans and beating them is always more rewarding.
For those not in the immediate vicinity of friends, you can instead challenge them online by sending them your ghost data over Chillingo’s Crystal social networking service.
Draw Race 2 is on track for release this July. Check out the hands-on gameplay video below:
