CarX Street

It's very easy to write an enthusiastic review for a game you love. It is more difficult to write a respectful review for a game you don't like. But the most difficult reviews to write are the ones for games that fall into that gray area in between, the games that are "kinda all right." And that's where I'm at with CarX Street. 

CarX Street is a relic, a strangely last-gen feeling—yet still entertaining—open world racer. The game has been bouncing around mobile and Steam for a couple of years, where it seems to have gathered a sizable audience (10,000 Mostly Positive reviews on Steam is nothing to sneer at). Developer CarX Technologies is porting the game to consoles this summer.

I've been playing on Xbox Series X, and PlayStation is coming "later this summer." To call the game's performance on Microsoft's premier platform "spotty" is a kindness. The framerate and performance tank so frequently that I didn't even bother to download CarX Street to try it on Series S. Some optimization patches are definitely in order here. 

I've been enjoying CarX Street to a point, while still acknowledging the extremely rough condition of the game. You ever play a game that doesn't quite work right and feels pretty rough around the edges, but you keep coming back to it for some reason? A game that's kinda mediocre, but also somewhat lovable despite it's mediocrity? A game that screws you over, and you just kinda shake your head affectionately instead of getting mad, like it is some lovable digital scamp? That's where I'm at with CarX Street. It's a wreck of a game, but for some reason I've been drawn back to it over and over again during the review period. I'm hate-playing it, but I'm also enjoying hate-playing it.

Let's start with the open world itself. The Sunset City map is sprawling and fairly well designed, but there is absolutely nothing about it that is interesting or unique. The streets are so non-descript that whether I'm racing through the city, down by the docks, or drifting on the winding roads on the outskirts of town, I rarely remember where I just was. The map in this game feels like Videogame City 101, something that was lifted out of a PS3 game and prettied up for the current generation. Popping into the game's map, you can see a bunch of waypoints with little activities, but outside of the next race in the campaign, there is little reason to visit any of them. 

A lot of the side activities feel pretty pointless. There are sprint races and drift activities, both of which earn you cash but do little else. You can do some delivery missions to earn extra cash, but they are so simple that the mind-numbing minutes you spend driving around doesn't feel worth the reward for doing so. You can buy apartments and homes throughout the city, but those just seem to open up free fast travel points (and yes, you have to pay to fast travel everywhere else in the game). There are gas stations where you can fill up your tank (yes, you can totally run out of gas, and yes, you have to pay to fill up), top up your nitro, and change out your balding tires. You can also visit tuning shops and cosmetic shops, where you can pimp out your ride and tinker around under the hood to tune things up. These also feel superfluous, as you can access these features from your in-game phone, though you totally have to pay to do so. Yes, you heard that correctly, there is an in-game fee to access the tuning shop from your phone. It's bonkers. 

When you are fresh in the game, I would advise against tuning your starter car with new parts unless you absolutely know what you are doing. I got in there and blew a bunch of money on what I thought would be sweet upgrades, and turned my car into an undrivable, shuddering disaster. I then had to go back into the menu and dial back every upgrade I made, returning my car to its original state in order to have any success at racing. CarX Street unlocks way too much, way too quickly, with little in the way of explanation, and it is entirely possible to alter a pretty good car to the point where it is a shambling mess. So, you know, buyer beware.

The game begins with a hysterically barebones story segment, which reads almost like a parody of other open world racing games. The player arrives in Sunset City and is immediately approached by generic super cool racer types (brought to life by voice actors that CarX Technologies should have refused to pay), who offer them a way into the cool kid racer club if they can win a certain number of races. And this game does mean "win a certain number of races/" CarX Street is one of those games that demands that you come in first in every activity; the prizes for second place are paltry enough to be laughable. You get five experience points for coming in second—five—compared to the hundreds you get for coming in first place. This is the videogame equivalent of having someone pee on your foot. It's a weird combination of insulting and humiliating. 

CarX Street is structured kind of like a janky back-alley Forza Horizon or The Crew. Races are bunched together in mini-campaigns/categories, each led by a terrible racer/actor, with the player having to beat 15-20 events to beat the category. Once you've beat the first one, you should have enough money to get a few more cars, which will open up a few more to you. And yes, of course, you have to pay to join each category/grouping. Pay, pay, pay, all the time, pay. After that, you have a bit more freedom to pursue your own interests. If you enjoy drifting, buy a drift car and start down that path. Enjoy straight racing? Upgrade your starter car and keep on going. 

The racing itself is actually pretty fun, in a not-quite-ready-for-primetime sort of way. The level of chaos on display reminds me of the early days of the Need for Speed franchise, with cars spinning out all over the place and flipping 13 times after slightly brushing against the curb. One-on-one races can easily be done by sideswiping the rear of your opponent, which causes them to spin out in a way that they can't recover from. There's none of that Gran Turismo "sportsmanship" on display here. I had a blast forcing my opponents into oncoming traffic and watching them pile up behind me as I soared off towards the horizon. Just beware: The open world nature of the courses can easily screw you over too, as the game does not hesitate to throw cross-traffic directly into your path mere seconds before the finish line, which can lead to a lot of screaming and fit-throwing.

I was unfortunately unable to try out the online multiplayer activities, which I understand are a large feature in CarX Street. I could see the lobbies created by various players on other platforms, but the game kept telling me that crossplay was turned off in my options. Try as I might, I was unable to find the option to turn it on. I don't think it exists. So, I'll be there with everyone else in the Xbox lobbies when the game goes live. 

CarX Street is full of other quirks and bugs. For example, when you level up you get little prize packs to open, which grant you rare and interesting car parts. But those same parts don't seem to show up in the tuning interface, and I can't figure out how to use them. Are they for other types of cars? Am I just supposed to sell them for cash? Once again, CarX Street isn't telling, so I just eventually gave up and ignored them. Likewise, the game opens a bunch of fun-looking activities after the first mini-campaign, but I didn't have the right cars to participate, nor did I have the cash to buy one. So I ended up having to grind with my starter car for a while in order to get what I needed so I could then pay my way into the next wave of fun. Why didn't I just win a car that could do the next stuff? It's so restrictive and stupid, I don't know why I put up with it. 

All of these bugs and irritants (and the fact that you weirdly need to pay for everything in the game) add up to a sometimes frustrating experience that feels like the game has only half-transitioned from it's mobile origins. But still, there is fun to be had here. In some strange way, CarX Street reminds me of my experience with Two Worlds, a fantasy game that was deemed by the public at large to be so bad it was unplayable. I absolutely adored it.

I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't point out that CarX Street is kind of a mess. You can grab any number of much more competent AAA open world racers on sale for like five bucks that do this same thing a million times better. And yet...I just keep going back to CarX Street. I can't explain it, but I like it. If you feel like you might be forgiving towards some of the game's quirks, you might just like it too.