Review: DriveClub is stunning to behold, but held back by a lack of variety

There's a lot riding on the success of DriveClub. Every console needs a quality racing game as a matter of priority, the genre appealing to a demographic so large and varied that it acts as a lure for many otherwise uninterested potential players.

The beauty of this kind of game is that so many different approaches have proven successful: from precise simulation to outlandish mayhem, there's more than one way to win.

Filling the racing need for Xbox One are Forza Horizon 2 and Forza Motorsport 5, the Nintendo platforms have Mario Kart. DriveClub skids a line different than each of those, desperate to define its own niche and, perhaps more importantly, prevent itself from treading on the toes of the PS4's inevitable Gran Turismo release down the line.

The result is an arcade racer with simulation wrapping. Handling, damage and collisions are all very much on the 'arcade' end of the scale, everything designed around giving you the best chance of winning rather than overly punishing you for mistakes.

Cars can be thrown into corners at speeds and angles simply not possible in real-life, while collisions with opponents and barriers usually serve to delay you by no more than a second or two. Driveclub is about having fun, about providing you with sensations of speed and vehicular mastery. Realism is not allowed to get in the way of that.

If 'fun' is the canvas, then visual detail is the paint. The environments within which the game's many tracks and roads are set are gorgeous, each and every one bursting with the kind of colour and detail that makes you appreciate the graphical leap made by new-gen consoles.

Whether you're racing across the dusty plains of Chile or hanging on for dear life as you meander through the narrow, icy passes of Norway, DriveClub never loses its visual impact for a second. It's no exaggeration to say that a new visual benchmark has been set for the genre.

Vehicles are equally well presented. Although, given that they're naturally less intricate than the world they found themselves in, it's difficult to purr over them to the same degree as the setting. Rest assured that they look, and sound, wonderful.

A beautiful picture is only engaging for so long, however, and a pretty face without substance soon becomes boring and shallow. DriveClub sets out to avoid this by focusing sharply on its provision of social features, the kind of ingredients designed to spark and promote both rivalry and teamwork with other players in a way that feels more meaningful than anything the AI could possibly offer.

While your solo profile is being levelled up with every event you enter, the real satisfaction comes from doing your bit to improve the status of your club. Up to six of you can join the same club, with everything you do as an individual going towards its progression and place on the leaderboards. The beauty of this is that it allows you be a part of something that can potentially excel in areas you have little interest or ability in.

For instance, your club may receive a challenge from another to beat their best time on a specific track using a specific car. If that car is a Ferrari 430 then you will struggle if you're not comfortable with rear-wheel drive machines.

Hopefully, though, someone else in your club is a master behind the wheel of such beasts and can set their sets on overcoming the challenge. Should they win then everyone in the club reaps the rewards and sees the club's status grow.

Your time to shine might come later, be it in a four-wheel drive car, on a track that you particularly like or perhaps in an event that does away with best times altogether and instead ranks you on your ability to drift gracefully around corners.

"Each environment is bursting with the colour and detail that makes you appreciate the graphical leap of new-gen consoles"

Mixing players of different expertise within the same club is the best way to level up and unlock new cars and accolades, the sense that everyone is offering something different making you feel simultaneously valued as a driver and part of something bigger than yourself.

Such challenges are created by simply browsing through your race history and selecting a performance that you think is particularly impressive.

From here you define whether you want the challenge to be open to the public or limited to those that you personally invite, the latter option being better for causal players that are likely to see their times quickly and overwhelmingly crushed by the game's most skilful racers.

Challenges need not be limited to clubs, they can also be sent to individuals. This allows you to compete directly against those friends who are also club mates. Such an option is essential in creating the kind of satisfaction that can only come from besting those that you know personally, giving you the ammunition required for (good natured) teasing and boasting.

While the notion of basing a game's core around clubs and challenges is undoubtedly a good one, more diversity of on-track action would be nice. Events are split into time trials, multi-car races and drift events, meaning there's only ever three options to compete in. Direct multiplayer competition is limited solely to races for up to 12 players.

For a game so set on making it easy for you to rank yourself against others, the disciplines across which you can compete seem underdeveloped. While each and every race throws 'face-offs' (see 'Secondary Objectives') at you in an attempt to expand the number of ways you can gain a sense of accomplishment, these are so numerous that they fail to feel special and, resultantly, are never more than an afterthought.

This lack of variety is a shame given that the quality of the handling and visuals makes DriveClub an absolute pleasure when it comes to that moment-to-moment experience of throwing a car around a corner at breakneck speeds.

In a way, the fact that DriveClub chooses to focus so squarely on pure racing is to its detriment. The social framework within which everything is packed lends itself to all kinds of potentially outlandish and interesting ways to compete, but it's only through best times and drift scores that you're meaningfully judged.

It makes for an enigma of a game. The handling is fun and accessible and the challenges give your actions greater meaning, but it's impossible not to think that it would benefit from taking itself a little less seriously.

For a game that is so modern in its approach, its forms of competition are staunchly tradition. How much you enjoy this combination comes down to your appetite for best lap times.