IHRA Drag Racing Game Review

As far as I can remember I've enjoyed driving simulations in every shape or form. We saw a lot of thrilling titles in recent years that had brought fresh and new features to racing simulations (Ignition, Midtown Madness, Driver, Need For Speed, etc. etc.). There are always exceptions to the rule; mostly games with misplaced self-motivated gameplay. In games like these, the developers intend to sustain the real-life atmosphere; therefore they forget to introduce more electrifying aspects to a game. What comes before us this time is another game of this sort. Taking a further step into the world of car racing simulations, Bethesda has developed an IHRA drag racing game. Regrettably, we have to inform you that the game doesn't seem to offer any tangible qualities. If you go back one year you can probably recall the NIRA Intense Import Drag Racing game from Bethesda Softworks and the complexity of vehicle customization it has presented - with an enormous variety of dragster options, transmission, engine, and so many well-defined vehicle settings. Maintaining this feature in IHRA, Bethesda seem to have left out the key elements that are supposed to hold the player's attention. IHRA Drag Racing can be exciting, sorry to say only for a short while.

Starting point.

A nice camera view, don't you think?
The thing which defines IHRA is certainly the considerable variety of vehicle settings. The dragster you'll be driving needs a lot of tending and care. I have to admit that it took me quite a while to set everything up for racing (improving the transmission and engine abilities and so on). Acceleration, car handling, gear shifting, and general vehicle performance depends greatly on your assessment of the situation in a particular race. Namely, you're gonna have to look out for the opponent's car capability and then modify your machine accordingly.
You may take a crack at driving one of the fifty available vehicles. Each dragster has his own specific qualities; they all differ in engine and transmission characteristics. Six car classes are accessible: classic, funny, pro-modified, pro-stock, stock, and rail. To make the most of your dragster and in order to overpower the opponent, you're going to have to assemble car parts which will offer you maximum engine performance. Putting the components together might sometimes demand expert knowledge in car mechanics - tires, aerodynamics, and electronics are presented in a manner which may prove to be very difficult for casual gamers to comprehend. Every detail that you change in the vehicle configuration will surely effect its racing capability. Bethesda has also put in the necessity of looking after the type of fuel that you inject into your machine (methanol, ethanol, nitro methane). Of course the fuel brand depends largely on the category of the dragster you'll be using (funny car, pro-stock and so on). Constructing a strong engine is very important for maximum car efficiency. You have to build an engine which has a good ignition capability and reasonable acceleration possibilities - so that you can maintain your speed during the race. Following this you'll need a fast and effective shifting gear is that can allow you to change speed faster than your adversary.
The chassis elements should be the last thing to worry about. Every feature was designed to make your driving more effective, yet they take too much of your patience so you have very little energy left for the racing itself. When you complete all of these settings you can use the inspection option which will point out any mistakes you may have made while putting the engine together. Personally I found that the best car for me was the pro-stock John Montecalvo vehicle with a high race Cam Shaft, a custom built engine, Corvette ZF 6-speed manual shifting gear, and a Drag Race 5000 clutch. After I've finally enhanced the performance of my race dragster, I actually initiated a single race event. Standard options have been instituted here: practice, events, single race, season, multiplayer, and load.

The visuals are not particularly striking. We've seen a lot better object and background rendering in other car racing games. The graphic settings can be applied to your desires in the Settings Menu; sadly even if you set maximum effects on everything the game still looks crappy. Details of the environment and the animations in general need a lot more work - the spectators look more like paper cutouts than ordinary people (Hey, that's 2D pixels for ya - Ed). Weather conditions are not very visually impressive, for example you will find that there's no actual difference between snowy and foggy climate. Night and day effects are present, as well as the air temperature, humidity, wind speed etc. Anyway, you can correct the driving conditions to your preference, so that's an additional benefit at least. Car models are not too bad though, and you will explore all kinds of car drag racing types. The textures in the game have a pleasing overall and during the racing you're gonna observe some nice features like tire tracks, smoking engines, and car damage visibility. Collisions occur occasionally, which may cause your car to tumble and toss - this appears realistic. It wouldn't have been a bad idea to add a few more features here; like engine explosions and hull bursting, that sort of stuff. The music sometimes creates a dynamic atmosphere; regrettably though, you become sick of the recurring sound of the commentator's voice. Furthermore, some of the engine sounds could have been a lot more genuine.

The crowd doesn't seem to like their seats...

More smoking tires.
The main interface shows the main readouts: speedometer, tachometer, oil pressure, oil, water, and transmission temperature. Next to that you will observe a scale which displays the distance to the start line (it will make the line-up for the start of the race much easier to accomplish). When the race lights turn yellow you may blast off at last! During the race I noticed that the vehicle controls are very hard to manage and I could barely turn sideways (than again this is not very important in drag racing is it?). As you pass the finish line, colorful parachutes will be released from the car's rear and, wahooo! The race is over! Now you can observe the standard race statistics screen, which shows you how much Mph your dragster achieved and the time it took him to complete the track. Later, you can view the replay of the race on your personal VCR (it is possible to record a single racing event and show it to your girlfriend, if you wish). Camera movement in the game deserves praising; it moves about freely and has all sorts of different angles with zooming capability.
To begin with, the disappointment comes from the fact that there's no option for a two-player game. Although you can find the standard selections for Internet and LAN modes, it's still a presents a nuisance not being able to play with a live player on one computer. This mode becomes tedious when all of the players suddenly start adjusting their car parts, so that they can have a better and faster vehicle that the other guy. As you may have guessed, playing the single-payer mode is not exciting for very long. Throughout playing the season for instance, I detected the dreariness of the tracks - what Bethesda could have done here is create more background detail or a simply a greater number of tracks.
For all you drag racing fans out there, you can be sure that this is an extremely authentic dragster driving simulation with all kinds of vehicle customizations and similar features. However, the whole game gets really tiresome after a few hours of gameplay. More features need to be presented on a racing track, mostly in the sense of the atmosphere - which is not vigorous enough and therefore makes the game less enjoyable. I excepted to see more explosions and damage effects, like in real life drag racing. Drag Racing is supposed to be a thrilling event that should make the adrenaline leak out of your ears. In this case you will probably cough up blood; cause after a while drag racing really becomes a 'drag.'

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