Test Drive: Eve of Destruction

Concept

Test Drive: Eve of Destruction is a departure from the normal Test Drive formula, eschewing high-powered muscle cars and sports cars in favor of beat-up junkyard wrecks. Instead of simply racing for the checkered flag, you'll have to avoid being taken out by the other cars in a variety of specific race types. Each event, or "Eve" as the game calls it, is divided up into several events. Possibilities include regular races, figure-8 races, red rover, flagpole races, and demolition derbies, among others. Whoever accumulates the most points wins the Eve.

Gameplay

The damage system is well-modeled and cumulative for the life of your car; each time you damage it, the amount of repairing you can do decreases slightly. Eventually you'll need to win enough prize money to replace it, or supplement it with up to three others. This allows you to switch back and forth between different cars depending on the next event. A dedicated demo derby car won't be very fast for racing, and a faster car will get destroyed quickly in a more crash-oriented event. The cars can flip when hit just right, such as being T-boned while flying over a jump in the crossover of a figure-8 track.

Career Mode

In career mode, you start out with just one junk car, and enter the local events to win prize money and improve your driver ranking. As you rank up, you gain access to more events and locations outside of town. On the way to events, you can challenge a random opponent to a race, to see who can get to the event first. Other locations around the map include match races against local drivers, a junkyard that serves as your car dealer, and a garage for upgrading and painting your ride. The local rock quarry also hosts some events.

Other Modes

Action mode is a typical "jump in and play" arcade mode, with even more types of events, as well as unlockable cars and cheats, including one that lets you shoot exploding chickens at opponents. Dare mode contains specific challenges that force you to use certain vehicles that may not be ideal for the event. Four-person local multiplayer is also included.

Full Event List

Jump Race - a normal race around a winding course with jumps and sharp turns..

Figure-8 - race around a Figure-8 track with crashes in the middle

Figure-8 Jump - the same as Figure-8, but with jumps in the middle for airborne crashes.

Suicide - half the cars go one way and half go the other way, leading to head-on collisions.

Flagpole - somewhere on the track sits a flagpole; every lap you must drive a circle around the flagpole before continuing.

Stop-and-Go - you must stop completely in the box marked on the track before you can go again.

Forward-Backward - drive one lap forwards, then go the other way around the track in reverse gear.

Whip Around - drive around the track one direction, then do a quick 180 and go back the way you came.

Gauntlet - take control of a hearse and try to complete five laps while other cars aim to take you out.

Last Man - each lap, the last-place car is eliminated from the race until only one remains.

School Bus - drive a school bus and race against other school buses.

No-Rules - a standard race around an oval track.

Shortcut - the back half of the field gets to take a shortcut to catch up to the leaders.

Demolition Derby - destroy other cars and try to make your own car survive.

Wrangling - destroy the target car as quickly as possible.

Push Off/Knock-Out - like Demolition Derby, but you can shove opponents out of the ring to eliminate them as well.

Red Rover - race back and forth from one safe zone to another; each time, the last car to make it to the safe zone is eliminated.

Detention - cars try to reach the destination, while a school bus tries to stop them.

Point-to Point - race from checkpoint to checkpoint while other cars slam into you going for the same spot.

Trailer - pull a trailer behind your car and take out opponents' trailers, but don't lose your own.

Chain - similar to Trailer, but with a car chained behind you.

Soccer - get the soccer ball into the goal by ramming into it with your car.

Capture the Flag and Battle - multiplayer-only modes.