CarX Technologies brings their mobile game to PC, complete with an all-new experience for the platform that roars onto the scene with undeniable ambition. CarX Street throws players into a sprawling metropolis filled with neon lights, winding roads, and an unbelievable amount of car customization. Beneath the initial flash, CarX Street struggles with a repetitive grind, a boring open-world, and lack of licensing – thankfully update by update, some of this is changing for the better.
Editor’s Note: This was reviewed up to version 1.0.6
The core gameplay of CarX Street revolves around racing, divided into various race types like sprints, time trials, and drift challenges. The handling model leans towards arcade-style fun, with cars that drift readily and offer a satisfying sense of speed. While not the most realistic simulation, the controls are responsive and intuitive, making it easy to pick up and play. The core of your time in the game will be participating in club races, and by getting first place, puts you closer to racing against the leader. Beating them unlocks unique rewards and lets you take on new clubs, and repeating that formula.
There’s no real story to speak of, which, in a racing game can be forgiven. However, it seems there’s AI being used to do the voiceover. And even with that, it’s clear that English isn’t the first language, so there are awkward performances given as a result of all of these things. There is an offline mode for the game, for those traveling or not desiring to encounter real people. With the press of a button, you can be online and seeing others in the same world.
Where CarX Street truly shines is in its car customization, something we haven’t seen since the days of Need For Speed Underground 2. The game boasts a vast array unlicensed cars, ranging from classic muscle cars to modern supercars (all debadged of course), though you’re very easily able to tell what’s what if you’re knowledgeable about cars. Each vehicle offers a wealth of customization options, allowing players to tweak everything from performance upgrades to visual tweaks. Whether you want a fire-breathing street machine or a sleek drift monster, CarX Street provides the tools to personalize your ride any way you please.
Unfortunately, this is where the game’s biggest flaw comes into play: the grind. Upgrades and customization parts are incredibly expensive, and earning enough cash to build your dream car feels like a monumental task. Races only offer meager rewards, and while there are daily challenges to complete, the progress feels excruciatingly slow, especially in the early hours. This heavy reliance on grinding just isn’t fun, but to the developer’s credit, recent updates to the game have increased rewards to be more meaningful.
The traffic in this game is simply chaotic, and borderline suicidal. They will drive as if there isn’t a race going on, though to the game’s illicit nature, gives this part some credence. That said, if it becomes too bothersome or a nuisance, the traffic cars can be turned down or off completely. This will certainly make races go far smoother without some random NPC driving into an intersection as you’re doing over 120mph.
While this isn’t a fully fleshed out feature, there are houses and apartments in the game. Now, you can’t enter them or customize them, but they make it so you have free fast travel around the city for races you have to travel long distances for. I hope that this becomes something more as the game receives updates.
Aside from the deep customization,CarX Street does something unique that I wish other games would do. Now, this won’t be for everyone. But from free-roam to racing, you have to pay attention to your fuel gauge and tire wear. There can be moments that during a race you can run out of gas making you hold a steady 20mph, or your tires go completely bald and unable to keep traction. By paying close enough attention, you can top-up your gas or replace wearing tires as stations. You can even, purchase higher tiers of fuel for better consumption and faster speeds. This also extends to the tires where you can ensure quality tire wear with better traction. It’s a neat immersive feature that adds some realism that otherwise isn’t there.
CarX Street‘s open world is undeniably impressive, capturing the essence of a bustling nighttime city. From bustling avenues lined with skyscrapers to winding mountain roads overlooking the cityscape, the environment offers a decent variety for exploration. Visually, CarX Street has its moments of beauty, and while the open world is vast, it feels strangely empty. There are very few activities outside of racing, and even then, the races themselves are repetitive.
The graphics options are pretty bare bones with things like resolution selection, max framerate, shadow quality, anti-aliasing type, and the like. While I appreciate its inclusion, there’s very little in the way of anything draw-dropping or overly impressive. Everything looks really good for a game running on Unity 2022, but only one thing stands out. There are settings around smoke: advanced smoke and smoke density. The smoke in this game is volumetric and given how often you’ll be shredding tires, it’s a worthwhile technology to look so good. Though this only carries the game so far.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
CarX Street is undoubtedly fun, and has the potential to be an excellent open-world racing game, as it’s only pretty good now. The core gameplay loop of racing and customization is solid, and the open world itself offers a decent playground to explore. However, the relentless grind for cash, the lack of meaningful activities outside of racing, and the technical issues all hold the game back. Despite its shortcomings, CarX Street on PC is a worthy contender to its triple A competitors.
A Steam code was provided by the publisher for review purposes
