Drive Any Track (Hands-On) (PC) Preview

After scanning a track, players drive along a road whose turns and ramps match the pace of the music. Points are awarded for drifting around corners, flying through the air and avoiding barriers to stay in sync with the song that is playing. Leaderboards are already present to nurture worldwide competition and extend the scope of the game that is already limited only by the user's audio library. It's easy to get to grips with the handling of the cars and even easier to pass away countless hours driving across the variety of songs that are sure to fill every gamer's music collection.

Jumping into the action is very straightforward as the menus are clearly set out and make it very simple to select a song. The interface is clearly designed and a helpful message pops up to warn when a song doesn't have an ID3 tag. This is important because scores can only be uploaded to leaderboards if the song has been tagged. It doesn't take long to scan a track and create a course, which is ranked out of five stars, according to its difficulty.

Gameplay itself may initially be surprising as there is no acceleration control. This doesn't detract from the engagement of racing too much, as there is still control over boosting and breaking to drift, both of which are important to maximise scores. While racing, there are various levels of synchronisation between the car and the song. Keeping up to speed with the music will multiply the running score by four, or ten with careful use of the boost. A pace marker bar runs along the road to indicate the barrier between four and ten times multipliers, as well as lower ones that only double or treble scores if falling behind. Avoiding obstacles and staying on the track during jumps, to avoid dropping back and receiving a lower score, makes keeping in time with the beat sound easier than it is.

The track design does a fantastic job of mirroring the mood created by the user's choice of soundtrack thanks to an excellent blend of ramps, obstacles and turns. Faster pieces deliver tougher courses where the frantic action matches the quick pace of the music, while calmer songs provide a smoother, more relaxing experience. Whatever level of pace marker the car has reached, Drive Any Track does a great job of matching each track to the music that is playing. Each jump and dive comes at just the right time, while picking up bonus point icons chime with the beat of the music.

Performing drifts, jumps and rolls rewards with more points, as does destroying boxes and collecting icons that appear. Smashing boxes on the track also fills the boost bar, while the pace markers outlined above serve to add to the total score, so there's no shortage of gameplay elements that make Drive Any Track both challenging and enjoyable. These various scoring methods are vital to topping the leaderboards that take scores from around the world. Helpfully, there's an option before starting each song to play against a ghost. This gives a good indication of the current performance, as the ghost's score appears just above its car, and can be compared to the player's score in the corner.

The futuristic visuals create a Tron-like appearance, while the rainbow of colours used gives each song a distinct mood that matches its rhythm. At times, it can be difficult to differentiate barriers from the road, but, overall, it all looks wonderfully engaging. The art style is simple, but effective, as various shapes and designs fill up the landscape around the road to make each stage truly immersive. Running at a constant 60 frames per second delivers a smooth and enjoyable experience. Sound effects, such as the revving of the car's engine, chimes to indicate collected icons and the whoosh of a boost, round off a well presented package. The strength of the music is in the user's own taste and collection, so it's hard to fault this, as a range of formats, including MP3, FLAC, OGG and AAC, are supported.

Only one game mode currently exists in this Early Access title, which creates a track based on a song and lets players race it to score as many points as possible. The accessibility and compelling nature of the arrangement of tracks means that it is easy to lose hours of play time without realising it. Drive Any Track is really only limited by the user's own music library, and the roads generated by the MEGA engine don't get tiresome, as they feel as fresh as the songs that inspired them. Competing with friends and rivals around the world makes an already limitless game truly burst with potential.