Vibe.com, September 9th, 2005
187 Ride or Die (Ubisoft)
PlayStation, Xbox
Rating: M
Storyline: Picture a classic game like Twisted Metal coming to the 'hood and you get the gist of 187 Ride or Die. You begin as Buck, voiced by Larenz Tate, a young street soldier looking to earn his stripes and cred in the streets. You’re recruited by a local gang boss, voiced by rapper Guerilla Black, to stomp out a competing Mexican gang by racing and blowing them out of the frame with a variety of guns and weapons. Now with the video game industry knocking on hip hop's door because of the success of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, can 187 Ride or Die reap its own rewards?
Audio/Visual: The characters are voiced by Larenz Tate, Noel Gugliemi and Guerilla Black. With the exception of Black (they couldn’t have gotten anyone else?), the acting is fair and it’s cool to hear Tate invoke some of that Menace to Society attitude in the game. The one thing that really brings down the game however is the script. Whoever wrote this script was really trying too hard. Every other word is a cuss word, because, you know that’s how we talk in the hood, and the use of slang is so fake. There isn’t any natural flow to any of the dialogue and it seems like the writers just grabbed a book of slang and started filling in the spaces. The music is scored by Black, who sounds like a Notorious B.I.G. impersonator, and works for the game for the most part. Visually the game isn’t breaking any new ground and a lot of the environments look the same and the vehicles are a bit boring. Other racers like Midnight Club III and Need for Speed take pride in the look of their cars and surroundings while 187 seems to have just made some basic models and threw it out there. One cool thing is the slow motion cam that activates when you take out one of your rivals. That’s about it.
Controls: To control your vehicle, you use the triggers and the analog stick while using the buttons to fire you’re weapon, switch weapons or get a speed boost. They’re fairly simple, but turning corners will take some time getting used to.
Hotness: There are a variety of games in the story mode. You can race a normal race and take out other racers with you’re weapons. You have a race where you’re only weapons are mines and you drop them behind you hoping other cats will run over them. You also have a death match type of game where you are dropped into an arena and drive around trying to take out your enemies. Another fun mission gives you the task of escorting and protecting another vehicle while assailants try to bomb on you from every angle. This game is also playable on Xbox Live.
Wackness: It’s hard to believe how dialogue could bring a game down. With the forced cussing and hip-hop slang, it sounds like an outside perception of how people of color talk. And it’s just not during the cut scenes; it’s throughout the races as well. If you crash into another car or building, Tate’s character yells. “Awww f***! That my muthaf***ing favorite ride!” It’s really not necessary to have fun playing the game. Not only is the dialogue just wack, the graphics just aren’t very good. Coming from Ubisoft you would expect better. Maybe next time.
Test Drive Rating: 2.5
