TDU Solar Crown is an MMO Without Single Player Racing; New Trailer
A new trailer for Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown, focused on racing and car tuning, has hit the web. It is accompanied by a lengthy article by devs at KT Racing, from which a picture emerges of a game quite uncompromisingly representing the MMO genre.
I will immediately anticipate the most important question: no, the new trailer of Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown (available below) has not revealed the game's release date. It looks like we're in for another delay, since in July it was announced that the game will debut early next year, and now the developers have only mentioned the game's general 2024 release (for PC, PS5 and XSX/S), while announcing that a third round of testing - still "strictly confidential" - will take place in the "coming weeks."
The aforementioned video, titled The Racer, focuses on the competitive side of Solar Crown, with issuing "instant challenges" to other players cruising the roads of Hong Kong and tuning cars to gain an advantage over the opponents.
Context to what was shown in the trailer is provided by an article published simultaneously on Steam (the sixth "letter from the Sunshine Club"). It describes in detail both the ways to upgrade cars and the activities we will take part in - from racing and time trials in various formats to exploring secret areas on the map and searching for wrecked cars.
The message from the text is that TDU: Solar Crown will be a full-fledged MMO game. This is most clearly evidenced by this fragment:
(...) all races are mainly multiplayer events and in each of them you will face other players. Drivers controlled by artificial intelligence will fill the stakes if not enough people participate in the competition."
So it looks like Solar Crown may disappoint players looking for solo entertainment.. Previous installments of Test Drive Unlimited enabled you to create an offline profile and play alone, but it remains to be seen whether there will be a similar option here as well. I have my doubts about this, judging by the strong emphasis the developers put on social competition.
The text only mentions the possibility to disable "instant challenges" issued by other players during free driving - but even this mention comes with the caveat that, by choosing to do so, you won't win all the prizes provided for competition between the Streets and Sharps clans (exclusive cars in each season are supposed to await users who reach the top of the leaderboard by proving themselves in daily competitions).
KT Racing mentioned that more game modes and challenges will be added in post-release updates, "including some very popular ones from Test Drive Unlimited 2". Who knows, maybe, influenced by public feedback, the developers will expand single-player options over time?
If you want to take part in the aforementioned tests, sign up for the official newsletter. More than 5,000 people were invited to the previous, second phase, and in the next phase this pool is to be expanded, so you have quite a chance to see for yourself what the new TDU is before the release.
