What is Free Play Friday. Well it’s a weekly article on free games out there in the world. The game could be casual flash games to Free 2 Play MMOs to free downloads. The only condition is you must be able to play the whole game without spending a cent to do so. So enjoy this weeks Free Game. This week's game is Drift City by NPLUTO and Ijji. Drift City is a cell shaded driving game. Its like a mix of GTA and Need for Speed. It looks and play well. I found this game on the launcher of A.V.A. and on curiosity I tried it out. At first wasn't sure I would play it very long but the next thing I knew a few hours went by.
Drift City takes place on Mittron Island in the near future. Mittron Island is special cause it discovered a new power source to replace oil. All the cars on Mittron Island run on this new power source called Mittron. Somewhere mysterious cars called HUVs showed up and causing havoc to the island. The local government started hiring drivers to help stop HUVs and help the government with some of the workload. Okay the back story is weak but the game works with it pretty well. It’s a pretty open world feel free to do what you wish.
The game plays very smoothly. For a games that uses the keyboard only its work quite well. After a small learning curve getting use to the controls and how the game responds its works very well. At first I though keyboard only would suck but its clear they though about everything when developing this game. The game is quite simple you drive around doing missions for money, items and fame. The island is split up into 4 cities. You start out in Moon Palace. This is basically the starting area. It helps you learn the game and all the different things you can do. They story spans across 4 cities on the island.
If the story isn't your thing well you can enter the PvP side of the game which is the Battle Zone. Its basically a death match race. Each city has about 10 race tracks in the lay out. The goal is simple be the first to cross the finish line. Getting to the goal is not quite that easy. The Battle zone can either be every driver for themselves or team races. In either case 16 drivers can compete in the Battle Zone.
For those who like playing with a group of friends Drift City has something for you as well. You have several game modes. You can challenge other crews (clans) for fame and some good loot in Channel Battle. Play Rush Time which is a group HUV hunting mode with a boss HUV at the end. Lap Time battles which put all the drivers on a race track to try to get the best lap time. Lap Time Battles can have up to 32 drivers competing. Real Match Battle, which is the normal Battle Zone race but every driver is in the same car so it’s the driver's skill that wins the race. Virtual HUV where you become a HUV and wreck havoc over the island, you can play as either the HUV or a driver trying to stop them. Finally there is my favorite Undercity. This is an instance dungeon type of game where a party completes objective then fight a boss HUV. NPLUTO list more game modes are coming soon. So far only one of them is named and its called Mita 500. There is no information but guessing on the name it will probably be a large scale race with many drivers.
The graphics in the game work quite well. While the game is a few years old it holds up well. As I stated before it’s a cell shaded game with heavy anime themes. The island looks rather plain and sometimes you can see the background being drawn in as you race. Its not
distracting but does make the game a bit ugly. The cars in the game have some sort of real world counter part to them. Its not easy to tell what is what unless you are a car buff. I couldn't name many of them but there are some well known look a likes in the game. The best part of the game is designing your car. I was amazed at the number of options you had from paint color to custom decals and body kits. The shear number of options was outstanding and looked very good. Kudos to NPLUTO for not being lazy on this part as its really makes the game.
This game has a surprising quality to it. As I stated before I tried it on a whim and was hooked for hours. Learning how to earn combo points for items and hitting awesome jumps. It really is a GTA and Need for Speed mix. If you like either game its worth trying Drift City. If you liked both types of games then don't wait head on over to the Drift City website and download the game. If you are like me you will be hooked too.
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