TDU Solar Crown is an enjoyable game that shows a lot of promise!

Pros (+)

Fantastic Progression: Unlocking super or hypercars requires considerable time and effort, which adds depth to the game and makes you care more about the cars you drive since you've invested time in acquiring them.

Intriguing Map: The game features a map filled with hidden paths and collectible tokens for XP and money. Boasting beautiful coastlines and extensive highways, I would rate the map an 8/10. It's perfect for casual driving as well as for racing (and it's significantly better than FH5). The upcoming addition of Ibiza is an exciting bonus!

Great Car Handling: The cars strike an excellent balance between arcade fun and semi-realism, with noticeable differences in handling, depending on whether the vehicle has RWD or AWD, as well as the settings for ABS and TCS.

Unique Car Experiences: While the car selection is way to limited, each vehicle has its own unique characteristics, including detailed interiors and realistic sound effects. You can quickly turn on headlights, use your blinker, or open and close the windows, which greatly enhances the immersive experience.

Decent Tuning Options: Customizing your car through sport and dynamic modes is enjoyable. Although some presets may be less effective and most of the time you just pick Sport mode or create your own tuning setups, which offer a wide range of options.

Open World Exploration: TDU Solar Crown excels as an open-world game, rewarding players with lots XP for discovering the map. This encourages exploration of its stunning coastlines and hidden spots. Driving to a dealer is also cool although this was done better in TDU 2 having an actual BMW or Porcshe dealer would have been way cooler and the dealerships look a bit to extreme and all have nearly the same design.

Car Interiors: Having the option to change interior color is awesome, some cars have lots of choices when it comes to interior colors while lots of cars are missing some real interior colors but it is still a nice personal touch to your car.

Races: Racing can be an enjoyable experience, although many are annoyed about the AI on Expert level. whilst they are sometimes annoying be beaten with the right car and strategy, you can outsmart the AI. At least the challenging AI adds a layer of difficulty, ensuring you don't always 100% of the time finish in first place. Also not having a Rewind button like in FH5 is good because if you screw up you will most likely lose the race but this makes you wanna get better at the game and not just kind of cheat your way to first place.

Cons (-):

Limited Car Selection: The game’s roster could be way more extensive. For a car-centric game, having only two BMWs and five Porsches is very very disappointing. Fortunately, the developers have announced plans to expand the car selection with upcoming updates. Ferrari and Lamborghini have more options, but it would have been nice to see them focus more on other car makers

Car options: Interiors aside you can't do much to your car besides a couple of different Rims, Tints etc. There should be spoiler options, side skirts, exhausts, bumpers... there should also be BBS rims etc but at least they have a couple of different factory rims unlike FH5 where you only have 1 factory Rim

Server Issues: Frequent crashes during races can lead to a frustrating loss of time and progress and sometimes the AI mainly when having other online players in the race Rubberband which is very annoying!

Poor Optimization: While sometimes the game can look beautiful most of the time the game looks like a 10 year old game which is not that bad because not everything is about graphics but the game has terrible perfomance when considering the graphics. If the game were properly optimized which hopefully will happen I would expect 2x as much fps considering the graphics (only get 80-90 fps (2k resolution) on a RTX 3080 whilst games like FH5 which are amazingly optimized and look way better and run with way higher FPS)

Online: max lobby size in free roam is about 8 players I think which is quite bad considering the big map and for a new game, there is also no Cross play which is also quite bad for a new game

Always online: I don't think I have to explain this one

Conclusion:
TDU Solar Crown is worth it and has lots of promise, but it requires significant improvements, especially in car variety and Server/FPS performance. That said, I still recommend the game as is, as it offers countless hours of fun!

TDU Solar Crown is an enjoyable game that shows a lot of promise! Pros (+) Fantastic Progression: Unlocking super or hypercars requires considerable time and effort, which adds depth to the game and makes you care more about the cars you drive since you've invested time in acquiring them. Intriguing Map: The game features a map filled with hidden paths and collectible tokens for XP and money. Boasting beautiful coastlines and extensive highways, I would rate the map an 8/10. It's perfect for casual driving as well as for racing (and it's significantly better than FH5). The upcoming addition of Ibiza is an exciting bonus! Great Car Handling: The cars strike an excellent balance between arcade fun and semi-realism, with noticeable differences in handling, depending on whether the vehicle has RWD or AWD, as well as the settings for ABS and TCS. Unique Car Experiences: While the car selection is way to limited, each vehicle has its own unique characteristics, including detailed interiors and realistic sound effects. You can quickly turn on headlights, use your blinker, or open and close the windows, which greatly enhances the immersive experience. Decent Tuning Options: Customizing your car through sport and dynamic modes is enjoyable. Although some presets may be less effective and most of the time you just pick Sport mode or create your own tuning setups, which offer a wide range of options. Open World Exploration: TDU Solar Crown excels as an open-world game, rewarding players with lots XP for discovering the map. This encourages exploration of its stunning coastlines and hidden spots. Driving to a dealer is also cool although this was done better in TDU 2 having an actual BMW or Porcshe dealer would have been way cooler and the dealerships look a bit to extreme and all have nearly the same design. Car Interiors: Having the option to change interior color is awesome, some cars have lots of choices when it comes to interior colors while lots of cars are missing some real interior colors but it is still a nice personal touch to your car. Races: Racing can be an enjoyable experience, although many are annoyed about the AI on Expert level. whilst they are sometimes annoying be beaten with the right car and strategy, you can outsmart the AI. At least the challenging AI adds a layer of difficulty, ensuring you don't always 100% of the time finish in first place. Also not having a Rewind button like in FH5 is good because if you screw up you will most likely lose the race but this makes you wanna get better at the game and not just kind of cheat your way to first place. Cons (-): Limited Car Selection: The game’s roster could be way more extensive. For a car-centric game, having only two BMWs and five Porsches is very very disappointing. Fortunately, the developers have announced plans to expand the car selection with upcoming updates. Ferrari and Lamborghini have more options, but it would have been nice to see them focus more on other car makers Car options: Interiors aside you can't do much to your car besides a couple of different Rims, Tints etc. There should be spoiler options, side skirts, exhausts, bumpers... there should also be BBS rims etc but at least they have a couple of different factory rims unlike FH5 where you only have 1 factory Rim Server Issues: Frequent crashes during races can lead to a frustrating loss of time and progress and sometimes the AI mainly when having other online players in the race Rubberband which is very annoying! Poor Optimization: While sometimes the game can look beautiful most of the time the game looks like a 10 year old game which is not that bad because not everything is about graphics but the game has terrible perfomance when considering the graphics. If the game were properly optimized which hopefully will happen I would expect 2x as much fps considering the graphics (only get 80-90 fps (2k resolution) on a RTX 3080 whilst games like FH5 which are amazingly optimized and look way better and run with way higher FPS) Online: max lobby size in free roam is about 8 players I think which is quite bad considering the big map and for a new game, there is also no Cross play which is also quite bad for a new game Always online: I don't think I have to explain this one Conclusion: TDU Solar Crown is worth it and has lots of promise, but it requires significant improvements, especially in car variety and Server/FPS performance. That said, I still recommend the game as is, as it offers countless hours of fun!