izigame.me

Do not buy the game. It's mostly horrible, and needs serious work before it's worth the full price. I wish listed this game over 4 years ago and got too eager to buy the game before launch. Hate to say it but I regret buying the game heavily. Updated the review post launch, emulate TDU 1 on xenia for a significantly more fun experience.
Core Gameplay
Gameplay is not thought through well enough. Driving feels good, The collision physics are awful though. There needs to be an overhaul of the progression. I hate how the prize money for races doesn't increase as you progress. I've reached level 24 and have gone through a lot of the game, and cars that cost a million credits get you into a race that will net you 20k, the same as the first races in the game. It Does not make any sense. The same goes for the AI in the game, totally nonsensical. Some races are way too easy and others harder than they ever should be. Your car selection is crucial, which sucks for a racing game of this caliber since it's so hard to grind money for a car that looks like fun to drive. You have to spend your credits on what's practical and that should not be how a game is played.
The Cars
The car lineup seems incredibly barren for a game about going to a dealership to buy cars. I can't wrap my head around having 3 or 4 of the same make and model in a dealership. The Asian dealership in the game has three cars but duplicates them over and over to make the dealership look populated. It is very disappointing. Car customization is disappointing too, I loved TDU 1 and how you could take a Mustang and get it tuned by Saleen. TDU can easily implement a similar feature, take your Porsche and turn it into an RUF, or take your 370z and get it tuned by NISMO. Since there was little DNA from TDU this probably was even considered. There is also the issue of accuracy of some of the cars, a lot of automatic cars look like they are shifted manually. The mustang in the game is a six speed yet has an automatic gear shifter in the interior, it shows a lack of love for the cars which should be abcent for a game meant to collect cars.
Old TDU
The major aspects of a TDU game are not there, this was expected but I feel have been underwhelming. You're given a hotel room and that's it, you can customize your character there but it does not feel unique or special, I can't imagine anyone wanting to spend any time there. Property (Houses/Apartments) desperately needs to be added.
Server Issues
There are other issues with the game, settings don't save I have to reconfigure my display settings every time I launch the game which is stupid. TDU did something with the servers the first day and reset some of my progress somehow. The issues with the servers have not been fixed a lot of players are still reporting problems post launch and for that I don't want anyone to purchase this game in this state. I went down to level 29 from 30 randomly after exiting the game and coming back to it the day after.
Performance
As for the performance of the game, I'm glad to say it's ok. I play the game at a constant 60 FPS at 1440P with Medium settings with a 3080. GPU will probably not be your issue, playing on my laptop my CPU was being crazy over-utilized for whatever reason. There needs to be some optimization but it is fine for the most part.
Suggestions
If the developers are reading this, don't keep working on "expansions" to other islands. The Map is big enough for now. The core gameplay is severely lacking. The expansions won't matter if their core gameplay is not fixed. My suggestions are to implement old concepts from the original games and fix the game's economy and race payouts. There needs to be better customization of cars and the upgrade system makes more sense (adding a turbo to a supercharged car?). FIRM is also limited to 10 every day which is just insane to me, how does that encourage people to drive and enjoy the game?
Final Verdict
Having the current release of game, there is no good reason why somebody should purchase this game for full price. If you can find it on a third party for $20 or less than maybe, but I would stay away. They had to delay the release of the first season and solar pass. It can't be a good indicator for how the rest of this game is going to unfold for the duration of it's life span. I don't write reviews, but I also don't typically pre-order games either. Don't buy it, can't support these business practices, unless the game makes a drastic turn around like no mans sky. Emulate the 360 version of TDU 1 or the PC port for a significantly more fun experience, especially if you have not played the original games.