sadly my review is too long and GOG doesn't tell me how much I should remove, so I'll just post it in the forums. the td;dr : avoid at all cost, until the developers patched it so that it is at least playable. MUCH potential but nothing delivered except eye and ear candy.
The physics are, if not realistic, at least believable, the controls might feel a little bit too sensitive at first but once you get the hang of it the cars actually do what you want them to, the power-ups are standard but very well executed graphically and well balanced. The background music is the good but when on loop annoying late 90s techno that was the standard fare for car games at the time. A special mention should go to the sfx though, as there is some incredible attention to detail going on. The environmental sounds are very good and fit each setting perfectly, and each car has its own realistic motor sound. The "world" is zany but believable. This attention to detail is mirrored in the graphics. They aged very well (most computers nowadays should be able to run this game on max settings, including maximum Antialiasing.) The only thing that betrays the game's age are the relatively low poly counts and the low-res textures, but once you're racing it isn't really noticeable. Each environment is very detailed and often offers (semi-)hidden shortcuts and alternative routes. Single player is fun but slightly frustrating (rubber band AI makes each race tense but means you can fall from 1st to 8th place on the last round a couple of meter from the finish line if you are just a tiny bit unlucky), but multiplayer (used) to be a complete blast So yeah, get it if you enjoy Maria Kart like game and want some alternative to that or Tux Kart Racer.
Over the years I've beaten the game three times on single player, once in coop. the last walkthrough was 4 or 5 years ago, I also lost my original disks so I bought it on GOG, mostly on the off chance that I get someone to play in coop with from time to time, but I installed it and all the mods anyway right away and decided to check whether everything was running fine ... 2 hours later real live intruded and i had to finally exit the game. THIS is how good System Shock 2 is. Even when you know it well, when you know how it ends, when there is no surprise storywise, it still grips you. The log files still work their magic, Polito is still a bossy little ... aeh ... woman of debatable charms, monkeys are scary and it's hard to stop playing. just buy it and thank GOG for making the pinacle of first person scifi horror adventure role playing game again available. It's *well* worth the $9.99!
