Ever wanted to manage your
own horse stable, become a jockey, or bet on horse racing all over the globe?
With Final Stretch for PC you now have the opportunity to try all three in one
game.
Final Stretch is a horse
racing simulation game that allows you to take control of your own horse racing
dreams. If you ever dreamed of controlling your own horse-racing stable, Final
Stretch might be the game for you. The game provides a decent representation of
what horse racing is all about, but can leave the player left out in the barn.
There are three modes in
Final Stretch for the player to participate in, Stable, Race and Bet. The
Stable section allows you to control your own horse stable by becoming the
owner/breeder of the horses. It’s up to you to become a world famous breeder
and owner of horses. You have control over the infrastructure, personnel, and
the training of the horses. The Race section allows you to control a jockey
during the race itself. You decide which way the horse is going to break, how
fast to run the horse, and winning as many races as possible. The Bet section
gives you the opportunity to bet on horse races all over the globe. Now you can
become your own handicapper and determine which horse the money should ride on.
It’s up to you to become the source for horse race betting.
All of this sounds great,
especially for someone who has always wanted the opportunity to take a chance
with horse racing. But all isn’t well at the racetrack. It seems the player
has been left out in the cold to pick up after the horses. The interface in the
game seems to get in the way of the player “controlling” what’s happening. A
horse race is supposed to be an exciting event for everyone, but there isn’t
much excitement in this game.
When you start the Stable
mode you need to select a Country to locate your stable. You’re presented with
a big map that has Germany pre-selected for you, so I would assume you could
select the United States by clicking on the map. Not so with this game, you had
to select the Country from a list at the bottom of the screen. Once you’ve
selected the Country, then you select an area to locate your stable. For
example, in the United States you have several different states to select. But
I noticed one huge omission, especially for someone who grew up in Kentucky.
You can’t start off in Kentucky! The Kentucky Derby, one of the most popular
horse races in the world is in Kentucky. But I couldn’t select Kentucky as my
starting State; I had to select a location “near” Cincinnati, Ohio. I guess
this is close enough for most players, but for a true horse-racing fan this
might be a huge omission.
To make this even more
confusing for me, Churchill Downs is a track that is available to race on. So
if Churchill Downs, located in Louisville, KY, is available then why shouldn’t
Kentucky be a selectable state? A large percentage of horses that race in the
big money races across the country are raised in Kentucky as well. Lexington KY
is about two to three hours away from Louisville, but no where is this available
for the player. These might be minor points to the player if the game played
well, but since it doesn’t we have to focus on this omission.
As mentioned earlier, the
player never really feels in control of what’s happening in the game. The
interface can be very confusing when starting the game. I couldn’t even select
a jockey during Stable mode because I had to have three colors for the outfit.
But since the in-game instructions kept saying over and over again to select
three colors, I had to select a pre-made character. Once you’ve selected a
stable name, owner name and a jockey, then your ready to play. You don’t start
off with a horse, so you have to purchase a horse. I knew that most horses are
sold at auctions so I selected the auction section. The first horse that I
wanted to bid on went for over 1 million dollars, and I only had $200,000.
There wasn’t a good explanation as to why the horse went for so much, but if you
dig around in the instruction manual you might be able to figure out that each
horse is valued by their breeding. If a horse has an excellent breed history,
meaning it’s parents were money winners, then the horse will sell for more
money. But the game doesn’t provide a tutorial or walk-through to explain to
the player how to begin.
But even if you have a
horse, doesn’t mean your ready to actually do anything. You still have to
select a crew to train the horse, maintain your stable and other day to day
functions. The game is broken up into weekly, monthly or event schedule. So
you can select to train your horse one week, race it the next, and then have it
rest the following week. Or if you like you can select a monthly schedule to
control everything. But if you’ve already selected an action item, such as a
race or auction, then you can jump to the selected event and bypass the week or
month. There wasn’t an option to select a day to day schedule. But figuring
all of this out is a game in itself. You want to select a horse to buy, but you
might have to wait until the next week or next event. If you hire a crew of
workers for your stable, you don’t see them doing anything. You have a moral
meter that shows you if their morale is going up or down, but that’s about it.
You can also buy additional buildings for your horses that can help improve in
the training. But you’re only presented with a top down view of the building,
on a very basic map. Nothing fancy.
The Racing section is also
a let down. You’re on top of the horse and you do have control over the horse.
But it seems all you can really do is control how fast the horse runs. You have
to take into consideration how fast the horse is running because he/she could
run out of energy by the end of the race. This always seemed to happen every
time I tried a race. I would keep the pace of the horse slow or consistent with
the rest of the pack. But at the end of the race the horse would always run out
of energy, right near the finish line. But you can control the whip and try to
get an extra boost of energy & speed. But the end result was always the same,
no energy at the finish.
The Bet section is probably
the one saving grace for the game. Now if you can win a race that you’ve placed
a bet on, then you should consider yourself a handicapper already. Each horse
in a race shows information on how much money they’ve won, and past race
performances. You can even view a small description from an in-game newsletter
that can provide you with clues as to who might win the race. Or if you’re
really desperate you can even ask a Bookmaker who will win the race, but for a
fee. But once again, the interface really gets in the way. There are item
“balls” that you have to select in order to pick a horse. The horses aren’t
listed by name when they appear in the item ball, but by number. So you can’t
bet on a horse by name, or select a horse by name to place a bet. You don’t
have a handy cheat sheet that you can use that provides the horses past
performances. You better remember the name and number of the horse when placing
your bet. Because if you place the bet and then select another screen before
“validating” the bet, then your bet value is gone. You have to start the
betting process over again.
Gameplay 5.5
Well since the game is
composed of three different sections, Stable, Racing and Bet, the gameplay
really depends on which section you select. During the Stable mode, you do
have the option to control the races of your horses, just the same as in the
Racing Mode. But since you never seem to be in real control of the horse, it
seems the game is doing whatever it wants to do. Every race seems to end the
same way as well, with everyone making one big rush at the end to try and win.
But with every race I tried, my horse was trailing way behind because it ran out
of energy.
Graphics 5.5
The graphics for Final
Stretch are decent but lack any true detail. All of the horses look similar,
and the only difference being the horse’s color and color of the jockey’s
outfit. The animations of the horses are very jerky and repetitive. Each
horse appears to move in the same manner and in the same stride. It’s very hard
to distinguish if one horse is running faster by the animation. The jockeys are
animated just the same, with a slight difference when they use the whip to speed
up the horse. The horse tracks are very hard to distinguish between each
other as well. I couldn’t tell one track from another. You don’t get an
opportunity to view the track before the race, so you usually see the track
while the race is running. The graphics are plain and lacking detail during
the stable mode and betting mode as well. During the stable mode you don’t get
to see a huge stable of horses, but just a top down view of your stable.
Sound 6.5
There really wasn’t much
music in Final Stretch. You will occasionally hear a horse sound coming from
the speakers while the game is idle. You do hear the sound of the horse on the
track while a race is going on, but it isn’t very convincing. However the
developers did include an option to play your mp3 files during the game. So you
have can select a list of mp3s that you have on your hard drive and listen to
them instead of the horses.
Difficulty Medium
You can select from three
different difficulty selections, easy, normal or hard. But since the game
doesn’t provide a user-friendly interface the hardest part of the game is
figuring out what to do next. Winning a race seems to be impossible, or at
least a true lesson in patience. Betting seems to work the same way. If you
win a ton of bets in this game, you better buy yourself a lottery ticket right
away.
Concept 5.0
The concept of Final
Stretch is an often under appreciated aspect of the world’s culture. Horse
racing has been around for over 100 years as a sport. Horse Breeding is a very
profitable industry that business owners and entertainers have ventured into.
Watching a horse race in person can be a very entertaining experience, but Final
Stretch doesn’t capture this experience. It is a noble concept to offer the
player the opportunity to run their own stable, race their own horse, or bet on
races all over the world. But the game doesn’t satisfy this concept.
Multiplayer: 6.0
The game is designed to
play with other players over the internet. The internet portion of the game is
handled by Gamespy, which is a premier provider of online gaming. You and up
to 20 people can participate in a race over the internet. You can also places
virtual bets over the internet on the races as well.
Overall: 5.7
With the recent release of
the Movie Sea Biscuit, it would have been a great opportunity to grab some new
players with Final Stretch. The excitement of watching your horse win a race is
a wonderful experience, but Final Stretch doesn’t deliver this experience. With
a very helpful training system at the beginning of the game, Final Stretch could
have been a different game. But the user interface can be unforgiving when
trying to select a simple option. For a hardcore Horse-racing fan, Final
Stretch might be enough to get by with. It does offer a deep simulation mode,
and a wide variety of options (100 tracks, 4 different race types, and several
thousand different horses). But the casual gamer will be left waiting in the
barn trying to figure out what to do in the game.
