Derby 3D

There are two worlds of horse racing. One is glorified pomp and circumstance, where toffs gather in stupid hats to compare a gob full of silver spoons, while the other is populated by quasi-drunks in dank and desperate back alley bookies, hoping their last quid will double and buy the price of a bottle of White Lightning.

To be quite honest, I think I’d rather see a game based on the latter – for novelty value as much as anything (and because I’ve never actually seen a Big Mike’s Bookies and Broken Legs Simulator), but also because that’s a world far closer to my own. Derby 3D, however, is the former, with wall-to-wall silk shirts and friendly betting.

No matter. This is a genre that’s going to immediately polarise players. If you pine for freshly trampled turf (and you’re either variety of gambler) then Derby 3D will have you suitably intrigued, but if putting money down on the road to the knacker’s yard isn’t something you’re remotely interested in, obviously there’s little this game could do to impress you.

There’s a good, clean split down the middle of Derby 3D’s gameplay, which I really wasn’t expecting. Either you can play the betting game – choosing your amount, your type of bet and your horse – or you can actually get in the saddle and drive your nag for a few furious furlongs.

Gambling games are ten a penny these days, but I can’t think of many racing games played on horseback. Perhaps Derby 3D demonstrates why that’s the case, as it doesn’t play out all that well, but in terms of ingenuity the developer can’t be faulted.

The real difference in racing animals rather than machines is subtle, but has a massive impact on the gameplay. A car might run out of petrol, but a horse gets tired if you push it too hard during the early stretch. Taking your steed’s state of health into account while trying to inch your way to the head of the race is remarkably tricky and quite intricate.

The actual racing mechanics don’t leave much to be desired, however. The CPU controlled players simply maximise every aspect of the race automatically, as if crunching numbers, and finish pretty much neck and neck without much deviation. Keeping your horse operating with the same critical, decimal point-precision is prohibitively difficult, and racing quickly becomes a chore.

Playing a betting game, however, means you simply watch the race exactly as you’d do if you were in the crowd wearing that stupid hat and looking through ornate binoculars. Indeed, the race is quite entertaining as a viewer, as the 3D graphics engine allows you to change to any number of angles, from chasing alongside or behind the horses, or even watching over the jockey’s shoulder.

All the gambling options you’d expects (betting to win or place, for instance) are available, and you can inspect the horses and track to make a more informed decision on where to put your money down. Perhaps a little extra depth to the betting angle would have boosted Derby 3D’s rather stilted longevity – such as being able to buy shares in a horse, perhaps – but it still works well and remains a very civilised affair.

Graphically it’s quite an astounding game. Rendered fully in 3D (as the name suggests), it never really seems to struggle even when the horses are vying for elbow room or you’re avidly switching camera angles to see where you nag is in the pack.

But overall it’s a very sober affair, and even if a good betting game is your kind of entertainment, the lacklustre presentation will struggle to grab you properly by the thumbs. So if fluttering on the gee-gee’s is what you’re after, this is about as good looking and involved as any similar game, but anyone hoping for a dynamic racer, management or strategy game might find the sheen of Derby 3D wears off a little quickly.