Often in video games it’s the little details that reassure you. Driveclub, Sony’s “socially connected” driving game, was originally scheduled to accompany the PS4 launch last year, but was subsequently delayed for 10 months – a move that had many industry watchers worried. However, the moment your avatar slides into an expertly modelled hot hatch and you glimpse the exquisitely rendered cockpit, there’s an immediate sense that you should, after all, be in for a satisfying ride.

A short load time later, while you’re admiring the obvious passion that’s gone into recreating any one of the game’s five refreshingly uncommon locales, there’s still no cause for alarm. The postcard-pretty green Canadian forests; the sun-baked rocky barrenness of Chile; the carnival colours of India’s hillside villages; a menacing part-thawed Norwegian backdrop, and the unmistakable moody splendour of Scotland’s craggy countryside. All are imagined and rendered in exquisite detail.

But actually, the very first thing you notice in Driveclub is the “dynamic menu”, as developer Evolution Studios is calling it. It’s a commendably seamless gateway that enables you to switch between the game’s single-player and social (online) events. Its simplicity belies its complexity – this seamless set-up is perhaps the main reason for the game’s rescheduled release. But this unfussy, intuitive entry point works perfectly for the huge range of options in store.

Endless choice

You can simply enter the Tour’s 52 championships (divided among five tiers and unlocked progressively) or take part in a single event (split into Race, Time Trial, and Drift) – but the game comes alive when players explore its social side. You can register for multiplayer games, take or issue challenges, or join or create a club.

This is where six players form a club that takes on rivals and stamp their driving supremacy all over Sony’s servers. Their goal is “Fame”, Driveclub’s social currency. Whatever you do in the game – from winning races to beating time trials to overtaking or slipstreaming rivals – earns Fame points. Those points boost your driver and your club’s status, which in turn unlocks cars and livery options.

Community services

With the servers undergoing final tweaking prior to the game’s launch on 10 October, it’s been tricky to get the full multiplayer experience going. But what has become clear, even when deliberately joining a club full with strangers, is the sense of responsibility once you’re part of the gang. There’s a genuine push to log in for a daily session, helping maintain its social standing, which should further intensify once you’re actually banding together with friends.

Whether or not you’re fully exploiting Driveclub’s social factor doesn’t affect the game’s gorgeous graphics. It’s true that exceptional visuals (matched by superlative sound) are to be expected on current hardware but even so, the level of artistry here deserves highlighting, not least because it plays a vital role in the gameplay. There’s an organic quality to these environments – bolstered by a weather system and day/night cycles that affect the nature of the racing – which mocks the sterility seen in the Gran Turismo or Forza series and, more importantly, serves to bring you right into the action.

Handling – from hot hatch to hyper-exotic

And what action it is. There are five tiers of vehicles, including Hot Hatch, Sport, Performance, Super, and Hyper, with 10 familiar contemporary models in each. Get past the understeer-happy staples in the opening phase and the excitement ramps up in direct correlation to the boost in horsepower.

There are thrilling moments to be had: inching past an opponent, afternoon sun bleaching your McLaren P1’s strikingly reflective windscreen, while a lovingly rendered whitewashed wall speeds past just centimetres from your wing-mirror. Or overtaking three opponents, two wheels off the tarmac, only to sneak your Alfa Romeo 4C back fully onto the road before a pillar messes up that sublime bodywork.

The chassis underpinning these many exhilarating moments is the course design. The point-to-point segments offer first-rate flowing, substantial stretches of tarmac to be tamed but even the circuit-based entries have been skilfully put together to promote momentum above all else. Each location offers a mix of both, plus reversed versions, for a total of 55 option.

Which seems as good a time as any to talk about the handling model. Because the reason Driveclub encourages (and delivers) such speedy antics is due to a very friendly set of driving dynamics. Throwing the insanity that is a Zonda R sideways into a wide open bend at over 150mph and living to tell the tale wouldn’t happen in Gran Turismo, but Driveclub’s mechanics have no pretensions to that austere throne. There is a layer of realism sidelining the core that provides a more complex and therefore demanding experience than, say, a Burnout or Need For Speed title, but the experience stops quite a way short of the tyre-behaviour subtlety that GT6 so masterfully conveys.

Friends versus strangers

Elsewhere, occasional lapses in opponent AI do frustrate, particularly at the higher end of the Tour events, while human opponents can behave even less considerately (although car and scenery collisions carry hefty Fame penalties to encourage clean racing). When chaos does ensue, the more arcade-like nature of the physics also sees vehicles bounce around in a manner that breaks the spell conjured by the sumptuous environment.

And then there’s the inescapable argument that non-social players will eventually find their enjoyment limited – but, really, that’s not the focus here, just as it isn’t in Call of Duty games. Plus, as long as you’re online, you continue to receive challenges, as well as leaderboard ghosts to battle.

Driveclub’s ultimate potential will, however, hang on how well it develops the inter-club rivalries and supports those with a substantial set of events. On that note, the road looks smooth. Evolution Studios has committed its entire Driveclub team to continue contributing to the game for 12 months, offering free downloadable content such as tracks, cars (38 are in production), and locations, as well as updates (rain and snow weather effects, a photo editor, and replay option are due before the end of the year) and general gameplay tweaking on a monthly basis.

So the ride won’t just be exciting, it should be long, too. But right now, those prepared to embrace Driveclub for what it is will find a very accessible, carefully crafted, refreshing speed-over-sim driving experience that often provides fabulous fun. And there’s plenty of garage space in the PS4 catalogue for that.