Are there ever any games that you buy but then you later regret buying? I’m sure that’s happened a lot to me with the sheer number of games that I buy but one of the biggest examples in my experience belongs to Taxi Chaos. At first, it was a game that I was really excited about because not only did the game look great but it was also very inspired by Crazy Taxi which was a game that I really enjoyed back in the game.

So I ended up buying the game when it went on sale for $30 and that was a mistake. I still like the game and it’s still very much a fun game but it’s definitely a purchase that I regret making because I 100 percent don’t believe that this is a game that you should be paying full price for. I don’t even think you should be buying this game if it’s like $10 or $15 off. It’s just not really worth it to me.

GRAPHICS: 8/10

The graphics of Taxi Chaos are pretty solid if you ask me, probably the best aspect of the entire game. Lots of effort was put into this department because there’s lots of detail and the city itself looks really good while also having all of the cartoonish vibes. The game has a lot of color and I really like how the NPC’s look when you’re about to crash into them.

There are a bunch of times where the textures don’t look right but they usually look pretty good and vibrant and I was kind of surprised at how well the game ran with how big the entire city is and how much stuff can be going on at once on screen. Overall, it’s a pretty pleasant game to look at.

SOUND: 6/10

Most of the time, the sounds of Taxi Chaos are okay. The music that plays while you’re driving is okay and the voice acting is honestly really good. Usually the characters bring a lot of life to the game because you’ll be constantly hearing witty remarks or some fun and entertaining stories by your character or by some of the NPC’s.

The only problem when it comes to the sound is that it can get very repetitive and super obnoxious at times. Hearing the same jump sound over and over multiple times per minute can get old quick and when you’re driving around you’re going to hear the NPC’s calling out to you non stop, and I really mean non stop.

At one point I decided to stop my car and stay in place to see what happens and the same NPC said “Hey taxi” or “I need a ride” in the same voice 13 times in 60 seconds. It’s worse when you’re moving because you hear a line every single time that you pass someone, which will probably be every 3 to 4 seconds. The game might become hard to listen to after like 10 minutes other than the music and the casual conversations.

ADDICTIVENESS: 4/10

The game itself is good, but there’s barely anything to do. There’s only three game modes to choose from which are Arcade, Pro Mode, and Freeroam. Freeroam doesn’t even serve any purpose other than exploring the city without a time limit and the money you get during freeroam doesn’t even matter. If you’re playing freeroam, you might find yourself starting to get bored after like 10 minutes.

Arcade Mode and Pro Mode are basically the same thing but in Arcade mode you’re given an arrow that guides you to where you need to go while you don’t get that in Pro Mode. There’s literally no other differences and all you do in either of them is pick up people and drive them to where they need to go quickly. No matter how fun the drive is, that’s all you do and it gets old after a few trips, especially after you start picking up the same passengers over and over.

After you’ve played a few times and fully explored the city, there isn’t much else to do other than play to unlock new cars and there’s only six cars to unlock, and they’re all easy ones to get. The game gets very repetitive very fast and is only good for like 10 to 20 minute stretches.

Just getting into the game is a nightmare. Once you turn on the game, the initial load screen on average takes around 70 seconds just to get to the main menu. You would think that once you get past the initial load, things would be smoother but that’s not the case because every load screen after that takes 20 to 30 seconds. If you try to play for like an hour, you’d probably end up wasting around 4 to 7 minutes just on load screens and that can really kill the experience.

DEPTH: 5/10

There isn’t really a ton when it comes to depth. The best part of this aspect would be how big the city is. It’s modeled after New York City and does have a lot of area to explore including some hidden areas and secrets but that’s about it when it comes to depth. Taxi Chaos only really offers you like 1.5 game modes that are labeled as three different ones and there’s a grand total of seven cars and two drivers to choose from. It’s no wonder why the average time to “beat” the game is under 4 hours.

Difficulty: 1

The only thing that you have to worry about is time itself when you’re playing in Arcade Mode or Pro Mode because once you run out of time, your game is over. But you can also play in freeroam and not have to worry about time at all. Taxi Chaos has no sense of difficulty or stress at all, which does make it a good option if you’re just looking for something to pick up and play for 10 minutes at a time.

OVERALL: 5.7/10

The game is fun and is a good option for random bursts of fun but you have no reason to play for more than like 20 minutes at a time and it might only take you two or three hours to do everything that the game has to offer. Sure, the gameplay is fun but the game cost $35 when it released and you were basically paying more than $10 for every hour of content. Part of the reason why this is a bad game is because of that.

My grade for depth and addictiveness probably would have been a lot higher had this been a cheap indie game because at a much lower cost, you would be getting what you paid for, but not in this case. The game costs $35. I paid $30 and I fully regret buying it for that cost. Based on what you get and how much playtime you get out of it, I wouldn’t have agreed to pay more than $10 if I knew how little the game offered beforehand. If this was in fact a $10 game, my overall grade would probably be around an 8 but the way it is right now, it’s very much just a game meant to capitalize on the success of Crazy Taxi and gets a 5.7 out of 10 from me.