06 July 2010

Split/Second Review


Well, I must say, I've not been this annoyed by a game since Dirt 2 came out. From the onset the claim that you're in a TV show that will be watched, I kid you not, by "billions of people worldwide", just annoys me to death. I tried my hardest to get by this, but it really isn't easy when between races you have the same annoying reality TV show voice overs.

This is supposed to be a racing game, but it really doesn't feel like it. The races seem to have been devised purely to showcase how many explosions one can kick off, not your racing skill. The cars control like you're driving a gummybear at 200 km/h, the drifting that you are supposed to do has no relationship to the stats of the car (some have high drift but make no difference on maintaining speed or starting drifts), and the controls are focused around creating the Michael Bay-esque explosions everywhere.

While this may seem fun, the novelty wears off when you realise no skill in the world will allow you to win if you actually want to race. It's all about luck, pumping your "power" to do "power plays" (blow shit up), and hoping to god the AI doesn't decide to randomly pop one just before the finish.

Gameplay aside, the game does look very polished, the cars don't look too bad, but the big downfall is that there are only 2 views available - near behind and low bumper. Both of which I cannot stand.



All in all this didn't hold my attention for very long, but merely served to piss me off to no end with cheesy voice acting, muddy car handling, and no real tactical racing to speak of. If your game collection is too full and you are somewhat of a masochist, go ahead and buy it. If you want a decent racer, avoid this at all costs.

Available for Xbox 360, PS3, & PC.

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