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by Arcee on 05.27.10  Split/Second is an arcade style racing game that takes place
during the fictional filming of a television show of the same name. The
point of the show is to race around tracks laden with traps and
shortcuts meant to weed out the weakest drivers in the field while the
stronger and more cunning drivers make their way towards victory and a
chance to take on the Split/Second elite drivers. And that is the game
in a nutshell. But being a simple arcade driver doesn’t mean the game is
no fun; quite the contrary. I have had more fun playing Split/Second than I have had in a
long time with any type of racing game.
The premise behind the game is simple: win the race while avoiding the obstacles. Obstacles that the players themselves trigger by filling up a three part meter that is displayed at the bottom of the player’s HUD. There are three parts to this meter. Two parts are colored blue which trigger small events throughout the course like dropping explosives barrels from a helicopter, exploding cars on the side of the road, or even opening up shortcuts hidden by objects. The third part of the meter is colored red and this means the player is now free to trigger drastic course changing events such as the complete collapse of building and other structures or even, as is the case in one level, bringing down a crashing passenger plane onto the course.
Using those tools, players will develop varying strategies for
winning a race. In my time with this game, I have seen players dish out
blue trigger events time after time when one part of
their meter is filled, players who fill their meters and do nothing but wait to
trigger the big red events, and some players who seemingly are willing
to let their driving skills do all the talking. I have found that for
myself a combination of driving and triggered events works best for me. I
drift, draft, and jump my way to fill up as much of the meter that I
can while waiting until my opponents are in the right spot for an
explosion to knock them out of the race.
And with multiple game play options, players can perfect each aspect of their game. There are the standard Season and Quick Race modes, an Online mode where they can take their game worldwide, and Eliminator mode in which at the end of a timer the car in last place will automatically be eliminated. There is also Survival mode where the player must dodge barrels dropped from trucks and Air Attack mode in which the player must dodge a barrage of missile fire from a helicopter. My favorite mode for playing is the off-line split screen mode where two players can play on one television set.
As with most games in the market
today, Spilt/Second will also have DLC available for it at future
dates. Though one DLC package has already been released for the game.
The Time Savers package allows players to purchase all cars, tracks, and
modes outright and not having to earn them slowly through game play. I
have resisted this because I would rather do things the old fashioned
way, but that is just me. Another package that has been announced is the Hyper Car Pack
which will introduce three high performance cars, no
release date has been announced at this time. What future releases
for the game will hold is anyone’s guess, I am hoping for more game
play modes personally.
As I said before, I am really enjoying Split/Second. It reminds me of the older Burnout games that were released on the Xbox and PS2. To be honest, I wasn’t a fan of Burnout: Paradise. So I was looking for another action arcade racer to fill in that void. And the choices I had came down to Blur and Split/Second. I ended up going with Split/Second over Blur because of the last game Black Rock Studio released, the highly addictive Pure. I know that Blur’s developer, Bizarre Creations, has had success with their Project Gotham Racer series, but I had more fun playing Pure than I did PGR. And I am really glad that I did.
My only complaint of the game is
the lack of licensed vehicles. It’s fun racing around in any car, but I
would have loved to drive real cars showing wear and
damage. Other than that, I am really enjoying this game. The racing
physics are real enough to satisfy racing purest but not so realistic
that a casual fan can’t jump in and drift their way to victory.
Split/Second is an enjoyable racing game, period. Racing purest will love the look and feel of the game and its mechanics, while casual fans will not be too frustrated to continue on deeper into the game as they try to complete all of the challenges. Fun game play modes, an incredible off-line split screen mode, satisfying multiplayer online, and tons of content to unlock. With so much re-playability and such solid race mechanics, there is more than enough action to go around.
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