Split/Second Review: Racing Against The Big Boys

Every game has to have a gimmick to make it stand out from the rest, and if there’s one genre where it is essential to offer something different, it’s racing games. There’s just something about that genre that makes it hard for new games to stand out, fortunately, developers keep coming up with new ideas to keep the genre fresh. Disney’s Black Rock Studio are the latest to bring something different to the table with “Split/Second,” or, as I like to call it, “the racing game that does action better than most action games.”

Set on the set of a faux-TV show, “Split/Second” is a tried and true arcade style racer… there’s no simulation to be had here. The biggest thing that separates “Split/Second” from the rest of the pack is that this game goes about attacking you opponents differently than other games that have hit the market. It’s still a vital aspect of the game, but aren’t given items to use to take out your fellow racers directly, instead you build up a power meter that allows you to trigger environmental attacks throughout each lap, and that’s where things start to really get interesting.

The biggest thing that “Split/Second” has going for it is the environment which manages to do two things better than any other racer that’s ever been released. First, as you jump, drift and dodge your way through each race you build up your power meter, which, in turn, allows you to blow up pretty much everything on or around the track. And that leads into the second thing that it does extremely well; perpetual track damage. If you blow up an oil tanker on your first lap, that baby keeps burning until the races is over, and so does anything that blew up around it. The combination of these two things means that you will never run the same race twice. Heck, you’ll probably never even run the same lap twice.

The environmental attacks range from small, deliberate, explosive crates dropped from helicopters to much larger scale attacks, like blowing up a nuclear cooling tower, that destroy entire set pieces. The more opponents that you can take out in one shot the better, as it will help you advance your position in the race, which, in effect, actually turns races become more about timing your attacks instead of how quickly and precisely you can run your race. Needless to say, there’s enough stuff going on every lap of the race that you’ll be on the edge of your seat trying to beat out your opponents by seconds virtually every time.

If racing isn’t enough for you “Split/Second” also offers a handful of other modes that take full advantage of the game’s explosive nature. First off there’s a standard elimination race where the last car in the pack is removed from the race when time runs out. That we’ve seen before, however, the game’s Survival, Air Attack and Air Revenge modes are new to racing games. In Survival you follow tractor trailer trucks packed with explosive barrels that are release and you, in turn, need to avoid in order to survive for as long as possible to rack up points. The Air Attack and Air Revenge modes pit your car against a fully loaded helicopter, and you need to avoid missile attacks to rack up points in Attack, and build your power meter to strike back in Revenge. All three of these new modes are a ton of fun, and a welcome break from doing standard laps around a track.

Anyone that’s a fan of arcade racers is going to almost immediately see similarities between “Split/Second” and the genre defining “Burnout” series, and it’s undeniable, at points it’s almost hard to separate the two. However, after only a few attempts to take down your opponents by slamming your car into them, you’ll soon realize that that technique isn’t going to cut it, and you’ll need to rely on the environment. The games are close enough to feel familiar, but different enough to feel worlds apart.

“Split/Second” has a lot of things going for it, unfortunately there’s one big thing working against it: it’s really repetitive. There are only a handful of tracks included in the game, and you’ll only see a couple different variations of each. As you progress through the episodes of the game, you move to different tracks, all of which are part of the same set, meaning that if you opt to change the course layout at any point with your second level power moves, you’re bound to end up on a track that you’ve seen elsewhere. It’s kind of like fighting games with multiple level stages, it’s just these all connect, and don’t change much at all.

Black Rock Studios have proved themselves for a second time; first with “Pure” and now with “Split/Second.” They took a genre with a lot of potential and managed to develop a game that rivals the franchise that defined over-the-top-arcade-racing games. If you’re looking for a racing game that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish, “Split/Second” is a great way to spend an afternoon … or a whole week for that matter, if you can handle it.

Rating:
 
“Split/Second” was developed by Black Rock Studios and published by Disney Interactive for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the game.

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