 |
|
86 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SPLIT SECOND: VELOCITY REVIEW Posted by PlayDevil.com Staff on Jul 29, 2010 15:33 (Jul 29, 2010 15:33) |
Written by: Ian
 Worth a second of your time?
Up against stiff competition, will "Split/ Second: Velocity" be the racer to take the racing crowd from the crowded market at the minute? Pure was a fantastic little game, and so Black Rock have a lot to live up to with their second title, especially with the competition from Activision’s Blur that has also just come out.
Violent story:
S/S takes the idea of a violent, futuristic TV show, a la ‘Running Man’ (one of my favourite films J). Basically, the TV companies have decided that violence is the answer, so now all car-racing involves a hefty dose of explosions!
Drive well, and you trigger all kinds of mayhem- which wins you points from each episode. Over the course of the 12 episodes, you aim to blow up all your rivals, and become the season champion.
It’s a good premise, with nice videos, but I still think more could have been made of it, ramping up the cheesiness factor.
 Gameplay:
You earn powerplays in S/S not by running over power-ups, like in Blur, but by driving well- drifts, jumps, and avoiding explosions will all give your meter a boost. Once it’s full, you can trigger a powerplay, such as blowing up a truck, or dropping a bridge on top of someone. However, if you save up a full three bars, then you get access to the really good stuff. Planes crash down on your opponents, dams explode, and aircraft carriers get sunk.
All of the powerplays are really visually impressive too, and it’s incredibly satisfying watching as you crush 4 or 5 rivals in one go. The explosions do eventually get a little samey, but they are so massively impressive that it’s not difficult to enjoy them over and over- I certainly got bored of them much slower than I thought I would.
The driving style is obviously really arcadey, but there are a good selection of fictional vehicles with different attributes that means that there are plenty of approaches to take to the races. Generally though, everything is pretty similar to Ridge Racer- with tight corners that just take a touch of brake to initiate a power slide before raging round the bend. It is a far more nuanced system than RR, but the principles are pretty much the same.
If the action-packed racing isn’t enough for you, then there are also plenty of other modes to play through in the 12 episodes. Time trial and elimination are pretty cookie cutter, but Big Rig and the helicopter modes are both awesome. The first gives you points for overtaking huge trucks spewing explosive barrels, whilst the other modes give you points for driving smoothly around a helicopter firing barrages of homing missiles at you. One of the two modes is all about evasion, whilst the other lets you take revenge and deflect the missiles back- all three modes, are most importantly, great, however.
 S/S is a great little game, but it isn’t that long. There are 6 races per episode, over 12 seasons, so most people will be able to get through everything in just a couple of days. Whilst there are achievements for winning every single race- some are incredibly difficult, which I think would just be a frustrating task.
|
 |
Comments |  |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Aug 2, 2010 14:13:48 (Aug 2, 2010 14:13)
