Split/Second

Split/Second is a arcade style racer that is absolutely packed full of explosions. Like many arcade racers, you gain power by power-sliding round corners or drafting behind opponents. Once charged, you can cause destruction to the environment with the intention of destroying your opponents.

There are 3 levels of 'power plays'. Examples of level 1 and 2 power plays are rocks falling onto the track, construction equipment swinging a demolition ball and explosives falling from helicopters. Temporary short-cuts can be enabled which the computer will sure try to make use of, but this can double as an attack if they aren't quick enough because they will plough into the closing wall.

Examples of level 3 power plays include trains derailing, planes taking off and cooling towers exploding. Level 3 power plays can also act as Route Changers where part of the course will change after the destruction has happened. The quantity of explosions are high and it makes for a thrilling and fairly unique game. Due to the nature of these attacks, you can only activate them at set points around the track, but there is usually something to trigger every 15 seconds or so. You can only trigger events off in front of you though, which often is a hindrance when you are new to the track as you can't quite anticipate what you have triggered. Even if you dodge the object, the shock-wave that is a by-product can cause your tyres to lock slightly often sending you crashing into a wall.

Once your car is destroyed, you instantly re-spawn so only lose a couple of seconds. Due to the races being mostly tight, you can go from 1st to about 6th in one crash which can be quite frustrating, particularly on Elimination where cars in last place are eliminated at certain intervals.

Several other game types are available which are race (against 8 players), Detonator (a time trial through the circuit which power plays trigger when you reach them), Air Strike (dodge missiles fired from the helicopter), Survival (overtake as many trucks as possible which are dumping explosives on the track). There are 12 Episodes in total each with 6 races in them. Each Episode has 5 events from the game types mentioned above plus the final race which is a Elite Race which is a harder race type which you must come in the top 3 to progress to the next episode.

The Elite Race is unlocked by gaining a set amount of points across all episodes. If you struggle to gain points in the current episode, you can always go back to previous episodes to improve your scores. Also, cars are unlocked at set intervals too and there are plenty of cars to choose from.

Split/Second is a cool game and reminds me of Ridge Racer Unbounded. Split/Second is better for the destruction aspect, but Ridge Racer seemed more skilful and fun as a racing game with more polished graphics. Reading other users reviews of the game, many complaints criticised the rubber-banding (AI improves if you get far ahead). Since the game is full of explosions, most races are really tight and opponents rarely get too far ahead or too far behind, so personally I can't understand how people can state it as a fact that the rubber-banding technique is over-used. The problem I had with the game is that the Detonator race times seemed impossible to achieve 1st rank and so every race I could only manage 2nd.

Weakass burnout clone. Instead of actually ramming your opponents, you must trigger environmental hazards in order to take them down, and you earn the points for doing so by drifting. A nice concept, but the execution is utter crap. The visuals are really messy and hard to see when the speed is high. The AI is terrible and the game has some of the worst rubberbanding i have ever played. And it just lacks the polish it needs to be enjoyable. I like the sort of tv show they were trying to do with the story, but it gets repetitive very soon.

I wouldnt call it even mediocre, its just a straight bad racing game.