Demo Impressions: Split/Second (Xbox 360)

Over the years I’ve had a love/hate relationship with racing games. The Gran Turismos and Forzas of the world never seemed to excite me, but get me behind the wheel of a Burnout title and watch me go. Something about the tight, combative racing of Burnout 3 always made me come back for more. That’s why I became so excited when I heard about Split/Second. I became even more excited when I heard that a demo was available on Xbox Live.

Developed by Black Rock Studio, Split/Second is a new take on the Burnout craze of doing car tricks to get the ability to fuck over your opponents. By jumping, drifting, and drafting, you gain the power to pull off Power Plays, which cause mayhem and destruction to erupt from the earth. Lower level Power Plays can blow up cars and buses into your opponent’s path (aside from other things), and higher level ones completely change the layout of the track you’re driving on.

Before today I’d had a little experience with Split/Second in the form of a demo at PAX. After playing the demo on XBL, I realized this was the same demo I had previously played, which consists of one playable car on an airport level. The story of the game is that you’re a driver in the country’s newest sport, a TV show called “Split/Second”. In the show you’re tasked with using the destructive forces of the track to get ahead.

You do this using Power Plays, like I described up there. Each maneuver you do fills up a bar behind your car, you can achieve three levels of Power Play abilities. Each PP, in the guise of the story, is a set of explosives stashed around the track in various places. The first level of PPs have you blowing up buses, which are thrown in the path of oncoming racers, or activating helicopters above the track which drop explosives to the ground.

The second PPs are the epic, Michael-Baysian level explosions that this game will be known for. These trigger the destruction of entire sections of tracks, opening up new routes for you and your foes to travel. I don’t want to get into the particulars (as each second level PP is more spectacular to watch than the next), but in the demo you can expect to destroy many different towers along the way. Also, you might want to watch out when driving down a runway…

In every sense of the word, this game is epic. Watching it, you feel like you’re in the latest Die Hard release. Graphically the game is gorgeous; each car is polished to a mirror sheen, explosions rock your soul as much as the screen, and all the destruction kicks up dirt and grime on the screen. This adds to an interesting immersion effect the game has going for it. Aside from a very small HUD attatched to the back of your car, there are no extraneous distractions from the action going on around you.

The immersion means that every little thing you do seems that much more badass. I can’t count the number of times I screamed at the screen while playing this demo. The music adds to this by changing as dynamically as the tracks. This feels like every major Hollywood blockbuster driving sequence made into a game. You truly feel like a master of mayhem when behind the wheel of your car.

With the promise of 75 different events over 12 episodes, the game looks to ship with a lot of content. If the trailer included with the demo is any indication, helicopters shooting missiles at the track and demolished nuclear power plants will be unleashed in the final game. Be sure to check out Split/Second when it’s released in the US May 18th, and the UK May 21st.