Nukezilla Review: Split/Second (Xbox 360)

I’ve always preferred arcade racers over racing simulators. I really don’t care how each nut and bolt is tweaked, I just want to go fast. On the surface Split/Second appeared to be a game that was built from the bottom up for me. Not only is the boring number crunching of racing simulators gone, but the entire race track is rigged to explode and everyone is trying to blow the hell out of each other. Unfortunately, what should have been a worthy competitor to the Burnout series is nothing more than a mediocre racer that becomes tiring quickly.

The premise of Split/Second is simple. You race from start to finish while trying to survive all the different hazards on the track, which range from something as small as an explosive barrel to multi-story buildings and entire ships collapsing. The catch is that these hazards are triggered by racers, so proper planning can take out 3 or 4 rivals in one blow. There are several other modes besides the standard Race that have great concepts but are implemented rather poorly. Air Strike involves you dodging missiles fired from a helicopter, but the hit detection is less than optimal, and it’s almost impossible to dodge missiles in narrow roads. And Elimination is the same as Race, except the car in last place is destroyed every 30 seconds.

The only mode that truly made Split/Second stand out from other racers was Survival. I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited and stressed out when racing as I was when playing Survival. The goal is to overtake armored trucks in order to put time on the clock. The problem is that the trucks are constantly dumping explosive barrels on track, and there are packs of AI racers whose sole objective is to get in your way. Add some human racers in multiplayer, and the chaos is unbelievable. But the Survival races are far and few between in single player, and all my attempts to find a multiplayer version of it were unsuccessful.

Which brings us to another problem with Split/Second. Multiplayer is key to making racing games interesting. AI quickly becomes predictable, but human racers always do something different. That is, of course, if you can find any human racers. Try to find a game for anything but Race, and you’ll be waiting for hours in a lobby by yourself. Give up and join a Race game, and you go up against people with cars twice as fast as yours. Single player unlocks are used in multiplayer, so be prepared to grind for the best cars in single player if you want a chance at winning in multiplayer.

Split/Second promises so much, but where is the substance? You soon realize that the game bases almost everything on the “wow-factor” of blowing the whole track up, but once you realize that most threats can be dodged, or simply absorbed if you’re driving a heavy enough car, the thrills wear off. Aggressive driving is pointless in Split/Second, since ramming or fish tailing is almost useless. It appears that using your car as a weapon was made impossible in order to force you to use Power Plays to take out your rivals.

The potential was great. They could have taken the aggressive driving of Burnout, and and perfected it to a truly chaotic art. Instead, they neutered any possibility of aggression to force you to focus on their Power Plays. I understand taking pride in your work, but I noticed myself using Burnout tactics almost subconsciously on my rivals, only to scream in anger as they did nothing. Split/Second is great for an afternoon, but once all the parlor tricks and pyrotechnics are done there is little to be said for this game.

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Images: GiantBomb