GAMETIME: Split/Second

Discussion

June 30, 2010

Anonymous CNHI The Suwannee Democrat Wed Jun 30, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

Live Oak — By Cody Webb

As we all know, racing involves drivers competing against each other at breakneck speeds in usually fragile cars. One wrong move can send one of these cars spiraling out of control and seriously ruin somebody’s day. If that doesn’t sound dangerous enough, the team behind the new racing game Split/Second decided to make your greatest enemy the tracks themselves. The premise behind Split/Second is simple: the titular show decides to rig racetracks with explosives and traps. The drivers can activate these tracks periodically throughout the races, to either destroy the other racers or alter the course. And of course, all of this resulting chaos is filmed and put onto the television. Big booms equal big ratings, right? It’s here that Split/Second runs into its biggest and most disappointing flaw: the only time you’re reminded that you’re racing for a show is the occasional announcer between episodes in the career mode. While this doesn’t hurt the gameplay in any real way, the game could’ve really benefited from announcers commenting on the chaotic races. It was a missed opportunity to not provide any witty or humorous voice-overs.

Fortunately for potential daredevils, however, that’s the only big problem. The rest of Split/Second shines with polish and detail, and oozes incredible fun. The polish is quite apparent when you first load up a race and get a face full of the gorgeous visuals. It’s no secret that racing games are usually the best-looking games, but it still never fails to wow. To make a good thing even better: there’s hardly any slowdown to be found! It was a stroke of genius to make the HUD (heads-up display) minimal, and putting it under your car’s bumper, unobstructing the beautiful view. The controls are superb, hitting a nice balance between realistic and arcadey. The steering is loose, but not excessively so, you can drift when you need to and you’ll need to often. Split/Second also does a noteworthy job of conveying speed to the player: the screen takes on a tunnel vision look and wind whips past you as you start to reach the higher speeds. This is all very good news to the players, and the fantastic controls make avoiding the traps all the more satisfying. And avoid them you will, for these traps start “small” and only get bigger. It’s an easy-to-master mechanic: doing stunts like drafting behind opponents, drifting around turns and taking jumps fill up your “Power Play” meter. The meter is separated into three segments, with the first two being for “weak” traps, while if you fill up the entire meter, you can set off one of the bigger ones. The small ones range from helicopters dropping bombs to activating timed shortcuts, while the big ones consist of altering the course to making a plane crash into the runway you’re racing on. It’s amazingly satisfying to take out several opponents with one well-timed Power Play. It’s equally adrenaline-pumping to successfully avoid them, especially the aforementioned crashing plane. Each driver has access to the same traps, so there’s a constant tension of them going off at any moment. So in the end, what is Split/Second? It’s a fast-paced over-the-top racing game filled with exhilarating explosions and brilliantly designed tracks. The game manages to never feel cheap, even when you get blown up and sent to the scrap heap. I give it an A, and I thoroughly suggest this to any racing junkies out there; this one’s a gem.

Cody Webb lives in Live Oak.

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