Split/Second – Eurogamer Expo-pinion
Availability: Xbox 360 (version played), PS3, PC – Q1 2010.
The simplest way to differentiate Split/Second from some other similar racers is to quote the games producer, Nick Baynes.
One explosion is boring. Let’s string five together.
Split/Second is essentially a set piece racer. Your car has a “powerplay bar”, which is charged by drifting, getting air, and probably some other things too. The powerplay bar is used to trigger various set pieces around the track. You can trigger traps to directly harm your opponents, traps like big explosions, dropping a storage container on them, or triggering the demolition of big buildings off the edge of the track, which will then collapse onto the track, crushing anyone unlucky enough to be in it’s path. Fun times.
The powerplay bar is also used to trigger some pretty impressive shortcuts. Like capsizing a boat to reveal a quicker route. All of these happen in realtime, and look very cool.
There’s also a little bit of vehicular argy-bargy, but it’s the track that deals most of the damage.
It’s a pretty game, and the first thing you’ll notice when you look at it is that the edge of the screen has no HUD. HUD elements like the powerplay bar, lap number and position are projected downwards from the car in a ring. It’s odd at first, and I don’t think that they take the idea far enough (it wouldn’t be too hard to remove the HUD completely), but it is a great idea fairly well implemented.
The racing feels great, fairly burnout (pre Paradise) esque, but your car is a little less fragile, and so are your opponents. Even with the high levels of background noise in the Eurogamer dungeon, the roar of the engine was terrific.
It’s published by Disney, and developer Black Rock consulted the “Imagineers”, the people who design all of the Disney theme park rollercoasters for track design ideas, so hopefully the tracks will have consistent excitement. Maybe a .txt with lots of swear words too.
I’m going to keep my eye on this one.
