Review: Split/Second

Split/Second is one of the many racing games to come out at the same time to try and breathe new life into the cookie cutter racing genre. By adding explosions, destructible and changeable tracks/environments, booby traps, and complete, utter destruction, Split/Second looks to change racing into a different pulse pounding affair. Split/Second’s easy gameplay makes it very easy to pick up and play, but this same aspect is also one of it’s downfalls. There isn’t a whole lot of strategy involved. New gamers won’t have to struggle for long to “get” this type of racing game, but for more experienced racers, they could get tired of Split/Second’s over-the-top gimmicks. How long should Split/Second stay in your disc tray? Read on for the full review.

  Split/Second is setup like an intense reality TV show. The single-player campaign is pretty robust and has you driving through one full season of broadcasts, boiling down to 12 TV episodes consisting of different races or events leading up to the episode finale. The game and TV show style comes across as this sort of mash-up between Death Race and Transformers. It makes for great, exciting TV and gaming. You’ll find yourself gripping the controller hard as you drift under exploding trolley cars that are lifted into the air, drive under planes taking off, and watch slow-mo explosions of huge landmark structures crashing down around you. If you want to drive nice and clean, Split/Second isn’t for you. Trust me, I tried driving nice my first few races. It doesn’t work.

As you progress through the career mode, you’ll unlock new cars, as well as stickers to show off all the cool things you’ve done in a race. It’s easy to win early, but later on in the game you’ll need to learn to save up your event meter, and time your explosions carefully to knock opponents out of your way. The driving and drifting controls in the game are top notch and solid. You’ll very quickly get the hang of drifting your car by tapping the left trigger/L2 button and stepping on the gas (right trigger/R2). Steering wildly around the corners feels exciting as you have to feather the throttle and steer your car to fill up your event meter to trigger explosions. Sick drifts, drafting behind people, and doing jumps nets you power to set off those big explosions. This isn’t MarioKart, so most of the attacks are geared more toward offense, leaving no room for more defense-minded power-ups like shields or protection. Each track featured in Split/Second has been geared for a few major power-play events to trigger which crash down and change the track layout. Each track will be changed with these new routes that will extend the life of the game so you aren’t driving on the same course over and over.

The game also looks incredible with all of the debri flying everywhere, and the game definitely simulates an intense car chase to give you that real sense of speed and danger. The rubber band AI in the game is just horrible and the online play on the PSN is what brings Split/Second down a notch for me. Occasionally you’ll find yourself pretty far ahead of the pack, only to find the second place car bumping your tail in mere seconds. Are you kidding me? Then, when you try to take the fun online versus real people, you’ll end up sitting in a lobby for 10 minutes watching a status bar on how much fun other racers are having. Not cool. The matchmaking and game servers seemed broken in my 2 hours spent trying to get into a game on the PSN. After all of that time on different days, I was only able to get into one Survival match that lasted all of 5 minutes. Man, I really wish I could have blown up a real person with a fire encrusted trolley car.

Split/Second released to a flood of other destructive racing titles, but set itself apart by including a great pulse-pounding drive through a summer action movie. Like all summer action movies, it’s one you’ll probably run through once and put back on the shelf. The explosions and track changers are great and vary the gameplay, but after you’ve seen the spectacle the first time, it’s magic slowly begins to wear off. Split/Second is a definite buy when the price comes down on it, but is more of a very solid rental over a lazy weekend.

Split/Second is available now for $60 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]