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Price: R300
During this review 907 miles were travelled; 725 rivals were smeared into paste; 277 crashes were endured; and enough buildings were wrecked to reconstruct a small metropolitan area. This explains the entire run of what will be expected from players in Split/Second: Velocity. They will have to a) drive, b) wreck rivals, c) avoid crashing and d) trigger enough explosives to make folks in developed countries very nervous.
Split/Second: Velocity is a simple racing title that is presented in the guise of a reality television show. This simplicity, however, masks phenomenal level design that lends itself to tense and addictive racing interspersed with finely tuned combustible obstructions that will become the player’s er… plaything. Lobbing cars, large vehicles, cargo planes and container ships at opponents while remaining out of the danger zone is the ultimate goal. There are also larger track changes available that allow a last-place contestant to wipe out the entire group of leaders if timed correctly. These also look incredibly awesome.
Drafting, drifting and jumping gains Power for players. This is represented as a tri-sectioned bar under your vehicle. A single bar will trigger one Power Play. Three bars will trigger a larger Power Play in places or a track change when available, and a lot of the race is spent balancing Power gain with making it to the front of the pack. Drifting in particular slows players down but it also builds Power the fastest. Actually, a lot of the race is spent dodging flaming heaps of wreckage as opponents do their best to wreck you. Fun times…
Single player hosts Race, Survival and Elimination modes which are also possible as multiplayer options. Race and Elimination are standard race types made exciting with the addition of explosions, while Survival awards points for overtaking big rigs that are lobbing explosive barrels out their rears. There are two game modes that are exclusive to single player, Air Strike and Air Revenge. Both of these involve attack helicopters. Attack Helicopters. Air Strike has players dodging missiles as they impact the track. Three strikes and you’re out, highest score wins. Air Revenge lets players build Power by dodging said missiles as well as the usual ways and then turn the missiles on the chopper when enough Power is gathered. The objective is to blow up the chopper. Within a time limit. Just because.
The playing environments are gorgeous without being too resource heavy and some tracks use light bloom to disguise hazards that may shortly be heading through a windshield near you. The explosions themselves are fantastic, provided you are the one who set them off. The track hazards are very static and learning where the explosions and track changes are will give players a distinct advantage. The way the tracks themselves are built means that if no-one set off any explosions, Split/Second would be a better-than-fair racing title on its own, feeling like the very early Need for Speed titles. Control is laughably simple, comprising the WASD or arrow keys and two others of your choice for detonation. An Xbox 360 gamepad is also a fine choice for control.
There are some graphical glitches that creep in during play. The worst of these turn up while online or playing a LAN game but there is an occasional stutter in single player, pointing to Split/Second’s ported origins. S/S: V hates being Alt-tabbed while in the midst of a race, often resulting in graphical corruption that stays until players exit to the main menu. Most email or Gtalk pop-ups will cause an Alt-tab state, dropping the game to desktop immediately, which is something to avoid when in sight of the finish line. The net code is a little buggy at times, even on a LAN but does not detract from a game that is as entertaining as it is mindless and wanton destruction.
Brett Venter
SCORE 85%
Full product specifications, statistics and any other data can be viewed in the August (161) issue of PCFormat Magazine
