Split/Second: Velocity Review (PS3)

Vroom Vroom

I’ve become addicted to this innovative, fast-paced and beautiful game. The intensity is in a whole different gear to other racing titles, and the variance of the levels is exhilarating. Split/Second is my ‘just let me finish this one level’ game.

Released mid 2010 by Disney Interactive Studios, Split/Second (Also known as Split/Second: Velocity) is an arcade racing game that pits you against 7 other racers in a highly dangerous and intense TV show. There are a huge variety of game modes and each come with their respective rewards and accolades, and their own style of ‘WOOO SUPERCARS EXPLOSIONS CHOPPERS & CRASHES!’

This game looks beautiful – really, really beautiful. The graphics are more pleasurable to look at than the wonders of the real world. It’s hard to believe Split/Second came out six years ago when it looks like this. Oh, and yes that is a plane crashing into the track, ready to take out everything in its wake as it pummels itself through the tarmac.

It took me a while to get into Split/Second, the only racing game I’d played for a long time was Burnout: Paradise, and that was excruciatingly difficult to tear myself away from. On the day that I bought this game, it was put immediately onto the shelf to gather dust until a day that I could finally tear open its plastic torso and rabidly feast upon it’s highly defined innards.

There is a high variance in vehicles in the game, you start with just the one and slowly start unlocking more depending on how well you do. The game features a points system that allows you to unlock cars, elite races and the next ‘episode’ in the in-game TV series. You earn points by finishing in certain positions, of course you’ll receive the highest number of points for first place, and the next highest for second and so on.

There are also a huge variety of different game modes, ranging from the normal races and time trials to having an all out missile war with a chopper. All of these modes require different tactics and tend to also require you select a different vehicle to manage with factors like brake speed and handling.

The main draw of Split/Second isn’t the cars or the game modes; it’s the fact that it’s an adult Mario Kart. As you drift and draft around the track, you’ll earn power plays. Stage one power plays will allow you to hinder your opponents with things such as exploding cars and bombs, whereas stage 2 plays will break bridges down into the track, or topple a building onto 5 of your enemies. If you fill your power bar you can then change the route of the course, wrecking opponents and adding to the excitement even further. There are no blue shells in the game, but you are bound to want to instant replay some of these innovative and inescapable wreckages.

Overall, Split/Second is a game that I can’t stop laying, and it boasts replayability with its huge library of different trophies, its online mode and its split screen multiplayer. It’s a game I recommend to any gamer, regardless of whether you like racing.