Split Second: Velocity

Split Second: Velocity
PS3 / XBOX 360 (version tested) / PC
Disney interactive

The Good: Cheap visceral thrills - jaw-dropping effects - innovative physics engine

The Bad: Repetitious in the long run – poor online options – too easy at times

In preparation for making Split Second: Velocity, the Black Rock Studios team allegedly pinned their eyeballs open Clockwork Orange-style and absorbed over 150 big-budget blockbusters in an effort to get a feel for the game they wanted to make. The results are impressive: it’s Jerry Bruckheimer’s Wacky Races, and it’s a rip-roaring ride.

Like Bruckheimer and his explosion-obsessed Hollywood cohort Michael Bay, the makers of Split Second have an eye for the big, the brash, and the spectacular. Similarly, it has the flimsiest of plots; a reality TV show that features fast cars and combusting cities - the intro to each ‘Episode’ goes something like: “This time on Split Second …**VROOOOM….KABOOM!**”. It’s this unabashed celebration of the bombastic and ostentatious that makes Split Second so appealing, tapping into the same sort of ‘guilty pleasure’ zone that ‘lo-brow’ blockbusters and reality TV shows feed upon.

Split Second turns up the gameshow element through the use of different modes such as Elimination, a Battle-Royale-on-wheels type affair with the last-placed car getting blown to smithereens every 30 seconds, Airstrike, which features the bizarre sight of a slick sports car driving through a helicopter missile barrage, or Detonator challenges, which are what the next James Bond film would look like if produced in conjunction with Tomy, makers of impossible-to-complete board game Screwball Scramble.

The game gives the racing genre a different spin, and rather than reinvent the steering wheel, Black Rock lay on the sort of special effects porn that we all saw and loved in Transformers. With its easy-to-use interface, intuitive controls and a stripped-down HUD, it couldn’t be more accessible. This is the sort of game that does what it says on the and is likely to upset racing purists but may offer more casual gamers some inoffensive, action-packed, and enjoyably overblown entertainment.

As every racing driver knows, you can use the track as well as your skills to win a race, but Split Velocity takes that thought to diabolical extremes. Rigged with ‘Power Plays’, the track is a minefield of explosions and destructible scenery that can be triggered by earning power-ups. Timing is critical here, although if you overthink it it’s all too easy to get distracted from the actual race and acting out some sort weird Dick Dastardly role, obsessing over booby-trapping rivals but instead blowing yourself up.

Split Second looks fantastic and will impress even the most snobbish of gamers through the sheer audacity of its visual effects. Black Rock have successfully crafted a Hollywood look to the game - you’ll trigger a Power Play and exploding debris tears the car in front to pieces, shrapnel flies past, mud splats onto the shaking camera, a dust cloud envelops your car and time slows down but you punch through somehow, whilst nudging another opponent into the fireball and certain oblivion.



With such an impressive physics engine (catch the light at certain angles and the sun momentarily blinds you, smashed glass glistens as it floats past, dust particles react to differently to various elements of the environment), - its easy to get caught admiring the gloss as you coast towards the finish line and before you know it a big fucking plane comes shuddering across the tarmac and leaves both your car and that 1st place position in tatters.

Indeed, what sets Split Second apart from your typical racing game is the emphasis is very much on the instant – there’s no need for a track map what with Power Plays blowing big holes in the route. Tumbling piles of rubble suddenly block the way, highway bridges collapse, oil tankers run aground and the world generally tilts off its axis. This exciting element gives the game a great feeling of unfolding right in front of you. You’re not sure what’s happening up ahead but know the best thing to do is hurtle toward it as quickly as possible - this is the sort of game that is played with your finger glued to the accelerator trigger.

In terms of soundtrack, the makers have opted for the sort of generic, empowering drive-rock that’s best turned off. Instead, relish the excellent sound effects – such as the simply sublime noise of a car skittering across the debris-strewn floor of a warehouse, or meaty throb of the engine as you hammer on the gas and accelerate out of a drifting curve.

Meanwhile, one of the shortcomings of the game is its multiplayer mode, which is only marginally more difficult because of human opposition and so more frenetic. Otherwise there’s not much exploration of the online possibilities, but perhaps this is because there simply aren’t many variations on the race-explode-dodge theme.

The arcade playability of Split Second makes it highly addictive, and it lends itself easily to repeat plays. However, like the blockbuster films that inspired it, eventually we can’t suspend our disbelief any longer and switch off, one explosion blends into another and they cease to be dramatic. Still, Split Second is like a rollercoaster – you wouldn’t want to go on it every day, for some quick thrills every now and then its extraordinary.

7.5/10