Junglebiscuit

Not very daring or innovative, but there is a lot to enjoy.

Another geek-fest game and it will inevitably have to vault the two main hurdles that most games of this type will have to, which is to please all the fans and make it appealing to casual gamers as well. It’s clearly a tough one to do as I can only think of one or two games that have managed it, “Batman: Arkham Asylum” being one of them, “Alien Vs Predator” being one that did not. The problem for “War for Cybertron” is that it’s all very well allowing you to transform at will, making all the right noises on the way, but if behind that nerd pleasing process is a dull, boring, repetitive shooter then it simply wont do. So does War for Cybertron transcend such difficult tasks? This is a third person shooter that’s set in the world of transformers, specifically on their home planet Cybertron, and is more of a prequel to the whole franchise. It’s set towards the end of the war on Cybertron, for example, Optimus is not a “prime” yet and Starscream has not yet met Megatron and is an Autobot. In this game you will play as Decepticons and Autobots doing an equal amount of missions generally blasting your way through each of them. For the Decepticons, Megatron is intent on taking over Cybertron using the controversial and volatile Dark Energon. If he can get hold of and use some Dark Energon he then plans to infect the core of Cybertron with it which will result in him having to fight all the Autobots who mean to stop him from doing this, including a huge ludicrously powerful Autobot guardian called Omega Supreme. As an Autobot you will have to fight the Decepticons back permanently as they try to take over the Autobot home city and try and find a way to stop Megatron from infecting Cybertron with Dark Energon. This is a full on all out war on this planet between massive heavily armed robots, that can transform into jet fighters, cars and tanks at will and use ridiculous amounts of fire power to blow the living crap out of each other.

What’s good?

It’s a transformers fans ultimate fantasy. I’m not a massive transformers fan, but I can’t help love the franchise being an 80’s child, and I have no doubt this game pushes all the right buttons for fans. You will get to play as all your favourites in this, Optimus, Megtron, Iron Hide, Starscream, Bumble Bee, Soundwave, and fight them, and they all have all their traits incorporated. They all transform at the click of a button into futuristic looking versions of the vehicles we all know and love, with a few exceptions such as Soundwave turning into a car. Having him turn into a 1980’s “ghetto blaster” in this game probably wouldn’t serve him very well, and remember this is way before they all came to Earth. They all sound fantastic as all voice actors from the series and films have been drafted in and “yes” they still make the famous and essential noise when they transform. The world of Cybertron has been beautifully re-constructed (more on that in a bit) and everything that you loved about these massive robots from the TV shows and the comics has all been included, and luckily it doesn’t have much to do with the bloody awful films. The story is also pretty interesting, intertwines the two campaigns very well and reveals a lot of storyline many transformers fans will be unaware of, how Optimus became a Prime, how Megatron took over Cybertron, how various characters came to be who they are and all sorts. Playing as Optimus and Megatron is as satisfying as you would imagine (although rather disappointingly they never actually fight each other) and it will definitely do almost everything fans will be wanting.

Transforming is an essential part of gameplay and not just a gimmick. One of the things I liked most about War for Cybertron is that High Moon Studios have really thought about the aspect of transforming into tanks and fighter jets and its implications in battle. I assure you it is not a gimmick in anyway. For starters transforming looks and sounds awesome, and often the game forces you into parts of the levels where you cannot progress on foot. Unavoidably the levels where you transform into fighter jets are a lot more fun, as you can fly in any direction or dimension, and often have to fly down tunnels avoiding lasers or collapsing objects. It’s also really good fun to transform, blast across the ceiling of a level to a particularly annoying sniper, transform back in mid-air, land just in front of him and knock his head off with a big hammer. Very satisfying stuff. Ammo can dwindle quite a lot so it’s also good to be able to fall back on your ability to turn into a tank when your guns have emptied and blow the living shit out of everything. Transforming also opens up completely different pros and cons with manoeuvrability as you are often way faster in car form which comes in handy when running for cover or avoiding taking fire. Learning to use your two forms is an essential part of this game and, luckily, one of the most enjoyable.

The action packed gameplay is pretty intense. I can’t deny the actual gun slinging in Transformers is really simple and unimaginative (more on that in a bit) but it’s compensated by having a huge amount of it and constantly intensifying the fire power to make it really exhilarating. You will have a choice at the beginning of each mission to play as one of three transformers, no matter which one you pick the other two will be accompanying you. You can hold two guns and when you transform you will have a different gun altogether. The guns are the expected machine guns, shot guns, sniper rifles and missile launchers and each transformer has a unique ability, such as making a shield in front of them, cloaking, increasing fire power etc. You also have a quick melee attack when up close that will make your chosen robot form a huge sword, axe, hammer etc on its arm and batter an enemy with it (it ends there though, as there is no combo’s or anything like that to be had). You can also interact with huge gun turrets, a particularly destructive weapon, which can be removed from the turret and lugged around with you. Although this will vastly affect your manoeuvrability, their vast fire power is always an asset. The enemy will come at you in various guises as well, from huge “Brutes” that have shields and hammers and can only be defeated by shooting them in the back, cloakers that are really hard to see and attack in swarms, massive robots with enormo Gatling guns and plasma cannons, flying robots that descend from above and perform bombing raids on you and the (predictable) epic boss fights. None of this stuff is revolutionary or jaw dropping but it’s very well executed and super intense. You are encouraged/forced to just go mental with your chosen robot character, literally blasting, firing and hacking your way through everything, constantly, whilst using the skills of transforming, never ever pausing or trying to hold back and simply don’t stop firing until everything is a pile of wrecked metal on the floor. You are frequently forced into “last stand” scenarios where wave after wave of enemies will come at you, your ammo and health dwindling per wave, and it will test your skills of survival and your aim to the extreme. There is nothing here you wont have done before but if you like your fire power, action, explosions and huge boss battles (who doesn’t?) then there is still a lot for you to like here.

Some of the battles in this are, surprisingly, epic. I say “surprisingly” as this game is quite serious and it’s serious about the struggle in which you are engaged in. The thought of giant robots clubbing each other is a ludicrous one but War for Cybertron paints a very different picture. For example, on the first Autobot mission you have to walk through several Autobot strongholds with the few survivors left fighting to their last breath, and the dead and wounded lying around you. As you walk out into the battlefield you will see your fellow Autobots lining up behind cover, trying to resuscitate fallen comrades, and performing trench warfare style pushes for territory. They all talk to each other as well, recognise you as they say “hail Megatron” etc, and shout things like “for Cybertron!” as they charge into battle. This really isn’t a childish cartoon world. All they need is some regimental gear and to start writing endless reams of poetry and it could be a top quality World War II game. Added to this are the action set pieces which are really quite something. Some of the battle scenes are crazy, with many Autobots and Decepticons going at each other trying to take territory or defend it, with heavy weapon robots slowly advancing on you and other enemies transforming to dive bomb from above or escape to recover health. It’s not dissimilar in anyway to other games more notorious for their epic fight scenes, such as Resistance 2 or Modern Warfare. The boss battle with Omega Supreme, which lasts two levels, is incredibly fast paced as this behemoth chases you down through Cybertron regularly knocking down buildings to get at you, then you have to fight him directly as he rains missiles at you from above and uses his ludicrously huge laser cannons to literally blow your cover to pieces. The Autobot equivalent battle with an equally huge Decepticon called Trypticon is just as impressive, as you have to fly through the body of this giant taking out strategic parts of his anatomy (a particularly awesome level!). The last stand missions where you have to defend something for a certain time take the intensity trophy as wave after wave enemies come at you in many different forms all requiring different tactics as your ammo dwindles and your health borders on death. The Decepticon mission where you have to defend against an Autobot onslaught, whilst waiting for bombers, is seriously intense as is the Autobot mission where you have to defend Ratchet, as Decepticons will come at you from all angles in all guises. This is a seriously good one for action fans and don’t underestimate the slightly childish connotations of Transformers, as this game takes things very seriously.

It’s a seriously visually stunning and gorgeous game. As always there are lots of really good looking games in the world, but I felt War for Cybertron deserves a special mention is it really is stunner. The transformers all look fantastic, with levels of detail you won’t believe. You can see bits of them moving around, tiny things such as gun barrels or feet, when standing still and the transformations are fantastic to watch. The biggest eye opener is the level design as the planet Cybertron looks unbelievable. High Moon Studios have clearly put a lot of work into the workings and visual appearance of the setting and it won’t disappoint.

There are predictable but competent multiplayer modes as well. When done with the single player there is much to do with your friends. Firstly you can play through the whole single player campaign with two mates online. Then there is a survival mode where you and two friends have to ward off wave after wave of enemies and basically survive as long as you can. Then there are the predictable online battles where, not only can you use unlocked characters like Arcee, but the more you play, the more you can level up your character with upgrades and some customisation. The options are laughably limited and can only be used online but its better to have something for the online obsessed rather than nothing.

What’s bad?

It gets really repetitive. Despite the excellent execution this game is really really repetitive, as it doesn’t at any point venture beyond a simple strafe and shoot game. That is literally what you will do the whole way through. There is no cover system, no puzzles to solve, no hand to hand combat, despite having a melee weapon attack, no huge robot vehicles to take control of, literally nothing other than running around and shooting. The guns vary a bit, but are all far to clichéd and obvious, and the thrill of transforming is really the only thing in this that doesn’t get old quickly. Other than that, it really doesn’t do anything so anyone that’s expecting anything particularly innovative is going to be very disappointed.

The incentive to re-play is little to none. To add to the repetitiveness of the gameplay, is the fact that reasons to keep coming back are few and far between. There is nothing to explore, as it’s incredibly linear, with no bonuses to find, super weapons to unlock, secrets to find, nothing. It doesn’t even have any slight customising to be done, weapons to upgrade, or anything. How hard would it have been to allow some colour changes on the transformers, or to add some battle decals for achievements, or something? How about getting money by killing enemies to buy or upgrade weapons and armour? None of this stuff exactly reinvents the wheel and is found on most games, but it requires some investment in your time, a reason to pick it up again. This is just so totally unwilling to expand on anything. How about some nods to the comic book fans, such as some character details or storyline, such as the vast quantity found in “Batman: Arkham Asylum”? Games don’t necessarily need such things, but one as simplistic as this should have at least one thing to encourage a re-play. The multiplayer or online matches do have customisable abilities, which you get based on achievements, i.e. killing others, but it is ridiculously simple, very limited and hardly worth it. Furthermore, why is it not an option to integrate it with the single player campaign? How hard could it have been? The only real incentive to play through again is to achieve completion on harder difficulties, or, mainly, to play as different transformers. But they have even managed to kill this incentive as the different transformers really only differ very slightly, as there is only around 3 variations of abilities and skills. There just isn’t enough content for my liking when compared to other games.

The boss battles are childishly simple. Another game with vast bosses, and it just isn’t enough to have a very large boss now, as large foes seem to be burned into the gaming industry mandatory bible. They all have them, which is fine, but there needs to be more to it now. Transformers is the perfect example of having huge bosses that are all for show, but don’t really require any skill at all. They are all so ludicrously easy to kill even though they are the size of sky scrapers, could easily crush you with one finger, form and fire laser cannons that could punch a hole in a planet and rain missiles down on you like a monsoon. It’s just stupid. They perform these ludicrous apocalyptic attacks and they just don’t go any where near you, or are incredibly easy to dodge. They may appear quite tough when you first encounter them, but you will soon workout how to evade their attacks and expose their stupidly obvious weaknesses. It just feels like your going through the motions of another huge but seriously flawed boss battle. The battle where you fight Omega Supreme from a gun platform is a good example as he transforms into a laser cannon that sends out a blast that looks like it could create a black hole, and destroy anything that goes within a four mile radius of it. But all you have to do to avoid it is walk behind a thin wall, wait for him to stop and you are completely impervious to harm. If you go up onto other platforms to the right or left then he doesn’t actually touch you at all! It’s just stupid, and as entertaining as they are from a visual perspective the bosses lack some proper balls.

The initial load screen takes an interminable amount of time to load every time you turn it on. For the PS3 there is a lengthy installing process the first time you play, which is annoying but can be forgiven as it is a one off. But what really annoyed me is that every single time you switch it on from then on it has to perform a “check” and spends about a minute loading. “Only a minute” I hear you say, “who cares”, but you, now, stare at a blank wall for exactly one minute and see how long it feels. It’s interminable. You always have to stare it as well as you need to press “start” twenty times to get through all the intro title screens and you just sit there wanting to play the game waiting for the count down to get to 100%. It drove me mad.

Conclusion

My biggest issue with Transformers: War for Cybertron is that I cant help but feel it has ventured too far into relying on the brand name, “Transformers”, but doing very little to make a particularly outstanding game. It’s by no means bad but does nothing for those of you who expect more from a transformers game, other than the ability to transform. There’s nothing to unlock, nothing to find or buy, no customising, except online where it’s really limited, and you will generally just run around and shoot. It feels like it’s as good as a pretty forgettable game can be. In years to come people will still be talking about/playing “Street fighter II” or “COD: Modern Warfare”, but no one will remember War for Cybertron. Saying that though, and despite this, I can’t deny there is still a lot of enjoyment to be had here. The combat is simple, but really intense, transforming never ceases to be cool and the game is designed to force you to learn the skill of knowing when to transform, as often if you don’t you will be killed. The boss battles are epically huge, if a bit simple and easy, and it is graphically utterly stunning. Those who expect innovative games and those who don’t give a flying crap about transformers will probably be less thrilled, but High Moon studios have shown that you don’t really need to change the face of gaming to still get a lot of (predictable) enjoyment out of a title. CA.

Summary:

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 8.0

It’s quite simple and instinctive for anyone that plays games regularly, so nothing will be of any surprise, but you do have to seek out tutorials yourself and a few game options are not so clear, changing the difficulty level for example.

Is the story any good? – 8.0

It’s not anything spectacular, but even if you’re only mildly interested in Transformers this will keep your interest up. Lots of previously untold back story, and the two campaigns are interwoven well.

How does it look? – 9.5

It’s a real stunner, especially environments/levels. The Transformers all look incredibly detailed and the transforming ability looks awesome as well.

How does it sound? – 9.5

Sound effects are all good as is back ground music. The highlights come from the voice acting, Optimus, Megatron, Starscream and, of course, Soundwave, all sound fantastic, and the legendary transformation sound effect.

Is it good to play? – 8.0

It’s intense in places, and you are forced to learn when to transform to aid you in combat, and there are loads of guns, grenades, rocket launchers and turrets to blow the living crap out of everything, including huge boss battles. It gets really repetitive though, it’s incredibly linear, and does nothing you won’t be expecting.

When will I get bored? – 7.0

Single player takes a fair few hours, you can play 3 person co-op as well (online only though, not on the same screen) and there is a rewards based online multiplayer mode, all of which will take up your time for a fair amount. But lack of secrets, rewards, upgrading with any depth or anything at all really, gives few reasons to keep coming back for a very long time.

OVERALL – 8.0

Review created by C. Armstrong.

It only has one trick up its sleeve, but it’s a very good one.

Black Rock Studios, the developers of Split Second: Velocity, are of course no strangers to arcade racers, having frequently dabbled in the Need for Speed franchise and other such racers. But Split Second seemed to come out of nowhere into a market filled with racing giants such as the aforementioned “Need for Speed”, but also including the mental but mighty “Motostorm”, the legendary “Burnout” and another new rival, the much critically acclaimed, “Blur”. So surely Split Second has to do or be something special to be noticed in this crowd? The game is an arcade racer based around the concept of a reality TV show, where racers drive for money and victory, by racing fast and, more interestingly, taking out their opponents. It’s the way in which you take out your opponents that is what’s interesting here as all tracks are almost completely fully destructible. You must destroy bridges, rip apart roads, drop bombs, crash planes, shoot missiles and generally blow up everything around the course to take out your opponents, as you will never win by speed alone.

What’s good?

Luckily the whole concept the game is based on is its most impressive feature, which is the “power play’s”. As you drive around the very simple tracks you will build up your power play bar, which is in three sections and when maxed out (fill up all 3), you can trigger a super power play. You build this up by power sliding, drafting (driving directly behind your opponent), jumping or marginally avoiding disaster. The power play bars don’t take long to build up but when they do get ready to watch everything explode. You don’t shoot anything specifically yourself, missiles or guns etc, but instead you set off explosives around the environment the tracks are based in an attempt to cause road side explosions that may cause your opponents to crash, or even better demolish buildings and cause other such vast things to come crumbling down onto your opponents taking all them out at once. Small blue symbols appear above your opponent’s vehicles when they are in the potential firing line and then you must time your strike well. Now, this can range from blowing up a taxi at the side of the road, which uses one power play bar, to blowing up a train bridge, that crashes down onto the race track launching a huge speeding locomotive off the rails and come crashing down onto the race track crushing all cars that happen to be in the blast radius. The taxi explosion is a normal power play but the destruction of a bridge is a super power play, that uses all three of your power play bars. What really summed it up for me was in only my second race, and thus far had only really seen exploding cars and barrels, I triggered a super power play. In the background a huge skyscraper was suddenly lit up with explosions, like a controlled demolition, and it slowly came thundering down onto the track, the very top of which landed inches from my front bumper, and it caved in the entire road, crushing all opponents ahead of me and completely altered the track as my car flew down into the subway system and a whole new set of corners was opened up to the race track. It was so spectacular and unexpected my jaw never got off the floor for the rest of that race. The falling buildings are quite spectacular, but the game doesn’t end it there, as it will hurl enormous freighter air craft at you the size of Jumbo’s, that come crashing down onto the track in front of you in a biblically huge fire ball, ignite entire power stations, tip over ocean liners in a dry dock, bring down huge suspension bridges and cause city destroying landslides. It is stupendously ridiculous! The super power plays are not as common but they are unbelievably spectacular and entertaining, and even the smaller normal power play’s rarely feel tame, as igniting a petrol tanker at the side of the road so that it blows an opponent completely off the track and into the air, is still a hugely satisfying experience. I’m not sure how original the concept of blowing up parts of the track in a race is, but I have certainly not seen it before, and even if you have, the execution of it in Split Second is absolutely epic and will appeal to anyone that likes racing fast and blowing large objects up in order to crush opponents.

The tracks are fantastic and perfect settings for destruction. I won’t lie to you, the tracks are childishly simple, but as your blasting round them you will start to realise that you really don’t want them to be any more complex than they are. Upon encountering the few hairpins there are, for example, you will start to curse the pressure of juggling a tight difficult corner whilst helicopter homing missiles rain down on you from above, the shock waves of which batter your poor vehicle all over the place, which will require driving skill to keep under control. They are simple, but necessarily so. On the destructive side, they are spot on though, so expect to encounter ocean liner ship yards, airports, enormous dams, power stations, sewers and places that don’t generally explode, but you sure as hell would like to see them do so. All will have something vast to demolish that will be a massive visual treat, and give you a huge buzz when they atomise your opponents. Each also has shortcuts that can be activated by using your power play bar and often you are better off using these shortcuts rather than going for the violent option as they will give you a significant advantage.

There are several different interesting events, other than simple races to do. Luckily, Split Second does a bit more than simple races. There are plenty of fast paced races, sure, but there are the expected eliminator events, where the person in last place is blown up every 20 seconds or so until there is only one person left, and detonator events, which is basically a time trial where you get a specific car and have to do a timed lap as power plays are triggered automatically and you basically have to avoid destruction and beat the time. These are pretty good, if rather predictable, but there are also events where a heavily armed attack helicopter will shoot missiles at you as you race round the track, and for each wave of barrage you avoid you get points, and basically have to survive as long as you can, the longer the better. This event is updated later on in the game as you have to do the same thing but you get the opportunity to build up your power bar and use it to deflect missiles back at the helicopter taking it down in as quicker time as possible. They are not only challenging but an interesting unique take on destructive racing. My favourite though was the survival events where you have to charge round a wide even more simpler track, whilst huge trucks spit coloured barrels at you which you have to avoid. The blue ones damage your car slightly and slow you down, where the red ones kill you instantly. You basically have to pass as many trucks as you can and you will often have to enter sudden death mode where all trucks will spit red barrels at you constantly in order to win. It is utterly chaotic, as there are other dummy cars driving round that often get caught up in the carnage, and the combination of bouncing rolling barrels all over the track, exploding vehicles everywhere and trying to keep your speed up and pass these juggernaughts is difficult but rewarding.

There are the expected tracks, vehicles, decals and other rewards to unlock. The cars all look fantastic in Split Second, often better looking than the ones the automotive industry produces. If you know your cars it will be obvious which ones have their styling cues stolen from, and there is a lot of them to unlock. All have varying gifts of speed and toughness, grip and drifting abilities, and some variation will be required as, for example, the trucks are better at the survival events for their weight and durability. The further through the single player campaign you get, the more points, and therefore cars, you get, the further along you get the faster and better the car. There is also the decals which are loads of little challenges throughout the game which when achieved will be ordained upon all your vehicles. These include, simple things like winning 5 races or destroying 3 opponents, to more complex harder things such as doing a 300 yard drift, doing a 200 yard jump, taking out 5 opponents with one power play and getting first in every single event. You can easily complete the single player campaign without achieving all of these so it gives an extra incentive to re-visit it and show off your achievements online. Speaking of online, there is the expected “simply jump in and race random people” mode, which will cycle through tracks until you get bored, and you can set up your own race with friends, and use AI opponents to fill in the gaps. All of this is rewarded with an experience points system. Nothing amazing, but it is certainly solid enough for the internet dorks, their foul language and dirty gameplay.

It’s got split screen racing. Don’t fancy going online and just want a mate round for a quick race? Split Second has it covered with a simple split screen race option. “So what” I hear you say, but lets not forget how easily an old school two player game is not considered these days. Not only is it one of the most basic, easiest and most enjoyable aspects of an arcade racer, but it is often forgotten in today’s online obsessed elitist gaming society, filled with the most vile of teenage nerds, that shout a torrent of racist abuse at you because they are not very popular at school and you ruined their one chance that day of not being a total loser that masturbates constantly in their parents basement, by dropping a building on their car. Burnout: Paradise certainly forgot it, and was a worse game for it considering its excellent multiplayer roots. Good show Split Second!

What’s bad?

There just isn’t enough to the racing. Unfortunatley the biggest problem with Split Second is that other than hitting power plays there is very very little to the racing at all. For starters, all the tracks are really simple and rarely involve you hitting the brakes or steering much, its literally point and squirt and memorising tracks will only give you a marginal advantage. Then there’s the fact that in order to win races you must wreck your opponents, through power plays, but you get no reward whatsoever for ramming them, grinding them, bashing them, forcing them into obstacles etc. Absolutely nothing! So all physical contact does is slow you down, and for such a monumentally destructive racing game I thought that was crazy to not involve in any way. There’s no boost or nitrous to use at all either, so other than the stats of your car, you have no advantage over your opponents. Plus, there are only two different types of vehicle, the expected category’s of big, tough, but slow and super fast, light but fragile, and they are not too dissimilar, at least no where near the difference in vehicles experienced in “Motorstorm”. You see, I feel arcade racers need this stuff, it’s what makes the Burnout series so awesome, and the Motorstorm series so chaotic and mental. The power plays are brilliant, but they are just not enough for me, and “no”, it isn’t complicated enough as it is and things such as a boost meter could have easily been included without it being overwhelming. I think they are going to see how well this initial concept sells and more than likely ramp it up for the inevitable sequel, but for now you are left with something that’s just a bit too uninvolving and after the initial shock of your first super power play you will realise this game really only has one trick up its sleeve.

The level of difficulty is not very well thought out. The game obviously gets harder the further into it you get, and the faster your car is, but it’s the way in which it goes about the difficulty which wound me up. Rather than making you graft harder for your rewards, like Monster Hunter, or up your skill levels, like Batman: Arkham Asylum, it simply makes the competition ridiculous. Your opponents will simply blast off into the distance at the beginning of the race no matter how good your car’s stats are, and you spend the remainder of the race catching them up, in some cases not at all. Even if you race perfectly, not getting wrecked once, you can still be lying in 5th whilst your opponents increase their lead over you lap by lap. You can be ploughing along quite nicely at full speed and an opponent, even if they are in an inferior car to you, will simply flash past as though you are at the wheel of a golf buggy. They can also lose you very quickly, as the front running cars hit the horizon almost instantly and you never see them again, but you can never really lose them. Even if you race perfectly and wreck all opponents several times they will be mere inches from you the entire race, nudging your rear bumper trying to force a spin or simply waiting for you to make one tiny slip up and then they fly past, and I mean all of them will pass you, not just a few. For anyone that played the rage inducing bile spitting “Midnight Club: LA” this suffers from a similar problem, just an awful feeling of futility. It’s just such a frustrating and un-enjoyable way to make races harder.

You can still crash when control is taken away from you. Whenever you take out an opponent, by getting a helicopter to drop a bomb on it or something, it often goes to a sort of cut scene where it zooms in on your slain opponents wrecked vehicle, so you can watch it barrel roll down the road in a fireball, very similar to the system in Burnout when you “take down” an opponent. The problem with this, which I’m sure you have guessed, is that although you no longer have control of your car you can still crash into stuff. So you can very often be blasting down the road, trigger a crane to drop its load on your opponent up front, wrecking them, and as you wallow in your victory cut scene, someone behind you has decided to detonate the bus you were just passing, which you couldn’t see because the camera was pointing down the road or avoid as you couldn’t control your car. How are you supposed to stop that? In what way could a crash be avoided? The point is it couldn’t, and few things fill me with such rage in a game than to be punished for something you can do absolutely nothing about. It doesn’t happen constantly, but it will happen, you will be angry, you will lose as a result and you will be left contemplating whether your controller or PS3 will survive a high velocity impact with a wall. Stop doing this to us gaming studios, its wrong!

It’s generally a pretty short game. There are 72 races, split into 12 different “episodes” in the career mode, which sounds a lot, but the majority are repeated, and you simply do different things on the same tracks. It is not really boring, but don’t be deceived by the numerical amount of events, there is not that much to do. Once the career mode is done, there are a myriad of trophies/decals to win and online racing, but the incentive to do either is non-existent, other than the thrill of racing. You can’t customise cars at all, with the exception of a very limited number of colours/paint jobs and the achievement decals are placed automatically, so you don’t get a say in the matter. It by no means will be done with in no time at all but falls well short of games like Gran Turismo, Need for Speed: Shift and Burnout Paradise in terms of game time and involvement for your cash.

Conclusion:

This game is a perfect example of showing that if you are going to base an entire game on one simple concept, then make sure you execute it very well, and Split Second does. This unfortunately leads to its biggest flaw, which is that it also does very little else other than the one concept. It is really good fun though, I have to admit, the racing is fast and exhilarating and when you hit your first super power play your jaw will drop. They are ridiculous! As you progress through a predictable but satisfying career mode the tracks seem to become more explosive, the cars get faster and harder to handle and the ludicrous action and fast paced racing will give you a big buzz and it will please those who like their racing uncomplicated, fun and destructive. It will never achieve greatness however, in my opinion, as there is just not enough to it. It needs more than just destructive environments, and sadly it offers little to nothing else. You really want this to be the love child of Burnout and Motorstorm, with a bit of Need for Speed on the side, but it isn’t and I would say it’s not worth picking up over any of them, albeit by a small margin. However, to be fair, there are not a huge amount of racers out at the moment, and if you’re bored of the ageing Burnout and waiting for the new Gran Turismo, Motorstorm or Need For Speed, this will definitely fill in that gap in your gaming hours that lusts for a quick, explosive, exhilarating and uncomplicated speed thrill. CA.

Summary:

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 9.0

It’s a very very simple game, that gives you a really good intro race, good on screen prompts where necessary, and all controls will be familiar and instantly instinctive.

Is the story any good? – 5.0

There is not much of a story. The concept of death racing for TV is old and unoriginal, but to be honest, it really doesn’t matter, and the twist at the end is stupid but intriguing.

How does it look? – 9.5

Looks fantastic, especially explosions and fire, and all tracks. All cars look awesome as well. Never tears, glitches or slows down either. Pretty flawless.

How does it sound? – 10.0

I loved the music in Split Second. The music is not by any known artist, but sounds like the music from The Matrix, Reloaded, fast paced drum beats, with dramatic orchestral sounds accompanying it. The music fades in and out when you hit the really big power plays and the sound effects of collapsing sky scrapers is fantastic.

Is it good to play? – 8.0

Its fast paced, explosive stuff, the power plays will blow your mind and give you a huge sense of satisfaction watching a building collapse on to your opponents in front. There is no point in physical contact though, there is no boosting/nitrous, and when not using power plays, there is nothing to it, literally. The difficulty is stupid as well. It just needs more!

When will I get bored? – 7.0

The career mode is decent enough, there is split screen racing, and the usual online stuff. A lack of tracks, differentiating vehicles, little rewards and general simplicity result in a very good but fairly short lived thrill.

OVERALL – 8.0

Review created by C. Armstrong.

Yet another Rockstar masterpiece that is rather predictably amazing, if very familiar.

Rockstar is possibly the biggest name in gaming right now, having founded and produced one of the biggest franchises in gaming history, Grand Theft Auto, it seems they can do no wrong. The last edition of GTA, number IV, was a marvel of gaming technology, where they crammed a vast city teeming with life on to a disk and had real life in pixel form, down to the fact that you could have a full on relationship in the game, dating and shagging etc, go to the pub with your mate, or simply sit on a sofa and watch TV through an endless amount of channels and hours of programming. This was no mere game, it was a whole new life lived out in a digital world. And I have to say I didn’t like it. It was without doubt a technical marvel, but it went too far. A game will always be just a game to me, something you do for fun or a hobby, it should not be something you do instead of living your actual life. Why would you want to get drunk with a mate in a game? Why would you want to go into an internet café and check your email in a game? Why would you want to date in a game? Such things are far more preferable in real life! Who plays games to live out reality? Its ridiculous, plus it just wasn’t any fun, and this is exactly what concerned me with Red Dead Redemption, a seemingly totally new look game for Rockstar but still maintaining the ideals that make their games a cut above the rest. This game is set in the wild west of America in 1911, where the days of horse riding, cattle rustling, shooting Indians, and living off the land are coming to an end, replaced with law, order, technology and civilisation. You play John Marston, an ex gang member/criminal, who left his gang to lead a more humble life without crime, settling down with a wife and child far away from the wild west. However, one day government agents take away John’s family and demand he return to the wild country in order to track down his former gang members and kill them, or he will never see his family again. Reluctantly, John agrees and travels to New Austin in search of his former friends. The first, Bill Williamson, he encounters straight away upon arrival, and tries to have a face off with him, but Williamson runs his own gang now and they outnumber John, shoot him, and leave him for dead. Luckily John is found by a rancher named Bonnie MacFarlane who nurses him back to health. John must now repay Bonnie for her kindness, and set about picking up the trail of his former gang members again, ultimatley tracking down his former gang leader, Dutch Van Der Linde, who disappeared a long time ago, and kill the lot of them. Its pretty familiar territory to anyone that’s ever picked up Grand Theft Auto before, but simply set in a different time. So expect a large and detailed open world, a long and intriguing main story, loads of side quests, lots of weird and wonderful characters to meet and lots and lots of gun fire.

What’s good?

The sheer size of the game is mind blowing. This is a big game in practically every way, from its actual physical size, in terms of the in-game map, to the sheer amount of quests, tasks, objectives, achievements and missions. I don’t think it’s quite as big as Bethesda Studio’s behemoth, Fallout 3, but make no mistake this is a huge game and will consume a huge amount of your gaming life. It will take a long time to ride across the whole map, and, admittedly a lot of it is desert, there are a myriad of towns and settlements scattered all over it, along with random people scattered here and there that may unlock side missions, or have simple pleas for help, such as “my horse has just been nicked, please go after them”. These moral choices open up another theme of the game, but more on that in a sec. The actual main story is vast in itself, as John Marston will have to meet a lot of strange, funny or admirable characters (most typical of any Grand Theft Auto game before) that need help themselves, to unlock further missions and ultimately reach your goal of taking down your former gang members. Then you have the “strangers” missions, which are obtained from random folk scattered throughout the game, that you have to find on your own and are a bit more vague in their objectives, so you have to do a bit more exploration. Then there is a myriad of objectives such as ranks of “sharp shooting” or “survivalist” where you have to shoot a certain amount of birds in flight, for example, or skin a certain amount or type of animal, the higher the rank the harder the objective. Then you can take bounty hunter missions, where you have to track down and kill or catch a wanted criminal, then there’s gang hideout missions where you have to find and flush out criminal gangs in hideouts, mercy missions where someone along your travels will plead with you to help defend them against robbers, or take back their stolen horse, treasure finding missions where you have to find treasure using maps, I could go on. Even after all that you have the usual online aspects (with all the usual internet geeks trying to screw each other over). It’s safe to say you will get a lot of game for your money.

“Dead Eye” and the gun battles in general are brilliant fun. You will spend the vast majority of your time in Red Dead shooting, duelling and killing. Luckily the shooting is executed very well, and is very similar to cover and shooting system found in GTA IV. Press R1 to take cover behind rocks, carts, etc, and simply press R2 to shoot, popping up and down will happen automatically. There is an automatic targeting system that will focus on an enemy if you point the aim vaguely in their direction, but particular body parts, such as head shots, are left up to you. This alone is pretty good fun, but you also will develop the excellent “Dead Eye”. John Marston is a seriously good shot and Dead Eye shows this. When fully upgraded to level 3 (which will happen automatically whilst doing main story missions) you can hit R3, which will slow down time for a period, you use the right analog and R1 to pick out targets, indicated by a red cross and when ready press fire (R2) and watch John take out all targets at lightning speed and with supreme accuracy. It doesn’t always work perfectly (more on that in a bit) but can make scenarios where you are outnumbered by five men baring down on you and shooting, very satisfying to come out on top of.

You can be as nasty or as heroic as you like. As your riding along you see a woman running up to you crying for help, as someone has just killed her husband and nicked their horse and cart. Do you a) speed off in pursuit of this cad and bring him to justice or b) shoot the woman in the face with a shotgun, because it’s funny? If this is a scenario you have ever had difficulty deciding on then Red Dead has no problems with either. That is what is cool about this game is you can be a real bastard and notorious outlaw or a true hero of the west, bringing all evil doers to justice. Choosing your morals throughout Red Dead will alter how the game treats you. It won’t affect the main story, but it will alter how others treat you. You get hero or outlaw points depending on how you act in the Wild West and if you get many hero points, shop owners will charge you less for items for example. In contrast if you kill, slaughter and generally act like a piece of shit, town folk will not want to know you and you will incur the wrath of the law and authorities who will want to claim your life for a reward. Is it better to be feared or loved? The choice is up to you.

It looks fantastic and totally captures the atmosphere of the time period and setting. The mood, atmosphere, or whatever you want to call it, is absolutely spot on Red Dead. It’s a brilliant time setting to pick as the days of the wild west are ending and you can see it as you progress through the game. There are still ranches, great plains and a good deal of cattle herding etc to be done, but there are also train lines, the odd car, machine guns and signs that the new world will eventually take over. The towns are particularly impressive as you often see drunks falling out of bars, get propositioned by prostitutes, and when you head out into the desert there’s wildlife everywhere, along with random people shooting others and it just doesn’t really at any point feel like a game. It’s more like a movie that you control. Added to this is the fact that it fades to night and day, has weather effects such as rain, fog etc, just goes to show the level of detail Rockstar put into their games. Plus it all looks fantastic, considering the size, and simply check out your first sun set when you get the chance if you need convincing of this games fantastic appearance.

What’s bad?

It is without doubt no different to anything Rockstar has done before, ever. Those of you who may have read elsewhere that it is only like GTA in “essence” or “spirit” or other such bullshit are being totally misled. I can confirm now, it is practically identical to GTA in almost every way, with the exception of the time, setting and story. Other than that you may as well be Niko all over again. You meet characters that supply you with missions, have a cut scene, go and shoot a load of people or chase then shoot a load of people, then move on to the next mission. The more missions completed the better the weaponry available to you and further parts of the map are unlocked to you. I found it so samey and unoriginal that it just didn’t excite me, or intrigue me in any way as it just felt like I’ve been here and done it all before. The formula works, don’t get me wrong, and GTA fans will be pleased, if very unsurprised, but it just felt a bit old to me.

Missions get quite repetitive and some are so utterly pointless and dull. There are many many missions available to John, but around 99% will result in you taking cover and killing a lot of people. Don’t get me wrong, shooting is fun and executed very well, but by the end you will start to tire of them, or at least be consistently unsurprised (plus, again, you will have done it all before in GTA). The side missions all suffer from monotony as well, and will always result you in you having to chase down someone who stole a horse, robbed a bank etc, or gathering various dull things, like flowers or animal skins, which is not fun. None of them vary at all either. It’s also a slow starter, and some missions at the beginning are really stupid. Cattle herding is a good example of this as several missions will require you to do thus. I have never herded a cow but I can’t imagine its much fun, and if it is anything like it is in Red Dead Redemption, then it most certainly is not fun and very frustrating. Trying to get the bloody things to go in a straight line is infuriating and simply enhances no enjoyment whatsoever. Why in the hell would you want to herd cattle in a game? Maybe I’m in a minority, but I really struggle to see how anyone would enjoy picking flowers, especially people who play Playstation’s.

“Dead eye” seems to pick and choose when it wants to work and when it doesn’t. I had difficulty with Dead Eye, in respect that it only seemed to work about half the time. I often lined up shots perfectly well on several targets not far apart and it resulted in one of them being shot and he simply doesn’t bother with the others. This is particularly infuriating as Dead Eye is at it’s most useful when your being robbed, which happens a lot, or generally overwhelmed by gun fire, so when the system decides not to work it will ultimately always result in your death. Obviously, I am doing something wrong when it fails to work, but reasons for such failure are non-existent, but you are certainly punished for it. It clearly doesn’t like it when you pick targets that are too close together, or too many targets on one person, or when targets are to far apart or to numerous, or if you take too long, but you will certainly have to figure these things out for yourself resulting in much trial and error, the error always resulting in instant frustrating death.

Duelling is ludicrously and unnecessarily complicated. How in the hell did Rockstar come to the conclusion that the system they chose for duelling was the best one? You would think it would be a case of, when you hear the words “draw”, time slows, and you have a certain time limit to pick a target on your foe and fire, very similar to Dead Eye. The better the enemy at duelling the less time you have. Makes sense, yes? Even if you don’t think so, it is a million times simpler and easier than the system they chose. When the camera zooms out you have to hold down on the right analog stick until it says “draw”, where you have to flick it upwards. It then enters a “Dead Eye” mode, but different, as you will have to use the right analog stick, immediately after you have flicked it up, to pick targets on your opponent. So after you pick a target, you press fire and the duel is won? Oh no no, as every time you pick a target, it fills a bit of a meter up in the bottom right hand of the screen, and you have to keep picking targets to fill the meter up to the top, as if your opponent, who is assumingly plastering you with targets as well, fills his up first, you lose. The plot thickens yet further, as the target used to pick out where to shoot flashes white and red, and if you pick out a target when it is flashing white, it for some reason is more accurate and fills up your meter a bit more than if it were red. Got that? No, it doesn’t make any sense at all does it. It basically always involves you painting your opponent with silly little targets to fill up the stupid meter, and you gun him down as if you had a sub machine gun, not a pistol. It doesn’t feel much like duelling, and it makes the occasionally necessary disarming of your opponent, i.e. shooting the gun out of his hand, almost impossible. Its almost as though they were deliberately trying to think up ways of making it as unnatural and as random as possible, and considering the aspects of the game that Rockstar are clearly brilliant at, I’m shocked this one was deemed fine.

I really struggled to get to grips with the horses. The horses presented me with a problem I never really got the hang of, as they way they are ridden is not instinctive in the slightest. You have to use horses in Red Dead to get anywhere, and you do form a bond with them as the more you use them the better speed and stamina stats they get. But the way they are controlled really bothered me. You have to tap X, instead of holding it down like an accelerator as you would in a car, which is I assume the equivalent of spurring your horse. It’s ok, but just feels weird. Pointing the bloody things in the right direction is the real pain in the arse. You use the right analog to point in a direction and you use the left to control the camera angle, except the directional input is based on a simple forward, back, left and right direction, which does not change at all no matter which way the camera is facing. So basically, if you spin the camera round to aim at some rustlers coming in from your left, which happens a lot, you don’t compensate with the right. If the camera is moved to face John Marston on a horse, you have to turn right to go left, and vice versa as the controls are reversed as a result of the camera angle. It’s ludicrous! It’s like driving whilst having your gear stick, accelerator, brake, indicators, everything, attached to the steering wheel, so every time you go in a different direction your controls are completely reversed. It just massacres your sense of directional control. To make it worse when you’re just walking around it goes back to the normal control scheme you would be used to from GTA. Again, who in the hell thought that was a good idea?

My copy of the game had its fair share of glitches. It is obviously hard to get huge games to work flawlessly. The last huge game I played was Fallout 3, and that was seriously glitched-up, crashing and acting weird a lot, but rest assured Red Dead is not nearly as bad. Saying that, it is not that good either and it crashed noticeably more often than any other game I have played recently. There was also a fair amount of strange things going on as well, such as at several points my horse sank through the floor until I started moving again, cows getting stuck up trees when herding (as funny as it was to witness), and upon running into a village of rebels the graphics failed and there was nothing but a large blank space instead. I often couldn’t take a prisoner from the back of my horse, which seemed to be related to how flat the ground is, I would go to shoot people and they would just instantaneously morph out of the way, like the agents from the matrix films, my horse would run on the spot, sprinting at full speed but simply not going anywhere and just lots of small strange goings on. Other than the crashing, nothing ruins your game, but it of course just looks stupid.

You have to set up a camp if you want to fast travel anywhere. I know I’m nit picking, but again, it is such a stupid thoughtless part of the game. As it can take a long time to get somewhere your often better off travelling instantly, cutting out a long boring journey, but you have to stop and set up a camp to do this, then pick from a list of where you want to go. “That’s no big deal” I hear you say, but I’m afraid it is, as bare in mind you can’t set up camp just anywhere. It needs to be no where near a road, town or settlement, and on flat ground. Everywhere is near a road or town and believe me when I say the game is stupendously anal about these rules. You try and set up camp on anything other than earth that is not spirit level accurate in its flatness perfection and it won’t let you. Then you have to endure small amounts of time loading and a cut scene of John sitting down in front of a fire. It is so annoying! Why can’t you just travel somewhere whenever you want? What difference could it possibly make? Surely you set up camp as a result of not wanting to travel somewhere? Again, someone was paid money to think of this stuff!

Conclusion:

It is so utterly pointless in me giving my opinion of this game as it will sell in the billions regardless of what anyone says. But anyway, rest assured it is rather predictably a game of supremely high quality. Its also one that you have to really get into to fully appreciate, as if you skim through the main story, it wont do much for you. There is a ludicrous amount to do, when you get into it. The single player main story for a start is massive enough on its own, but chuck in the very large open world, loads of side missions, the hugely numerous achievements, weapons and uniforms and then it’s online multiplayer capabilities and you have probably the most game you are going to get for your money this year so far. All this vastness wouldn’t be great if it looked crap and played badly, but it of course looks fantastic, drowned in spaghetti western atmosphere, and the bullet exchanges are really good fun, with excellent additions such as the very satisfying (when you get it right) Dead Eye. My main worry was Rockstar’s obsession with going to far into an open world, which it does dabble with, but luckily this time the amount you immerse yourself into this game is up to you, and not mandatory like it was in GTA IV. Be warned though it is far from gaming perfection, as it has more than its share of glitches, the duelling is stupid and overly complicated, Dead Eye occasionally decides it doesn’t feel like working with no indication of what went wrong, it does get really repetitive and if you are experienced in Grand Theft Auto, there is nothing here that will surprise you. The same Rockstar gaming formula is starting to feel a little old. There is also a myriad of small but thoughtless and utterly stupid things, like the control of horses or the fact you have to set up camp if you want to travel anywhere. These things annoy me as a gamer more than anything, as they are simply so easy to avoid, and just goes to show how far detached developer studios are from real people/gamers and how confident they are in their big brand name. But, despite my extreme irritancies with small things, you would be foolish to pass off a game that gives you this much for your money and executes so many things at such a high consistency of quality, simply because it has it’s very annoying, but small flaws. I definitely preferred Read Dead to GTA IV and you really should buy it if you own a PS3. CA.

Summary:

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 8.0

It’s a really slow starter, but as a result it’s very forgiving for newcomers. The horses will take some getting used to though.

Is the story any good? – 9.0

It’s a pretty typical revenge story in many respects, that’s interesting enough, but the more you play the more is unravelled, with some serious twists at the end.

How does it look? – 9.0

Initially they don’t appear to be the best, but considering the size of the game, they are not to be sniffed at. The level of detail is crazy, characters all look and move in a life like way, and all light, shadow and weather effects are spot on.

How does it sound? – 10.0

Sounds exactly like a John Wayne film. Very atmospheric sound effects when in the wild, all voice acting is excellent and it generally doesn’t miss a beat.

Is it good to play? – 8.5

Pretty dam good, but not perfect. Shooting is really good fun and well executed, Dead Eye is awesome, when you get it right, and lots of scenes will get the adrenaline pumping. Dead Eye will sometimes simply not work, with no explanation, duelling is so needlessly complicated, and the controls of the horses will drive you mad, though.

When will I get bored? – 10.0

If you want to get to 100% complete you will be at this one for a long time. Many main story missions, side quests, objectives to achieve, weapons to find, treasures to hunt, criminals to apprehend, random people to help, and the choice to be as moral or as down right filthy as you like. Then there is the online stuff as well.

OVERALL – 9.0

Review created by C. Armstrong.