Split Second was in a tough position, coming out on Red Dead Redemption week, and only 1 week before Blur and Modnation Racers. I mean, for me, it had to separate itself from its competition. And it is one of the most thrilling, action packed racer I've ever played.
The career (single-player) of Split Second consists of 12 "episodes" in 1 season of a self-titled TV show. Each episode includes 6 events-4 are a mix of races, eliminatons, detonators (time trials), and the events that set the game apart, air strike, air revenge, and survival (I'll get to those later)- while the 5th event is a bonus round and the last is an elite race. You advance to the next episode based on your position in the elite race and earn points for your position that go towards new cars. I found this setup to be very fun and the presentation sets the episodes up like a TV show, which sounds cool, but they should have expanded on this because when an announcer is the only person technically in the game it can seem empty.
The cars in Split Second are all very nice to drive and each requires their own technique in order to master. Unfortunately there is no customization, besides decals that are automatically added to your car which are stickers of your trophies/achievements (an interesting idea), and all cars are unlicensed which means they only look like real cars. They are disappointing to me, but at least they're nice to drive.
The gameplay is the most important aspect of a racing game and Split Second is definitely the most thrilling. Buildings, bridges, ships, airplanes, and even entire dams are crashing and falling around every corner, keeping you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. To cause these explosions to happen though, you must fill up your Power Play bars, which are 3 small bars located on the HUD behind the car. Fill one and two bars, and trucks will explode, helicopters will drop gas barrels, and cars will fly in your face. Fill all your bars and you can set off Level 2 Power Plays and Route changers, which allow you to make bridges crumble, trains fly off into exploding buildings, and dams burst wide open. Not only will they make you awe in disbelief, they change the course of the track sending you into new territory you would have never though was there. I guess the devs thought this was good enough reason for only making less than a dozen tracks, some off which take place in the same setting, and by episode 6 you will be sick of the same tracks over and over again. I know I sure was.
While there is only so few tracks, there are many race modes and air strike/revenge and survival make up for the many traditional race modes. In air strike you dodge missiles from a flying helicopter for a top score, in contrast from air revenge where you attempt to deflect the missiles back at the helicopter. Survival mode has you attempting dodge blue and red barrels (which destroy you) and pass tanker trucks to get the high score. These modes are extremely exciting and fit in with Split Second's mentality.
When you complete the single-player and get frustrated from the infuriating rubberbanding AI (that takes away from the experience once the novelty wears off-play for yourself to understand the pain), you can take your skills online to play against friends to increase your form (your level which has you start at 99 and work up to #1). Online is surprisingly creative and fun, but only includes three game modes, which might disappoint some.
Overall though, despite Split Second's downfalls (rubberbanding, lack of tracks, zero customization), this racer will keep you engaged and thrilled more than any racer I've played. With the level of destruction and the excitement on my face every time I blew up massive city blocks, you can't go wrong with Split Second.
There were a number of cult classics that didn't sell like gangbusters, but still worked their way into gamers' hearts. Here's WWG list of nine great titles that deserve a second chance on newer consoles
I'll point out that these games are all from the X360/PS3 era - they've already had HD releases when they first came out. Split/Second and Blur - with the crazy vehicle physics capable today, why would we not want sequels to them?
The other games, all a matter of opinion of course, but... thank you for your ads between every single game. /s
Problem with sequels is that they aren't very likely. Activision dropped Blur like a bad habit, and Disney isn't doing games anymore. So I'll happily take the originals.
As much as I'd kill for a Demon's Souls remake, isn't likely. We'll probably get Bloodborne 2 instead.
Dafuq kinda title is that? These games were already released on HD consoles though...
GameEnthus Podcast ep279: Gas Food or Voluntold Hat This week Ryan(@RyGuyGames), creator of Adventure Lamp, and Slider(@Sliderwave) join& #160;Tiny(@Tiny415), Mike (@AssaultSuit) and A aron (@Ind1fference) to talk about: MAGfest, Adventure Lamp, Kickstarter, Stardew Valley, Infinity, Yoshi’s Woolly World, PSP, Split/Second, Vectrex, Vectrex Regeneration, Transformers Titans Return, Street Fighter V, Disney Infinity, Finding Dory, Zack Snyder, Batman v Superman … Continue Reading →
James Pettegrow talks us through an arcade racing title that didn't get as much credit as it deserved.
As it was said, Disney shut it down due to it not being successful enough. With that said, a sequel could definitely have improved on Split Second's arcade madness.
Split/Second and Blur were the two most under rated racers last gen. They were great games and wish there were potential sequels.
Personally, i prefer games like that, more so Split Second than Blur. I also remember when i was playing Destruction Derby Raw back in the day.
GRIP is a game going to early access on Steam, because there wasn't enough people backing it on Kickstarter (unfortunately).
That's one of my only hopes for racers i enjoy.
Hoping for BC as I still got the XB1 disc and still play it time to time. This and Midnight Club LA along with Project Gotham Racing 4 are hidden racing gems from the X360 days.
