Split/Second Velocity is the new arcade style racer from Blackrock Studios and it is a game unto itself. Split/Second is presented like a TV show where racers compete through constructed race tracks with the ability to foil other racers with power plays. While the initial look and the ability to ‘takedown’ other racers is present, this is far from Criterion’s loved franchise.

Split/Second is huge amounts of fun to play. Everything comes together seamlessly to give you a heart pounding experience that will have you leaning towards the screen as the events progress. Concentration is paramount and a lapse in focus will result in your untimely demise. Catch-up physics in all events make sure that the race is kept tight and unless you are playing against the best of the best, achieving first place after starting a lap in last is not impossibility. Split/Second does everything it can to keep the action fun and the experience ever changing.

Split/Second’s main attraction are the ‘power plays’, course built traps that racers can activate to take out opponents. When a small blue (or red) symbol appears above an opponent’s car, you can activate a trap. By drifting, getting air time and sliding into slip streams, players build up a three segment bar. One segment activates a power play; three segments’ activates a very big power play. The smaller of these can range from sending flaming cars across the track to detonating a building, the shockwave of which makes it very difficult to control your car. The huge power plays have much larger implications, such as blowing up a train line sending carriages flying onto the tracks along with bits of bridge. These 3rd tier actions sometimes can be used to change the layout of the course, collapsing structures on the course forcing all cars onto a different route. This means that it’s possible to have a different route to take every single lap, keeping return courses interesting.

The courses themselves are wonderful to race around, while they are by no means as complex as most racers the serve their purpose perfectly. Most corners are easily taken, but with a cheeky power play it can suddenly become a whole different story. Balancing a good racing line versus the possibility of the petrol station next to the line blowing up is an art that undoubtedly will be best seen online. The only complaint I have at the courses is the lack of variation and the integral flaw of the power play system. While it is possible to bumble through the course and end up in first, later levels (or online play) requires you to know each power play, as some need to be activated with precise timing. A slight adjustment to the power play symbol that appears to represent which trap is going to be activated would have been nice.

The single player season, as previously stated, is presented like a TV show; each set of 6 events is represented by an episode of the show. Players must earn enough points from each event to enter into the episode finale and progress to the next episode. The 5th event is a bonus round that will only unlock when players have taken out enough racers this episode. The episode system is a great little way of breaking up the campaign into manageable chunks, not giving you too much and by no means to little. Points are also tallied to unlock cars, generally after a 100 or 50 mark (with 1st place in events rewarding 50 points). The gap in-between these unlocks increases as the game progresses, but gives you enough variation to keep you happy.

Events come in a number of different varieties; Race, Elimination, Detonator and Airstrike, Survival. Elimination is much like a race, but after a set amount of time whoever is in last is taken out of the race. Much like trying to beat lap times in other games, Detonator has you speeding round a course solo but with power plays being activated in front of you, requiring some tricky driving. Survival has you trying to overtake huge dumpsters to keep your time limit alive, but each truck dumps a mix of standard and explosive barrels out of the back, and with only a set amount of lives, each pass is a risk. Airstrike has to be the most original mode, with an attack helicopter firing down onto the course with marked locations. Players have to drive at full speed through these explosions avoiding blasts to score points, slow down and the missiles will fire closer together making it impossible to survive.

Each event is fun to play, but sometimes suffer from huge difficulty curves. Detonator is most guilty of this, with an event in the third or fourth episode (depending on your choice) requiring the most ludicrous precision in your racing. Compared to the rest of the event and even the other detonator event in the episode, it’s hard as nails. With cars unlocked progressively as you earn points, some events can become impossible without the best car you can get at that point in time. Even finishing first in every event so far can leave you with either 1 option to stand a chance of competing or absolutely none, forcing you to continue and come back later. Having spoken to one of the developers at the Euro Gamer conference last year, I was disappointed that his promise of making every car competitive never came to fruition.

The cars themselves all have different quirks and strengths. Each machine has a stat break down in 4 areas; Speed, acceleration, drifting and strength. Strength refers to your cars ability to stay on course even after a power play has gone off in your face. Outside of these categories, each car comes with a description that will relay how well the car handles and other possible features. Every player will find a style of car that will suit their play style, but unfortunately once again the problem with needing to use newer cars becomes an issue. Around the 2nd and 3rd episode players unlock cars that have one more extra dot in speed and without using the first one you get, ending the race in 1st is simply impossible. This forces players to use a style of car that may not necessarily suit them, and although this does force players to experiment it’s not that fun when you have to do it every time you get the next ‘level’ of cars.

Graphically Split/Second is great to look at, with the courses and cars looking lovely on a HD screen. The HUD has been cleverly placed just under your cars bumper displaying all you need to know. The real reason for this aesthetically pleasing HUD is that you need to see the entire screen in order to avoid power plays. When a building falls down in the distance, inevitably landing on the course, a couple of symbols in the way could obscure the event for just a fraction to long. The game funs smoothly at around 60fps even in the most explosive circumstances, but strangely stutters during in game cut scenes, sometimes having problems with textures in all but the actual game. While Split/Second is never going to win any awards for its looks it does deserve credit for keeping a steady frame rate during high processing sequences. My only concern is that due to the amount going on, players without HDTV’s are going to find the game a bit difficult. Power Plays can be activated from quite a distance and without the detail definition; standard TV owners could find themselves squinting at the screen, only to find the opportunity has passed them by.

Multiplayer is available online and in split screen, with most of the event available to play. Connecting to a game is easy enough and the frame rate seems to keep up and the lag to a minimum. A bad connection problem could have ruined this game online, as setting off power plays requires split second timing (oh I get it now). For those who much like me suck at the more realistic racing games, this one is definitely worth playing online. As a bonus to those who like to collect achievements, you can show off online with decals appearing on your car for every one you have unlocked, be aware that there is a 0 point achievement in there.

Split/Second has received the comparison of ‘it’s like Burnout’ from a number of sources, however this is unfair. The only similarity is the Arcady style racer genre, and besides Burnout moved tragically away from the set courses idea with its last installment, something I love about Split/Second. While the game won’t last forever, with the campaign easily finished within a day if you really went for it, the joy of coming back and playing it again or online is always present. Blur is out soon, looking to take the crown of arcade racers, but until that has received a solid score, that crown now belongs in Blackrock studios.