There’s something oddly familiar when you first load up Split Second. It’s a faster than hell arcade racer that also has one eye on smashing up your opponents as much as possible. It’s probably, judging by your first few races, fair to say that Black Rock Games have played Burnout a few times in their lives. This isn’t to say that Split Second is some kind of cheap Burnout knock off. It is to say that it recaptures some of the intense action seen in Burnout Takedown and Revenge that was completely lost in Paradise and builds on it.
One main difference is that whilst the Burnout series saw you attempting to collide with other cars and send them crashing into the nearest wall Split Second lets you manipulate the track itself using the great power of explosives. It might sound a little bit gimmicky on paper but the ‘Michael Bay directs NASCAR’ approach leads to some wonderful and epic moments in each race. Your ability to set off these explosions is via a meter charged below your car which builds by drifting and tailgating. Once halfway you’ll activate the first stage of Power Plays meaning trucks will back out in front of those ahead or cranes will swing across the next corner. Build up a full meter though and you’ll be onto the destructive force of the second level. During the strongest of Power Plays you’ll find airplanes coming in to land right on top of you and boats in dry docks launched into the water below taking whatever cars and in their way with them. Some of the larger Power Plays will alter the track layout from one lap to the next so races are ever changing. A bridge that was there on lap one will possibly be completely destroyed by lap two.
Split Second is based on some solid foundations. Black Rock Studios released the ATV racer ‘Pure’ a couple of years back which, whilst being a fairly good example of the stunt/race genre, didn’t really gain mass popularity. Split Second at least allows for something a bit more recognisable to a mass audience as more people will probably want to drive an American muscle car than a 4 wheel drive bike. Being themed around a fictional TV show also means that Split Second has slick presentation, each episode is introduced by a suitably deep voice gent detailing the next race track the producers have deemed fit to rig with semtex.
If Split Second had nothing more than falling bridges and crumbling roads then it certainly would be much cop but thankfully the fast and to the point action to be had here is of a very high quality. Races are intense affairs with the AI never really letting you gather much of a lead. It’s this that gives rise to one of Split Second’s main divisive features, it’s impossible to use Power Plays if you lead the race. Getting in front changes the game to one of using all your driving skill to weave through the airborne wreckage and avoid having a steel girder come crashing through your windscreen. That tight knit pack feeling will probably get you in the end as Split Second seems designed to take you down eventually. Races are pretty hard going at the best of times as you attempt to fill your Power Play meter as much as possible. This leads, strangely enough, to Split Second’s main flaw. The meter will only usually fill up to any great degree when drifting around corners. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with the drift mechanic in the game (think a toned down Ridge Racer) it does leave you wide open for another three cars to overtake you in the inside. It often boils down to ignoring your meter completely and trying to get a lead away from the main body of the race or spending a little bit of time further back and then blasting everything in the latter stages. It’s not very often you can combine both tactics together.
Split Second lends itself to multiplayer quite well though as you and your mates can swop explosions throughout. The game does try to mix it up as much as possible which means taking away the basic race and doing something else. The best example of this is probably the event in which trucks are placed before you dumping flaming barrels out of the back, the idea being to overtake them as quickly as possible. It’s like the storm drain sequence in Terminator 2 without the future leader of the human resistance in the passenger seat and it also leads to many examples of cursing at your opponent over a headset.
It seems unfair to harp on about Burnout Paradise as a comparison but it’s obvious a lot of inspiration was taken from Criterion’s series. Whilst EA’s racer tried to go open world leaving you wandering around a fairly empty space looking for something to do, Split Second has the sense to get to the point and let you race. It doesn’t hold itself down with complex driving techniques and is happy to let you put pedal to metal and get on with it. There’s a lot of fun to be had here as you work your way through each episode on the series. The explosive side of the game soon shows itself to be far more than a one shot gimmick as it makes races take on an epic scale. Essentially Split Second is what arcade racing should be unfussy, uncomplicated and direct.
