Critique, review and a bit of a rant.

[Gr4de_04]

So, I wanted to write this thread because i feel like this game, while being one of the most enjoyable racing games i played is also the most frustrating one I ever played.

 

Before starting, I do want to point out that racing games aren't really a genre I enjoy in general, because there simply isn't enough action and I was never a fan of time contraint. The only racing games i've played are mostly the ones on my psnprofile and every iteration of Mario kart since Mario kart DS. So i might be a bit more critical of things. But i'll do my best to stay professional.

 

Now first of, Split Second is great for what it's trying to achieve, and for a game that released almost a decade ago, I must say the graphics, although notably dated, hold up surprisingly well. What i most liked about Split second is the action-packed way to take down enemies. I don't really keep bussy with racing games, but in how many racing games can you collapse an entire dam and flood away your enemies? Or crash land a plane into them? Not many I presume. The game represents itself as a reality TV show. But since it is released in early 2010 before the explosion of social media there isn't any of that garbage or reputation system with followers or whatnot (looking at you need for speed). The game doesn't have a story, and to be fair it doesn't need one. It's just an arcade racer and what you see is what you get. There's a variety of cars to unlock as you progress, and trophies you earn get added as decals to your car which is a nice way to tie in achievements to your looks. And I haven't checked this but I presume this also appears to other players online, so when you have that decal for that hard achievement, they know you are a serious player. Which is something I really like and I'd wish I would see in a game nowadays. But it can't be helped because todays industry is tailored around loot boxes and paying to look good. But it was a simpler time back then. Anyway, my point is, is that there is plenty to keep you busy. There are 6 different game modes, although i'd technically say there's 5 because 2 are almost identical. But the rest is varied and diverse. And like a lot of racing games there's also a leaderboard system. Which encourages competitiveness. If you aren't a trophy hunter, this game generally is great, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

 

However, and this is where i get into the bad aspects of the game. It has its fair share of flaws.

 

To begin with, as I stated above there is a variety of cars to unlock, you unlock cars by simply completing events that award you points and you get the new cars at a certain threshold. The newer cars have noticeably higher stats then the ones you start out with, which makes you think you are getting better cars and to some extent you do but hear me out. Yeah, the cars get better. But so does the enemy A.I.. I honestly don't know what it is with this game and why I can't seem to find any real critique on it but the rubber banding is absolutely horrendous. It doesn't matter if you are playing the first beginner stages with the best cars in the game, the enemy is always a pain in the ass. And there's numerous reasons why. I'll start with the most annoying reason which is the way enemies drive. I am not 100% certain but it feels like all your enemies drive along a set path depending on what stage you play in. I never feel like enemies are driving to the side of the roads or driving around a certain obstacle out of themselves. And seemingly only do so when flung off course by you or the other enemies attacks. You would think this makes the game a lot easier, knowing exactly where they will be driving, and that would be the case weren't you racing against tanks on nitro. Allow me to explain.

You know how in virtually any racing game (or games with cars for that matter) you can just drive against an opponent to push them aside or throw them off course? Well not in split second. The enemies do not budge at all. It's like you are driving up against a grind rail, except the grind rail is pushing back. Even when enemies slow down in a corner you can just come up to them, ram them at full speed and they would only move about maybe the width of their tires if you're lucky. This can actually be used to go trough corners at full speed as you can just use enemies to slingshot you through the corner. It is that bad.

The second worst offender ties in with the rubber banding and is their speed. You can be driving the fastest car in the game in the inside of a corner drifting in full speed to absolute perfection and an enemy with a truck (which are the slowest vehicles) will just come up to you on the outside of the curve and pass you by. That doesn't seem fair. And it isn't because it shouldn't be when my speed stat is 4 times higher then that truck is. I get that they have to upscale the enemies to make the races fairer. But this scenario should not be possible.

 

Another problem with their speed is, if they come up to you from behind. the best way to block them from surpassing you is to drive in front of them. But they don't care and ram you like a battering ram with a strength that makes you think they are powered by jet engine turbines. You get propelled forwards as if you were using a Mushroom in Mario kart. Except because of this speed and since their rams are never 100% aligned you will most like be thrown off course and crash or lose control to an extent you will be at least thrown to the side after which you will be surpassed. And this right here is the lucky scenario. Because what will most likely happen is that you can't respond fast enough and they hit your hind wheels from the side. And since they are virtually unstoppable except by using the environmental attacks the game is known for, they will just spin your car making you lose multiple positions and you are even luckier if you were not to crash.

 

 

All of these negative factors make me actually enjoy the modes that don't feature cars more enjoyable and although hard, feel fair. There's this mode where you have to avoid chopper missiles while racing along a track, and this later upgrades to you reflecting the rockets which makes it all the more challenging. (these are the 2 similar modes i mentioned btw). And there's this other mode where you have to surpass these big-ass trucks that throw dynamite out of the back which is also really hard. But manageable and probably the most unique non-race challenge I've ever seen in a racing video game. I enjoyed these quite a lot. Although the Convoy trophy did took me about an hour to get, which requires surpassing 12 in a row without dying.

 

Lastly, I just want to mention Detonator events real quick. these are fair for the most part. But the ones you have to do on the Power Plant track are a fucking nightmare. there's 2 of them. 1 is part of the main game and is required for the trophies Perfection and Leading the Way since it counts as bonus event as well. It personally took me about 7 hours to get this one. Now I must admit. I am not the best at racing games but this just feels unfair as hell. Even on youtube videos and their comments you will not find a person who even gets close to beating the set time limit by 1 second, if even half a second. This just doesn't seem thought out or tested. Or I'm seriously missing something here. With that out of the way I figured the most difficult challenge for platinum was over. But no, you have to do this same shit again but even 3 seconds faster and it must be in quickplay. So even if you pull off a miracle and beat the normal one with 3 seconds you still won't get the trophy Beat The Team II: The Revenge. I'll give this probably an hour or 2 more tries but I think this platinum is not worth it for me. And don't get me wrong. I have patience and I like a challenge (i have trophies such as GD Parkour Instructor, ...Becomes the Master and Masterminds.) but this!? this just feels like it was made to people rage quit. And I honestly don't get the 5%+ rate on psnprofiles. Maybe I'm just bad but it really doesn't feel that way.

 

But let's end this post on a high note. This game is great for what it's trying to do, and before I booted it up a week ago to clear up trophies my memories of it we're enjoyable which is a good impression if I can remember that 7 years after first playing it. Definitely give this game a try if you can. But just be warry of the trophies.

 

I am very curious to see replies. So please give a reply to this thread because I'm itching to see how other people experienced this game. It is very conflicting for me. Being very fun but also very hard as I said in my opening statement.

Edited March 1, 2020 by gamesfourever

[AJ_Radio]

Very interesting take.

 

I'm playing through a racing game myself... but never really considered myself a fan in any sense other than the Mario Kart series, which is mostly because I grew up on those games.

 

Driveclub, as good of a racing game it is, isn't without it's share of flaws. It still suffers from a bit of rubber banding, which I absolutely hate in racing games and is one of the primary reasons why I don't go and play a lot of them.

 

I pretty much agree with your opinion as a whole, but something you wrote irks me a little...

 

3 hours ago, gamesfourever said:

The game represents itself as a reality TV show. But since it is released in early 2010 before the explosion of social media there isn't any of that garbage or reputation system with followers or whatnot (looking at you need for speed).

 

Definitely not true. I used MySpace, Facebook and Twitter pretty extensively during my early college years so the social media explosion was definitely there. Steve Jobs had already come out with the iPhone so social media was pretty much everywhere. It just took a long time for video games to catch up.

 

Video games are definitely platforms of social media now. The PS4 console is basically a social media platform, and recent games like Death Stranding are pretty much centered on social media. It's basically everywhere nowadays and it's in our everyday lives.

 

Need for Speed is seemingly reality TV. They have used live action for a long time now, I played Need for Speed: Undercover over a decade ago on the Xbox 360... definitely didn't have any real aspect on social media because smartphones and Facebook weren't really a thing yet.

 

===

 

I'll probably give Split/Second a pass. One thing I will say is racing games have greatly improved in their gaming mechanics. Some of the old PS2 and PS3 era racing games feel so bad and dated now it's almost impossible to not look at the glaring flaws. Definitely not worth my time playing.

 

The thing to be wary about is considering Split/Second is an older game, best go after the online trophies while you still can. With the Uncharted 2 & 3 server closures nothing is safe, eventually the Ubisoft games will get their servers shut. Just something to think of.

[johncnstntn__]

True, rubberbanding is strong with this one but how do you experience the game's only selling point if you lead the race all the time. I found the game unique and enjoyable despite all the negatives they just didn't try hard enough.

[Gr4de_04]

@Spaz i meant the social media thing in relationship to videogames. Not social media itself. Sorry, i didn't made that more obvious.

[AJ_Radio]

1 hour ago, gamesfourever said:

@Spaz i meant the social media thing in relationship to videogames. Not social media itself. Sorry, i didn't made that more obvious.

 

Well yeah I knew that. Much of Death Stranding is basically social media within the game.

 

In recent years AAA games have taken to in-game advertising which I almost consider to be a part of social media. It irritates me, but that is the direction we've been heading towards.

[cris3f]

9 hours ago, gamesfourever said:

So, I wanted to write this thread because i feel like this game, while being one of the most enjoyable racing games i played is also the most frustrating one I ever played.

 

 

Try Blur, a mix of Mario Kart with real cars, some decent mechanics and good AI,a rarity on racing games as the AI always shines on stupidity and / or cheating. Online is broken due to a abuse of one of the power ups, but the game offline is interesting. Even so they exaggerated and some of the requirements to complete the game become gimmick and not driving which is stupid overall.

 

I already tried Split Second,and did all online to be safe, but the game didn't seem that appealing to me.

 

In terms of AI I think there's nothing as broken in racing games as Criterion titles.

 

[AJ_Radio]

I'm a little surprised Blur is still around with online trophies. Other racing games like Ridge Racer had their online shut, as well as Dirt 2.

[yowzagabowza]

I absolutely loved Split Second when I played and platinumed it all those years ago. Its my favorite racing game of all time and I have a hard time imagining any will surpass it. The level events are so cool. 

 

I don't really understand the problem with rubber banding in racing games. It forces you to actually drive well for the entire race instead of just crashing through everyone on the first corner and automatically winning like what happens when you race online. Also, if you happen to crash, rubber banding is what helps you catch back up instead of having to just restart the whole race.

 

I always wished for a sequel to this but I guess that's never happening. Since remasters are such a thing this gen (still!!) I guess I can hope for one of those maybe.

[Slava]

11 hours ago, gamesfourever said:

Lastly, I just want to mention Detonator events real quick. these are fair for the most part. But the ones you have to do on the Power Plant track are a fucking nightmare.

I played this game many years ago on PC. And I definitely remember being stuck on some time trial on a track that sounds like this one, lol. I don't remember if I beat it, though. One more track that was giving me trouble, I think, was the dam one.

 

But I remember enjoying Split/Second very much. I don't think I noticed any of the problems mention above back then. But again, it was long time ago (probably, the year it came out). So my opinion could have been different if I played it yesterday, for example.

 

Just now, yowzagabowza said:

I always wished for a sequel to this but I guess that's never happening. Since remasters are such a thing this gen (still!!) I guess I can hope for one of those maybe.

Black Rock Studio shut down in 2011 and Disney Interactive Studios shut down in 2016. If the new Disney videogame divison decides to remaster this game, they will probably have a lot of hoops to jump through to make it.

 

But yeah, I miss this game, too. And I miss arcade-style racing games in general. I think this genre is half-dead in 2020. Evolution studios (who made Motorstorm) was closed, Criterion Games is a shadow of it's former self (most Burnout creators left the studio long time ago to make indie titles), NFS games have been mediocre for years. The only arcade racing game that looks interesting to me now is Forza: Horizon 4 and it's not even on PlayStation. Other than that, there are only racing simulators like Gran Turismo, GRID and Dirt Rally (I like them too, but slightly less).

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by Alderriz

[FilooGaroo]

My favorite racing game too - i spent 6 hours in the craziest race to plat the game - i remerber screaming when i achieved it 

the only thing i hated was the online trophies - but were easy to boost 

[yowzagabowza]

1 hour ago, Alderriz said:

I played this game many years ago on PC. And I definitely remember being stuck on some time trial on a track that sounds like this one, lol. I don't remember if I beat it, though. One more track that was giving me trouble, I think, was the dam one.

 

But I remember enjoying Split/Second very much. I don't think I noticed any of the problems mention above back then. But again, it was long time ago (probably, the year it came out). So my opinion could have been different if I played it yesterday, for example.

 

Black Rock Studio shut down in 2011 and Disney Interactive Studios shut down in 2016. If the new Disney videogame divison decides to remaster this game, they will probably have a lot of hoops to jump through to make it.

 

But yeah, I miss this game, too. And I miss arcade-style racing games in general. I think this genre is half-dead in 2020. Evolution studios (who made Motorstorm) was closed, Criterion Games is a shadow of it's former self (most Burnout creators left the studio long time ago to make indie titles), NFS games have been mediocre for years. The only arcade racing game that looks interesting to me now is Forza: Horizon 4 and it's not even on PlayStation. Other than that, there are only racing simulators like Gran Turismo, GRID and Dirt Rally (I like them too, but slightly less).

 

Y'know what game ended up being fun? Onrush. 

Its not really a racing game in the traditional sense, but it takes the funnest part of racing, fighting through the pack, and makes that the whole game. I can see why it was tough to market because it's really hard to describe, but I actually enjoyed the gameplay.

 

Edit: Those two time trials that were mentioned were tough but fair. 

Edited March 1, 2020 by yowzagabowza

[Slava]

Just now, yowzagabowza said:

Y'know what game ended up being fun? Onrush. 

Its not really a racing game in the traditional sense, but it takes the funnest part of racing, fighting through the pack, and makes that the whole game. I can see why it was tough to market because it's really hard to describe, but I actually enjoyed the gameplay.

I watched the trailers of this game before it came out, it looked fun. Sadly, I didn't hear anything about it after launch until it came with PS+.

I'll check it out when I get a PS4.

[yowzagabowza]

3 hours ago, Alderriz said:

I watched the trailers of this game before it came out, it looked fun. Sadly, I didn't hear anything about it after launch until it came with PS+.

I'll check it out when I get a PS4.

I didn't play it til it was on Plus. (It was actually the only game I took all year! )

Some trophies can be a pain but I was surprised how much I enjoyed the game.

[meterano7]

On 1.3.2020 at 2:10 PM, AJ_Radio said:

 

Well yeah I knew that. Much of Death Stranding is basically social media within the game.

 

In recent years AAA games have taken to in-game advertising which I almost consider to be a part of social media. It irritates me, but that is the direction we've been heading towards.

I think burnout 3 from the mid-2000s had Gillette ads in game, so that isnt very new either

[mega-tallica]

On 3/1/2020 at 10:36 AM, yowzagabowza said:

I don't really understand the problem with rubber banding in racing games. It forces you to actually drive well for the entire race instead of just crashing through everyone on the first corner and automatically winning like what happens when you race online.

 

That's true for some racing games but not this one. The better you drive the more it punishes you to the point where it leads to very unfair circumstances stacked against you because of the overaggressive rubberbanding implemented here. It makes for a fun experience as you can't just dominate with good driving skills but it can get frustrating quick when you feel like you constantly have to be perfect AND get lucky at the same time because of the way the Power Play mechanic is which can lead to many unfortunate and practically completely unavoidable crashes which ultimately leads to many more re-do's of races than what should be necessary.

 

Still a lot of fun though, just the strategy kinda has as much of a luck factor to it as it does skill.