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Fuel
Fuel is the latest game by Codemasters and
continues their fondness of releasing racing games with single word names
(Grid, Dirt). This one is set in an “alternate present” that has been ravaged
by global warming. Most of the
population moved to new high-tech cities, leaving vast stockpiles of fuel and
many miles of open land behind. An underground
league of adrenaline junkies soon moved in and set up base camps all over the
place. You step up to the plate as one
of the thrill seekers aiming to conquer the 19 territories spread out across
14,400 square kilometers of open world.
I hope you enjoyed the plot, as that is all there is to it. Beyond the small section devoted to it in the manual, no mention is made of it again and there is no story progression of any kind. The focus of this game was clearly the Guinness World Record breaking size of the gameworld, and while it is indeed quite a feat, size is also the games biggest downfall. The formula is simple, each area has three to six races in which to compete. Each race has three difficulty settings and coming first earns you as star. Win on the easiest setting and you get one star. Win on the hardest difficulty and you get three stars (provided you haven’t won on the two lower difficulties yet.) What this means is unless you are playing on the hardest setting, you are wasting a lot of time, as you need the stars to unlock new regions. This is aggravated a thousand fold by the fact that some races are up to seven minutes long and unless you come in first, you receive nothing and wasted your time. Oh, and did I mention that the apparent A.I. is such obvious cheaters, it would almost have been funny if it wasn’t so annoying. I have played my fair share of racing games over the years and have seen some spectacular instances of cheating, but Fuel takes it to new levels. Opponents fly out of the gates like the devil is on their heels and glide around the tracks with seemingly no regard for gravity or physics. Sometimes they decide right towards the end of a race to give up, and let you pass while other times you can drive a few flawless laps and still see them rocketing past you as you near the final checkpoint. After this defeat, the game will rub it in your face by telling you to “Try harder or fail forever.” Exactly what you want to hear after losing a seven minute race through no fault of your own. The erratic opponents are still bearable, but unfortunately the car handling is all over the place as well. Some have decent steering, while others feel like they have been sabotaged before the race. There are about 75 different vehicles, but you’ll be restricted to a certain class, like bike, ATV, truck, muscle or buggy for each race. This is all fine and dandy, but the vehicles you can choose from aren’t always the best suited to the tracks, and trying to venture offroad with a car that is not suited for it, will cost you the race instead of gaining you a shortcut. It is annoying and simply an artificial way to increase the difficulty. New vehicles cost fuel, and fuel is earned by coming first in races. To solve this conundrum there are “challenges.” These are separate events that restrict you to a specific vehicle and give you tasks like beating a helicopter in a race or chasing down cars. Finishing a challenge won’t earn you any stars, but you will get some fuel which can be put towards a new vehicle. If the challenges prove to be too much for you, then you can take to the 14,400 square kilometers of open terrain and look for fuel drums, but this is a slow, boring process. You are encouraged to explore the gameworld as there are “scenic vistas” and new vehicle liveries scattered all over the place, but sadly none of those are really worth the effort. Driving for half an hour only to get some crappy livery that is covered in mud within ten seconds of the race starting, is not my idea of fun. Fortunately you can travel around the map using helicopter waypoints and all races are accessed from a menu. More than likely the only people that are going to explore the bland, boring, repetitive landscapes are completionists and achievement hunters. Yes, that is right, this game requires Games For Windows Live, so with the achievements you get the usual set of hassles. I really liked the idea of Fuel and did my best to enjoy the game despite all the flaws. The graphics are good although there’s way too much repetition. The colors are bright and vivid, which is nice, but it can make some of the vehicles look like toys. Customization options are pretty basic and largely redundant due to everything being covered in mud in no time. The camera angle can be a pain as there is only one viewpoint and that is close behind the vehicle. With larger tracks this means constantly slamming into rocks and other obstacles because your vehicle is obscuring the view. I played with an Xbox 360 pad and constantly had to adjust the viewing angle with the right analogue stick, which soon became a chore. The weather effects are quite cool, but usually pretty cosmetic. Tornadoes tear through some tracks, uprooting buildings and flinging around debris, but it doesn’t make the actual racing that much more thrilling. There is a day and night cycle as well, but the transition is very jarring and not very realistic. With a bit more spit and polish, Fuel could really have been something special. The open world is spoiled by long stretches of nothing and there’s just no flaw to the action. The music is absolutely terrible and was muted to spare my hearing. Sound effects fared marginally better, but the noise of a motorbike trying to climb a mountain is something that will haunt me for long after the game is done. Blame it on the sloppy handling and broken GPS that often leads you astray or insist that your vehicle can somehow swim (you do get a hovercraft at the end of the game which can cross water but still...) Despite its huge size, Fuel simply feels empty and unfinished at times. Not that there’s a lack of things to do and you can even create your own tracks with the built-in editor, it is just that there’s a lack of fun things to do. It is not the worst racing game I have ever played, and I have put many hours into it, but it is sad to think what could have been. My advice to the creators: Try harder next time or fail forever.
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System Requirements
TAGS: FUEL, Open World, Racing, Gear, Bikes, Trucks, Quads, Challenges,
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Copyright © 2010 GAMERamble. All rights reserved