I had a chance to sit down with Split Second at last year’s E3 and was blown away by its production values so early in its development cycle.  It looked highly polished, and chock-full of details.  Of course, the one thought that never entered my mind was if the premise of Split Second could stay entertaining over 8-12 hours.  That answer depends on what you are looking for out of Split Second.

Split Second takes the premise of being a televised racing show, where the star of the show is not necessarily the drivers, but the tracks themselves.  Sounds a bit strange, but in Split Second, the track is a hazardous place, where the track can change paths, explosions launch items across the track and occasionally, helicopters come in to drop barrels and other explosive devices.  It is a premise that is definitely unique to the racing genre, and the developers take the concept and run with it, creating great environments for all of this to occur.

When you start up a season of Split Second, you choose from an episode, each of which will have 5-6 different events.  You get points with each race that you finish, with the goal being to become the champion at the end of each episode.   The presentation of this is a bit bland in nature with some initial dialog coming at the beginning of the episode, but nothing after that until you finish up the episode.  It is almost as if the TV aspect was tacked on at the last minute, as none of it really shows up at any point outside those two aforementioned points in an episode.  Maybe the developers felt the need to give reason to the destruction that was happening, but it just seems awkward in its implementation.

Once you are inside the car, you quickly learn to fall in love with the simple, efficient driving mechanics.  Hit the gas to go, and occasionally, you tap the brakes to drift your way around tight turns.  You also will have some jumps, along with drafting and passing other racers, but beyond placing in a race, these maneuvers also lead into Split Second’s main game mechanic, and that is earning points to activate power plays.

Power plays are moments where you can interact with the track, using it as a weapon against other race cars.  As you race, you have a bar that is under your car.  As the bar fills, you earn the ability to trigger these events.  The first bar allows you to activate a simple power play.  Filling up the full bar allows you to trigger a larger power play, or, even the ability to change the track layout, making for a distinctively different race course.  Power plays are a sight to behold on your screen, with buses exploding and rolling across a track, or barrels dropping from the sky in a blaze of glory.  And as for the big events?  We are talking about things like whole Air Traffic Control towers dropping, or a plane crashing right above you.  They are massive events, acting as a visual orgy for the eyes the first time you see them, but they slowly start to lose their effectiveness as you witness them for the seventh or eighth time.

However, the biggest fault that Split Second makes as a racer is making first place the worst spot to be in.  I don’t mean that as a point of winning, but when you are in first, you can never use any of the power plays.  This was mentioned in the developer call that we covered, and at that time, I did not think it would be an issue, but after playing Split Second for several hours, it is a huge issue.  First place ends up being absolutely boring.  Yes, there is some rubber-banding AI that has cars catch up at points, but normally, you can hit them with a quick power play and then bore yourself some more in first place.  You never want to feel disappointed working your way up to first, but it is a complete detriment here in Split Second.  You feel penalized for accomplishing something that should be rewarding in most racing titles.

It also does not help that the sound is off, as you can tell from the video here in the review.  The engines sound like miniature chainsaws in comparison to the debris that you are constantly running over.  It was very jarring, and seems like something went awry in the post processing department.  Visually however, the game is very detailed, with all the power plays looking larger than life, and completely breathtaking.  But again, it is a one trick pony that starts to lose its luster over time.

While I am unsure of the Xbox 360 or PS3 side of things, the multiplayer in Split Second on the PC comes in two versions, and neither is all that good.  The first is the lack of players online.  This could come partially from the second problem, which is abysmal net code, or it may mean that a lot of people are just skipping the game.  As for that second issue, the net code is atrocious in Split Second.  I have had cars that float tens of feet above the track, or cars that are completely invisible.  I have had races where it said I was in first, only to cross the finish line and be told I am actually in 8^th place.  Cars are constantly jumping around the track, and there is no shortage of lag.  The multiplayer has some great modes of play like Survival and of course, quick races, but when you can only get one game started after ten attempts, you just give up and go back to the single player, or worse, some other game.

Even with all of this negativity, there is a ton to appreciate in Split Second, and a lot of fun to be had as long as you take it in short spurts.  Playing for a thirty minute stint is a lot of fun.  Split Second is almost like comfort food.  You can come back to it for a bit and have a lot of fun with it, but you don’t want it on your plate every night.  With more polish, and new net code, a sequel could be a lot of fun.  But as of right now, Split Second is a neat work in progress.  Split Second gets 3 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.
Check out Split Second and other PC game reviews at Test Freaks.