Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

I remember seeing a demo of the original Full Auto for the Xbox 360 at E3 2005.  The combination of speed and firepower made me imagine it would be like Burnout on steroids.  The unwreck feature should have been a great boon to racing fans who didn’t want to restart a race because they missed a single corner.  I was prepared for Full Auto to be a big hit when it was released.

When Full Auto was released, the game garnered mediocre reviews.  I ended up purchasing it later, but many of the criticisms in the reviews like frame rate slowdown and lack of depth showed through.  Still, to me there was an addicting quality to it that made me want to get through more of the game than the reviews might have revealed.

At E3 2006 Sega revealed that they were working on Full Auto 2: Battlelines for the PS3.  I was a bit surprised at this because of the reviews for the original Full Auto as well as the platform change.  However, I was hopeful that some of the faults of the original game could be rectified in the sequel.  When I had the opportunity to review FA2, I jumped at the chance.

The original Full Auto looked good on the Xbox 360, but the game had several issues with the frame rate dropping down to single digits when a large amount of action was displayed on the screen.  While some of the frame rate slowdown was used for dramatic effect when obliterating another vehicle, the frame rate is better with FA2.  Still, this doesn’t excuse the slow frame rate when a large amount of action is on the screen.

The amount of weapons in the game translates to a large amount of carnage on the screen.  As you take damage, your shiny new car starts to show the wear and tear of driving.  Doors swing out after being hit, paint gets scratched, and windows get blown out.  Not only that, but the buildings and other environments show signs of being abused by rockets and other weapons.  Windows shatter, gasoline tankers and gas stations explode, sparks fly, and wire screens get thrown about after being hit.

Most of the game is racing on road tracks.  There are a few events that take place in other arenas like a construction yard.  While they do add a little variety to the game, you aren’t going to see a lot of difference between the different areas that you are driving in, especially the races.  The enemies you face aren’t going to have much difference between them either.  Most of the cars within the same gang drive the exact same car except for special rival leaders that have their own unique car.

Musically FA2 features a metal soundtrack that is appropriate for the mayhem during the game.  Unfortunately, you’ll mostly only hear this music during the menus.  While you can turn up the volume of the game music, the default music volume should have been higher.

During the campaign mode, you are told the story by a voice who gives you briefings.  The voice is incredibly monotone and lifeless.  This is the only voice you hear during the game though.  There isn’t any trash talking from any of the other vehicles through the radio, but you don’t expect something like that in this kind of game.

The weapons and sound effects should be the area where the audio punch is found in this game.  However, the game is sparse in this regard.  The machine guns don’t sound much more powerful than high-powered pea shooters.  The shotgun sounds more powerful, but it still doesn’t pack the punch you’d expect from the weapon.  When you finally annihilate a vehicle, the game goes into slow motion and it makes a quiet high-pitched bell noise.  Even hitting a gas tanker doesn’t give you the jolt you expect from this caliber.  This failing in the sound is carried over from the original game.

Because of the weapon element of the game, FA2 uses almost all of the buttons on the controller.  Steering is handled with the left analog stick, acceleration is done with the R2 trigger, and braking is done with the L2 trigger.  Hitting X fires the primary weapon while Circle fires the secondary weapon.  Square controls the handbrake.  Triangle looks back to get an idea of the action behind you.  Boosting uses the L1 button and Unwreck uses the R1 button.  If you find yourself in a precarious position, hitting Select self-destructs your vehicle.

Controlling a racing game on the PS3 is slightly different than previous PS2 titles because of the SIXAXIS controller.  The L2 and R2 buttons have been replaced with triggers.  When I first heard this change from the DualShock 2 controller, I was excited.  One of the biggest faults of the DualShock 2 was the lack of triggers.  Unfortunately, the L2 and R2 triggers feel weird because of their shape.  This makes it feel like you are either are pushing down the accelerator through the boards or you are letting up the accelerator completely.

The other issue with the game is the aiming.  You can use the right analog stick to aim your weapons and push it in to fire.  While this feature was in the original game as well, the aiming was awkward at best because of the speed you would travel down the tracks.  This is the same case here.  Aiming while controlling your vehicle is useless, unless you know exactly where you are aiming for long before you hit the area.  It would have been in Pseudo Interactive’s best interest to take this feature out of the game and just have everyone fire straight in front of their vehicle.

FA2 features a Career Mode and Arcade Mode in single player.  The Career Mode features a series of races and battles.  Each event consists of primary and secondary objectives to be completed.  If you complete the primary objectives, you successfully complete the event and can move on to the next one.  The more secondary objectives you complete, the more items you unlock.  These include vehicles, skins, and more powerful weapons.

There are three types of events.  A Race is as simple as it sounds.  Get to the front of the pack by any means necessary.  Some races are point-to-point, while others are circuit races with laps.  Some of the circuit races let you continue racing until someone completes the race first, but other circuit races drop out the last place racer out of the race.

The other event is called the Gladiator.  You are placed in an arena with your weapons and you attempt to destroy the other vehicles in the arena.  It’s every car for itself in this scenario.  The vehicle that kills off the most opponents wins the event.  The other event is the Team Gladiator event, where you compete as a team against other teams.  There really isn’t a lot of variety within the events in the game.

The Arcade Mode gives you the ability to play any of these three modes instantly.  You can only use the vehicles, tracks, and weapons that you’ve unlocked in the Career Mode though, so if you haven’t played much of the Career Mode, your options are severely limited.

The story involves you being recruited to rescue Meridian City from a gang called the Ascendants.  You have to do this by competing in races and making your way through the ranks.  You really don’t feel connected to the story at all though, especially since all you see during the briefings are videos of cars and you hear a single monotone voice.  There isn’t any cohesion felt at all.

You do get a real sense of speed with the races in FA2.  Vehicles and buildings fly by as you pass them.  Hitting objects causes them to fly through the air at high speed with a raised trajectory.  Using the boost really can get your adrenaline flowing because of how much faster you go.  The graphics blur around your vehicle as you pass them.

While it’s not uncommon for racers to have some form of a boost, but one feature found in the Full Auto games is the Unwreck feature.  In most racing games if you miss a turn or get cut off by another racer and spin out, you are fairly hosed to place in the race and have to start over.  With the Unwreck feature, you can rewind time and change the outcome as long as you have energy in your energy gauge.  This is a nice feature, but you can’t use it online or playing head-to-head games.

The AI in FA2 is fairly easy.  You can pass them without too much difficulty, but if you fall behind too far you can boost to try to help catch up.  You can’t constantly boost because of your energy gauge being depleted.  Both the boost and Unwreck deplete the same energy gauge, so knowing when to use either one requires some strategy.  Filling the energy gauge is done by drifting or performing other stunts.

Combat is another part of the racing.  You select a primary and secondary weapon for most of the races.  Each of these can overheat, so you can’t constantly shoot off a weapon continuously.  The controls don’t assist you in firing unless you try to aim straight in front of you.  As many explosions are caused on the screen, the weapons feel weak when firing at enemies.

A few power-ups scatter the field.  A green wrench repairs all damage to your vehicle.  The Unlimited Boost icon gives you an unlimited boost for a certain period of time.  The Unlimited Fire gives you a certain amount of time to fire your weapons continuously without them overheating.  Finally, a Mortar Weapon icon can be picked up.  If you get one of these you can cause a major amount of damage, but they have a limited number of shots.

The cars feel rather floaty, even compared to the original game.  Using the handbrake to slide around corners is required to get around corners quickly, and it’s easy to overshoot the corners.  This definitely takes a while to get used to.  It’s definitely not a simulation like Forza or arcadish like Burnout or Test Drive Unlimited.  You really need to get a feel for the physics for the game after several races.

FA2 allows for head-to-head play on a single screen.  However, you can only play in Race and Gladiator events.  You also can’t use the Unwreck feature for multiplayer, which isn’t too much of a surprise.  While it’s nice see that some kind of multiplayer is included on a single console, it’s disappointing that only two players can play at the same time.  It wasn’t that long ago that it was expected that four players could play on the same screen.

Online FA2 does offer a few unique options besides the typical Race games and Gladiator and Team Gladiator.  Base Assault is a team-based game where you try to destroy the other team’s base.  By working together a Bomb power-up shows up and can be sent into the enemy base after disabling the base’s force field.  Base Assault is found in the Arena option.

The other unique online game is called Cat and Mouse.  One player plays the “mouse.”  The other players are the “cats” that try to make short work of the mouse.  The first one to do so is the winner.  This option is found in the Race option.

It’s nice to see some unique options for the multiplayer, and it supports up to eight players.  They do offer something different from the original game.  Finding players right now might be a challenge though because of the number of PS3 systems out there right now.

Sega and Pseudo Interactive had a great opportunity to correct the issues of the original Full Auto.  Other than adding a story to the campaign mode, having one power gauge for the boost and Unwreck, and adding a few new unique online modes not much has changed between Full Auto and Full Auto 2: Battlelines.  If you enjoyed the first one, you’ll probably enjoy the second one.  Unless you are desperately craving something new for your brand new shiny PS3, you’ll probably want to hold off and rent the title before picking it up.

Gaming Trend Score

63

1. Graphics: 78
2. Audio: 55
3. Controls: 64
4. Gameplay: 64
5. Value/Replay: 50
6. OVERALL:63