Full Auto (16+)
Verdict: Poor man’s Burnout with guns.
Platform: 360
3/5
A few years ago Criterion gave the racing genre a much needed kick up the exhaust by infusing it with a devil may care attitude and an obsessive fascination with crashing at high speed. The game in question was Burnout and although the first in the series was lacking, the subsequent sequels have gone from strength to strength, each time upping the ante for explosive, turbo charged destruction. Full Auto attempts to build upon this heritage by simply adding guns to the mix but by doing so has lost some of Burnout’s more immediate and visceral touches.
While i’m all for strapping guns to vehicles it seems that Sega hasn’t got the balance right. As a racing game first and foremost it just hasn’t got the physics and car handling of a heavy hitter - controlling more like the twitchy Crazy Taxi than a Mad Max killing machine, with cars lacking any real weight, dynamics or even speed.
As well as adding guns (and mines, rockets, smoke screens etc.) there is the unique Unwreck meter along with the usual but under powered Nitro meter. The Unwreck meter borrows from the modern Prince of Persia games by introducing limited time control. What this boils down to is a kind of ‘Get out of jail free’ card by allowing you to rewind time when you crash your car/get nuked by an opponent. It’s an interesting addition but feels tacked on and if the cars didn’t handle like ice cream vans there would be a whole lot less crashes to rewind.
Graphically it’s solid and has that 360 shine but when compared to it’s contemporaries it’s average at best with Burnout’s visual flair eclipsing it, even from its last-gen offering.
In fact ‘average’ is what best describes the game because although everything is there - multiple play modes, unlockables, online play, it never really excels, feeling lacklustre and rushed.
Despite this though it’s entertaining to play and the online races are messy but fun - just don’t expect too much of it and you’ll get along fine. Just like my work as an ice cream man - I thought it’d be bad (and it was) but I was king of the park and ate 99’s all day long.