A return to the racing game Split/Second

Split/Second is an arcade style racing game by the now closed developer Black Rock Studio and published by Disney Interactive Studios, for MS Windows, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360. What made this racing game unique was its fictional reality television show theme, and its "power play" feature, in which rigged explosions or booby traps could be triggered remotely by the player, or AI opponents. These two aspects really made for an intense racing game that is sure to increase your heart rate and make your palm sweat, which I loved to play.

I really feel that the power play system made every race exciting, even though it could be frustrating to lose a race because some car behind you triggered an explosion that cost you first place. There are two levels of power plays that can be triggered, level 1 (or blue) because available when you fill one bar of a special meter that appears below your car. The meter fills by drifting, drafting, or getting air. The second level (or red) is available once you've filled up all three bars of the meter. These level 2 power plays are usually the type that can change the layout of a race track, usually be triggering the demolition of some large building. The GUI will display the types of power plays you can trigger as you move along the track, based on how full your power play meter is.

When you first start playing, you aren't aware of the different traps that can be triggered by power plays, so it's exciting because they can be surprising. After you've played on a track a few times, you'll start seeing all different possible threats to your win. It adds an element of horror movie style anticipation to each race, where danger can come from anywhere.

The game was recently added to Xbox One backward compatibility so I played the game again. It was just as thrilling as before. I recorded a couple of videos of my gameplay. The first video is four different races on one track, Downtown Central, which should give you an idea of the variety the game can have on the same track, with the same car.

The game offered multiple different types of races. I would say that I really liked all of them, except for a couple. The modes I really like are Race, Detonator, Survival, Elimination, and Elite race. I like these races because even if they are tough, the challenge seems accomplishable and you can play for a bit before being destroyed. In Race, you race against enemy AI and power plays are active. In Detonator, you race against the clock, with power plays occurring automatically as you race. In Survival, you race on a track, with a few AI cars, and you have get points for passing barrel tossing big rig trucks. The barrels are either blue, which will push you around, or red, which are instant death. In Elimination, you race against AI, but as time passes the car in last place is eliminated, until you have one car left. Elite race is like a standard race but the AI is more difficult and they are more likely to use power plays against you.

With Air Strike you have a helicopter targeting your car to shoot missiles at it. You'll see the targets on the road, and they will turn red right before the helicopter fires. The problem with this mode is that the placement of those missile targets makes it really hard to get through without getting hit. Maybe I just need to "get good" but I've never been able to figure out a good way to get through those missile barrages. The other mode, Air Revenge is similar in that the helicopter is still firing at you, but if you've built up your Power Player meeter, you can have those missiles target the helicopter. It's not as bad, but still not fun.

So those are my thoughts on an older racing game that I believe you should check out if you're a fan of arcade racing games.