QUOTE
Full Auto
Full of something...
Once you scrape a little of the shiny next-gen paint off Sega's new car-combat game Full Auto, you get a clear glimpse of the no-frills, standard factory model vehicle that lies underneath. For all of Full Auto's slick chrome exterior, which looked so promising earlier in the game's development, it's clear that the time invested under its hood wasn't spent on really fleshing out the game beyond its initial concept. The thrill of blowing up enemies while tearing around a track only lasts as long as it takes to learn Full Auto's core mechanics: Unwreck, turbo, shoot, and steer. In other words, the thrill is gone pretty quickly.
Describing the game as "Burnout with guns" is misleading. Burnout is innovative and addictive, and it evolves the arcade driving experience with features like Crash Mode and Revenge during races. Full Auto, unfortunately, never moves past its basic drive-fast-shoot-everything concept. It's more like Need For Speed II with guns, really. The 17 various game types found within Career Mode don't break up the one-note gameplay much, either. They just define what kind of track you race on - point-to-point or circuit with minor variations - or who you're racing against.
Maybe if the weapons were more creative, or if you could choose any of them to mount on any hard point on your car, the gameplay would be more varied and satisfying. Instead, you choose from a limited number of weapon loadouts, resulting in every race in every mode feeling incredibly similar, combat-wise. Go as fas as you can or blow up as many opponents as possible - it really doesn't matter because there are no power-ups and no particularly clever game types, and Full Auto doesn't force you to employ much strategy other that keeping the gas and trigger fully depressed. At least if you play it online you can talk a little trash, but even the cookie-cutter multiplayer mode doesn't go out of its way to redeem the gameplay.
The addition of the Unwreck feature (one button press lets you rewind time a la Prince of Persia, giving you a do-over on badly navigated turns or another chance to avoid clumsily rolling over a mine) make a good attempt at differentiating the game from the racking pack. But in the face of the crushing dullness of everything else in the game, it has little chance to shine. Neither does the way the game lets you blast everything in the environment to smithereens - and what's not beautiful about that? - but sadly, there's little consequence or payoff for doing so other than spectacular eye candy and the boost to your nitro and Unwreck meters. Despite creating easy-to-avoid obstacles, it doesn't add much. Where's the depth?
Another incredibly strange thing about Full Auto is that there doesn't appear to be any story. We're not stupid. We know this is an arcade racer with guns, not War and Peace, but we'd like an explanation as to why our little street racing club has resorted to such extreme violence. The lack of backstory isn't a huge ding against Full Auto, but in a game that works entirely on a visceral, cosmetic level, it's just another void left gaping.
If you can find a video store that'll let you rent this game for exactly one hour, do it. That's about how long it'll take you to realize that Full Auto is pretty disappointing for an Xbox 360 game and for car combat games in general. Cars with guns should equal good times, but Full Auto's skin-deep thrills last only as long as it takes for a quick test drive.
THE VERDICT
+ They nailed the cool Unwreck feature.
- Limited weapon options.
- No story or plot, not even a thin one.
? What happened to good old-fashioned post-apocalyptic wastelands as a background story?
5.5
Author
Topic: Oxm Reviews Full Auto According 2 Gamerankings.com (Read 1047 times)