FlatOut 2
The name says it all, folks, this game rocks.
Published: August 1, 2006
For some bizarre reason, we never reviewed the first FlatOut. We certainly previewed it (just as we've previewed the sequel), but somehow it slipped through the cracks. It's a shame, too; I'd love to just point people towards that first review and recap the things that have been changed with FlatOut 2, since the games are remarkably similar. They're also both of them something of a slow burn addiction. Finnish developer Bugbear Entertainment has built a simple racer with one very simple draw: a kick ass physics system.
It's the heart of FlatOut's appeal, and we're not talking about racing physics that applies weight and momentum properly (though that's certainly there), this is a case of the physics being applied to everything on the track. Tires, cones, bits of debris... walls, signs, piping, fences, shop fronts, windows, stationary cars, billboards, structural supports. Ramming into these things sends crap flying everywhere, and they stay there on the track, waiting to get kicked around on subsequent laps. In every sense, it feels like Bugbear is really tapping the power of the six year-old PlayStation 2 hardware.
And then of course there's the ragdoll stuff. Yes, ragdoll. In a racing game. Since seat belts apparently cause cancer in the world of FlatOut, nobody dares wear them, which leads to some amusing high impact crashes as the driver suddenly finds him or herself parted with the machine they used to propel themselves into a wall at 100 miles an hour. It's good for comedy value, but Bugbear smartly realized there was untapped gold in flinging someone through the windshield, and they built the other major component of FlatOut's addiction: a set of utterly masochistic mini-games that use the driver as a dart, a skipping stone, a bowling ball and more.
It's these two factors, the high speed races and the sick little mini-games, that keep the game so entertaining for hours on end, and one of the major issues with the first game have been directly addressed in the second; FlatOut 2 is deeper, longer, more varied and more refined than the first game was, incorporating elements of Burnout and Destruction Derby into an intoxicating mix of speed and destruction.
The races themselves aren't terribly complicated, but they have had a little Burnout style injection. Now, slamming into other racers gives you a graded impact reward -- harder hits give you more boost, but they also add up to more credits at the end of a race. If you can hit someone hard enough, you can punch the driver through their windshield, and if you can hit them when their life is critical, you'll get a bonus for completely taking them out of the race.
This encourages friendly nudges into trees and buildings because you get rewarded at the end not only for individual slams, hard hits, crash-outs and outright destruction, but as the person who broke the most stuff, had the fastest lap time, caused the best crashes and totaled other racers. This translates directly into cash rewards, which you can use to improve your car or buy a new one. These are fairly standard stuff; better engine, suspension, tires, brakes, and so on, but it's nice to at least have the option.
Both the races and the cars in them are split into three classes; Derby, Race and Street cars. Each gets progressively faster and with better handling, but often at the expense of protection and overall toughness. This means each class is slightly different in style and speed; the earlier stuff stresses hard hits and more destruction and the latter is more concerned with just beating the other guys to the finish -- with a couple of well-placed hits here and there, of course. The tracks move slowly from mostly dirt-based off-road courses to more paved and eventually urban courses.
Street class races are easily the hardest in the game, mainly because they are so damn fast, and screwing up here means far more. The AI can be absolutely brutal -- at times to the point of being frustrating, so there's a bit of a balance issue, but luckily there are distractions to be pursued if the races become a little too much. These range from full-on destruction derbies early on to a smattering of the mini-games found in the solo modes.
Those modes are the usual stuff you'd expect. The ubiquitous single race or derby or mini-game events are all present and accounted for so you can jump into a quick game and experience the stuff you'll play in the Career Mode in bite-sized chunks, though that Career mode is the one that gives the best sense of progress.
It's the heart of FlatOut's appeal, and we're not talking about racing physics that applies weight and momentum properly (though that's certainly there), this is a case of the physics being applied to everything on the track. Tires, cones, bits of debris... walls, signs, piping, fences, shop fronts, windows, stationary cars, billboards, structural supports. Ramming into these things sends crap flying everywhere, and they stay there on the track, waiting to get kicked around on subsequent laps. In every sense, it feels like Bugbear is really tapping the power of the six year-old PlayStation 2 hardware.
And then of course there's the ragdoll stuff. Yes, ragdoll. In a racing game. Since seat belts apparently cause cancer in the world of FlatOut, nobody dares wear them, which leads to some amusing high impact crashes as the driver suddenly finds him or herself parted with the machine they used to propel themselves into a wall at 100 miles an hour. It's good for comedy value, but Bugbear smartly realized there was untapped gold in flinging someone through the windshield, and they built the other major component of FlatOut's addiction: a set of utterly masochistic mini-games that use the driver as a dart, a skipping stone, a bowling ball and more.
It's these two factors, the high speed races and the sick little mini-games, that keep the game so entertaining for hours on end, and one of the major issues with the first game have been directly addressed in the second; FlatOut 2 is deeper, longer, more varied and more refined than the first game was, incorporating elements of Burnout and Destruction Derby into an intoxicating mix of speed and destruction.
The races themselves aren't terribly complicated, but they have had a little Burnout style injection. Now, slamming into other racers gives you a graded impact reward -- harder hits give you more boost, but they also add up to more credits at the end of a race. If you can hit someone hard enough, you can punch the driver through their windshield, and if you can hit them when their life is critical, you'll get a bonus for completely taking them out of the race.
This encourages friendly nudges into trees and buildings because you get rewarded at the end not only for individual slams, hard hits, crash-outs and outright destruction, but as the person who broke the most stuff, had the fastest lap time, caused the best crashes and totaled other racers. This translates directly into cash rewards, which you can use to improve your car or buy a new one. These are fairly standard stuff; better engine, suspension, tires, brakes, and so on, but it's nice to at least have the option.
Both the races and the cars in them are split into three classes; Derby, Race and Street cars. Each gets progressively faster and with better handling, but often at the expense of protection and overall toughness. This means each class is slightly different in style and speed; the earlier stuff stresses hard hits and more destruction and the latter is more concerned with just beating the other guys to the finish -- with a couple of well-placed hits here and there, of course. The tracks move slowly from mostly dirt-based off-road courses to more paved and eventually urban courses.
Street class races are easily the hardest in the game, mainly because they are so damn fast, and screwing up here means far more. The AI can be absolutely brutal -- at times to the point of being frustrating, so there's a bit of a balance issue, but luckily there are distractions to be pursued if the races become a little too much. These range from full-on destruction derbies early on to a smattering of the mini-games found in the solo modes.
Those modes are the usual stuff you'd expect. The ubiquitous single race or derby or mini-game events are all present and accounted for so you can jump into a quick game and experience the stuff you'll play in the Career Mode in bite-sized chunks, though that Career mode is the one that gives the best sense of progress.