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 Fuel
(Playstation 3)
Codemasters' latest racing title
Fuel is an ambitious game that offers a huge racing environment, 75 unique
vehicles to unlock, realistic weather effects, and non-linear off-road
courses. Its racing engine offers standard point-to-point, checkpoint and
battle races. Fuel's structure is open-ended to a point, since you have to
unlock most areas before you can race and explore them. This approach is
frustrating because there's a promise of unlimited freedom, but you need
to work to achieve it. Fuel's visuals are also erratic, some areas look
beautiful, while others are dull, giving the game an inconsistent feel.
Despite some promising features, Fuel doesn't live up to its potential,
and ends up falling short of the mark. |
If you look at the bullet-point features
list on the back of the box, you'd most likely be quite impressed by
Fuel's ambitious design. It includes more than 75 unique vehicles in
several classes such as off-road ATVs, four-wheel trucks, bicycles, muscle
cars and buggies to name a few. While some are available initially, most
of these need to be purchased by earning Fuel. This is done by winning
races and completing challenges. As you begin the game, you are placed in
the first Camp, where you can race in a series of events in that area,
along with a few other Challenge races. Placing first in any of these
events earns you points - how many you earn depends on the level of
difficulty you choose. It's a fairly straightforward system that allows
you to progress quickly. Each time you finish a race, you'll also earn a
star award, which allows you to unlock other camps in the Fuel world. The
races themselves have requirements as to which types of vehicles you can
use, and you need to purchase them in order to race that specific course.
This can be frustrating, but you can generally unlock them easily by
playing the courses sequentially and not skipping around. Once you get on
the track, you'll find that the game is somewhat more open-ended than most
racers. You can choose from a number of in-car, first person and outside
the vehicle views on the fly, which is helpful in racing through the
game's levels. You can also select the music or turn it off entirely and
perform other options. Players can also customize their vehicles in the
garage and use different paint schemes and livery (side panel) decals to
give their cars a unique look.
 Fuel's
sandbox approach to racing is most apparent when you get out of the camps
and enter free-roam mode. Here, you're set free to drive anywhere in that
specific section of the world. This allows you to drive from race to race
without having to bother with the menu. More importantly, hidden and
unlockable items will appear when you're traveling such as extra challenge
races, and Vistas, which are viewpoints that you can save and view later.
There's definitely a lot of ground to cover, since Fuel's world comprises
more than 14,000 miles of territory. Its easy to get out of range in these
sections and find yourself far from the career races. Fortunately, you can
pull up the menu at any point in the free-roam section and jump right back
into the action if you've had enough exploration. Exploration isn't just
sight-seeing, since learning the layout of the land can give you
advantages in the race that you wouldn't ordinarily find. While you can
race on the standard tracks, the real fun in Fuel is going off-road and
trying to cut corners to shave time off your laps. While its hard to find
all of these short-cuts on the fly, exploration can make a huge
difference. Fuel's set-piece races takes place in massice expansive
environments that allows you to go anywhere on the course. Instead of
facing just pavement, you'll also have to navigate off-road terrain,
including dirt roads, muddy sections, dusty deserts and thick forests.
Obviously, which such a wide-open area to explore, you might find yourself
getting lost from time to time. Helpfully, the game includes a cool GPS
system that you can turn on to point you in the right direction. This also
lets you see where checkpoints and finishing lines are. These are
indicated by large lines on the horizon, so you can tell immediately if
you're going in the right direction. In addition to the courses and the
rival vehicles, you'll also need to traverse and avoid a variety of
obstacles including fallen trucks and deep rivers. Adding to the
challenge, Fuel also has a robust weather system with wind storms, rain
and snow that can reduce your visibility significantly. All of this works
together to create an impressive looking game that delivers cutting edge
HD visuals, but the unfortunate thing is that the gameplay itself doesn't
live up to its presentation.
Fuel's races seem intense, but the
opponents' AI is somewhat erratic. A large part of this is due to the
difficulty setting, which ranges wildly between overly easy and incredibly
difficult. Some courses are cakewalks but others penalize players for
small errors. Falling helplessly behind early in a long race makes the
experience far more frustrating than it could have been. There are even
more inconsistencies which add to Fuel's problems. While each vehicle type
has their own handling and performance characteristics, the problem is
that there are wide variations in how they perform. Mixing off-road and
standard surfaces in the same game isn't usually a problem, but since the
off-road sections significantly slow you down, it makes it difficult to
maintain a sense of momentum during these transitions. Using the GPS is
usually a good strategy, but it isn't always useful. For instance, it
doesn't tell you when there's a large obstacle blocking your path, which
means you can slam into something without warning, costing you time and
increasing your level of aggravation. In some sections, you also need to
rely on the onscreen map to locate other drivers' position. Trying to use
Fuel's map and GPS at the same time is usually a formula for annoyance. An
over-reliance on these feels like a crutch to fix poor design and makes
Fuel a bit more complex and frustrating than it could have been. The
game's structure is also a bit unwieldy, and the camp and race system
seems like an unneeded confinement on what could have been a truly
exciting open-world race. While the visuals are technically excellent,
their aesthetics are also a bit odd. Using the color-drained, darker hues
makes for a sometimes ugly experience that doesn't feel as smooth or
polished as it could have. Unfortunately, this unbalanced gameplay,
inconsistent challenge and sometimes confusing navigation undermines the
technically impressive visuals, making Fuel a game that doesn't quite live
up to the promises it makes.
- Michael Palisano
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