Fuel Review (360)

Time to burn some Fuel! I mean�.um�.spend it?

Codemasters have come together to bring us another racing game, though this isn’t your average track racer. Fuel is an open world racer with a Guinness World Record surface to play on and I got to tell you, the world that you can explore is massive.

Yes, the world is gargantuan but is this enough to keep people playing? The box cover also states that the game has a dynamic weather system, so you can be racing in heavy storms, beaming sunshine or even tornados. Let me tell you about the game.

There isn’t much of a primary objective to Fuel, really. The inhabitants that used to live in the area moved away because of the insane weather conditions and a bunch of crazy daredevil racers moved onto the land to thrash there vehicles around. Simple.

When playing Fuel I couldn’t help but feel like there would be no end to the game. So many races and challenges must be completed that it can overwhelm you at certain points of the game. The races and challenges are also very repetitive and can get very boring, very quickly. For instance, I had to drive from one end of a zone to the other and it took around 20-25 minutes. Now, I don’t know about you other gamers, but having to spend up to 25 minutes on one race where you are literally driving straight made me lose interest instantly. There are some fun races though, those which feature big jumps and awkward terrain to traverse are the best in my opinion and keep the game bearable.

I thought the game would be a lot of fun to play through when blasting across huge stretches of land but I was wrong

The handling of the vehicles in Fuel isn’t too bad. The vehicles all handle differently depending on what you choose. You can drive sports cars, SUV’s, trucks, motorcycles, buggies and monster trucks, which all have there benefits in certain races. The handling of the vehicles also depends on the terrain you are on. If you are on tarmac you will be able to control your car well but then if you hit a muddy surface you’re going to be sliding around with each turn you make.

All vehicles are bought by using your Fuel points that you earn from races and challenges. For some reason I find using Fuel points as currency very strange but I guess it fits in with the game�just.

The dynamic environment is pretty cool at times but it could be better. Rain looks fairly good on screen but none of the rain effects will amaze you and the same goes for the high winds when racing. I did like the way that dirt and greenery flies around with the high winds, and looked very good. The lightning effects are okay and flash out the screen slightly, and just put a little bit more atmosphere into the game. Tornados look awesome and deadly but I never got to go up close to one, mainly because they only seem to come out in races which is annoying. I couldn’t help but keep rotating the camera to see where the tornado was during the race which led me to many crashes.

Graphically the game isn’t fantastic. Some of the environments can be very bland and repetitive. There is also some technical difficulties with the game which I think comes from the actual racing surface itself. You will be going through sandy areas and you can see a grid around you vehicle as if the game isn’t finished. Its annoying as hell. Like I said, some of the weather effects can look really nice with the tornados clearly being the best weather effect.

FuelSome of the music in the game is okay. It has got a good beat to it at times but it doesn’t really make the game any better. Sounds on the vehicles are weird though. Vehicles make no noise when they are in the air, but when there on the ground noise comes blasting from their engines. Very weird.

I had a go on the multiplayer option but barely got to play with other online players. I got to do 2 races and that’s it. I was hoping that the multiplayer option could boost my opinion on the game but it didn’t. There was only a few modes to choose from which are all in the actual campaign anyway, so it kind of seems pointless.

Overall the game was a disappointment, especially when I liked the look of the trailers. I thought the game would be a lot of fun to play through when blasting across huge stretches of land but I was wrong, it gets boring very quickly. There is plenty to do and plenty of collectibles to gather, it’s just finding the will to do it all that’s the problem. Graphics need a extra polish and the technical difficulties only make the game look worse.

We all know that Codemasters can produce better racing games than this.

The Good: Plenty of things to do,Vehicle handling is good, Tornados are rally cool when you find them!
The Bad: Repetitive, Gets boring quickly, Graphics aren’t great


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3 3 / 5

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