There was a time I was stuck in the screen of my PS3, having played so many games, I couldnât find anything interesting in my video club. Since I pretty much disliked racing games, they were also out of the question. Then did Full Auto 2 came to my hands. Basically having no other option I decided to try it out. And it was rewarding. A good experience able to put you in the seat of a driver.
I have split the themes to be covered in categories:
Publication
Full Auto 1 started as a car combat game by being published only for Xbox 360. However, SEGA changed its mind and decided to publish Full Auto 2: Battlelines exclusively for PlayStation 3 continuing the car combat into another console. That is one drawback this game has, as it could be published for both consoles.
Menu and modes
Full Auto 2 has, a very clear menu in which you decide if you want to start a career or play a simple skirmish match. In the Career mode you start by playing specific matches that form the story of the game. The career is the mode in which you unlock a whole new bunch of cars, weapons and car skins. In the arcade you choose any of the cars you have unlocked and weapons as well as the mode you want to play, race or gladiator. On race your main objective is to finish first even by destroying enemies vehicles. On gladiator you have to wreck as many enemy cars as you can to earn points and avoid dying many times.
Story
As to almost all the racer games, the story is a little irrelevant to the game. What story would you like to exist in a race?
The story begins in a city where a super computer named SAGE has been built. The computer seems to be instructed by its software to solve mankind's problems so it firstly sends you to battle a gang which dominates the city and organizes deadly car races.
Cars & Weaponry
There is a quite big amount of cars available in the game each with its own pros and cons. The cars are unreal so don't expect to see a Porsche or an RX8 or whatever. However the vehicles are based on the vehicles that have existed in the past or continue to exist today. That is a benefit because you are not supposed to be limited by the real racers. All cehicles are categorized into classes.
Class D generally contains slow but durable vehicles like jeeps, trucks or even armored limos, great for gladiator battles.
Class C vehicles are balanced but with mediocre statistics.
Class B cars are also balanced but some emphasize too much on speed. Generally good for race matches.
Class A cars are made to go fast, sacrificing durability and weapon capacity for flexibility and speed. Naturally better than class B cars for race matches.
Finally, Class S vehicles are by far the best vehicles. They are suitable for all roles. They actually give the impression of being âbuggedâ custom-made, futuristic vehicles designed to be used through cheating. Only 2 vehicles exist in that category.
As for the weaponry you can have, it is categorized into light, medium and heavy. All sorts of weapons an automobile can have (and not have) are there. Quite an amount of options but strict players may find their number disappointing.
Action
Howâs the gameplay? To me, amazingly ârealâ. All-out combat with devastating weaponry, really crazy speeds, close (or long) ranged detailed carnage, Urban or country environments with the same great detail. It takes a little time to muster the speeds in these risky stages and this is where we jump to the second disadvantage of the game: Extreme speeds in narrow environments. Indeed you will find yourself ready to break the controller when playing as you will bump to another playerâs wreck, go upside down, and be splat many times onto the walls. However, there is one tiny feature that literally makes this drawback go away: Unwreck. Using the same energy the âboostâ feature uses, it allows you to âreverseâ game time back to where you were still driving normally, before something really annoying happens. Then you will have a second chance (or even a third if you have enough energy to reactivate unwreck afterwards), to avoid the annoying fact that you missed your target by one inch and got destroyed by another player! Sadly, unwreck can never be activated in 2 on 2 mode when playing with another friend, so drive carefully! Now in gladiator mode (see above) you really have to cause as much destruction as you can on the enemies. Unwreck will be slightly less useful here but it will help you still. As for the second drawback, is that it will not easily impress race game fans due to its awful multiplayer, and imbalanced racing without unwreck which takes some time to master.
Long story short
A very good game with its breakneck speeds and detailed carnage putting adrenaline to its limits! However it is not made for race fans but instead to impress and call new fans into the world of car combat. To win new fans for SEGA.
You know, my point about this game is that its car combat, not race and that's the real reason many race fans won't be impressed. As a car combat game, to me its the best! One of a kind.
