Wipeout Fusion

"The magic has gone..."

As a huge fan of the previous Wipeout games I was really looking forward to playing wipeout fusion.

What a disappointment. So many of the things that made the series a joy have been ruined. The smooth, responsive control is gone, replaced by an altogether more sluggish dynamic. The ships have a weird habit of sticking to the walls, grinding away shield energy.

Weapons play a far greater role in WF than in previous Wipeout games. Fine, every series needs to change and evolve. The problem here is that emphasis on weapons undermines what wipeout is all about: Flying around a track at blistering speeds. Every few seconds you get shot with a rocket, slam into a grav-stinger, or get blasted with a grenade. Bang goes all the speed you built up, and it really spoilt the entire experience for me.

What's that you say? Use your weapons against the other ships more to compensate? Well, I would if 80% of the time shooting a ship or group of ships in front of my craft didn't result in a log-jam of ships for me to slam into a split second later.

Sure, you can upgrade your ship to a faster model, with better shields etc, but the design flaws are too fundamental for this to make much of an improvement.

The Graphics are good but not exceptional. Things do move at a fair old lick and the frame rate is (usually) pretty high. Compared to some of designs in previous wipeouts I found the tracks to be rather unmemorable. Some new features like loops and tight corkscrews make an appearance, but I couldnt say that the game would be poorer without them.

The game also feels rather rushed, loading times are long and on several occasions I fell ''through'' the solid wall of the track!

Maybe longer in development would have helped iron out the gameplay flaws as well. Wipeout fusion was announced shortly after the PS2's initial unveiling, so its not as if there is much of an excuse for the above flaws.

On a brighter note, it is a large game with many features and tracks to unlock.Whether you can be bothered is another matter entirely. As ever with the series, the soundtrack is superb, featuring wipeout regulars such as The Future Sound of London and Orbital. Its a matter of taste, but I prefer the soundtracks to 2097 and Wip3out.

If you want wipeout on the PS2, stick your old copy of Wipeout 2097 in. Its much more fun, and you can probably pick it up for £5 on ebay.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/02, Updated 02/20/02