Wipeout Fusion

"Fast, flying racing cars and weapons. Where can you go wrong with that?"

Do you know anything about the well proclaimed WipEout series that first made it's debut on the Sony Playstation with more than moderate success? No? Well what can I say. I'm the reviewer, and I don't even know the orgin to WipEout myself. All I know is that I knew that this game's precessors had some pretty self-acclaimed titles that could basically be defined as ''solid high-speed racing games''. I saw this game on the previews on magazines, and I thought this would be the perfect time to let myself be absorbed into a whole new type of game, since Star Wars: Episode One Racer and Star Wars: Episode One Racer Revenge both left sour tastes in my mouth. Then again, they were just money ploids made by Lucasarts to sucker kids into reliving the scene in that movie to fuel their.. bandwagon. Like me, but that's another story all together. If you are looking for high-speed racing games, look no further. WipEout Fusion delievers, but does it par up to expectations? It has it's fair share of pros, but mostly agonizing cons. Let's move on.

Story 5/10 - Maybe I'm simply not being fair at all, but I rented WipEout Fusion (Infact my rental ends tommarrow) so I guess my lack of total understanding under time constraints is one excuse from saving this game's story from a whopping zero. Infact, I detected no story what so ever. I didn't have a manual to read, but they should have given atleast some backdrop on the story after all. I seriously mean it. This game gives no backdrop on the story at all. From what I can see, I guess a lot of people want to win these races, which I'm not sure yet, but the mentioned that these races are simulations, and not real. That's probably just a misinformative doubt on my part, but I doubt anybody in their right mind would authorize ''racing'' like this in real-life. This is just a game though, look up. Anyway, just from total observations from the atmosphere of things, and given this is no RPG in depth, the storyline should get a 5.

Sound/Audio 9/10 - Has one ever heard such a superb soundtrack? I haven't. Atleast for awhile. WipEout Fusion shares that of a catchy, up-beat techno sounds playing through every track. Good, huh? I may be overrating it, but I haven't heard one piece of music on the track that fits improperly with the stage, or is just down right awful. Too bad you really can't do a soundtest.. You can only do a selection of the music you'll hear during every stage. That's better than nothing right? If somehow you get the info to learn the name of these songs since obviously they aren't vocals. Now for the soundeffects and stuff like that. Everything sounds in place as it should be. Hitting a wall sounds like hitting a wall with your metallic excuse of a hot-rod. Scrapping up the wall sounds like your metal is tearing away as your loss in the race is near, but that's for the gameplay section. The weapons you use sound brilliant, and in place as it should be, although during the race, the music will be blaring too loud to be able to hear your racer's actions through the race at first. I guess the engines are just merely silent in races like these.

Gameplay 6/10 - I've played my fair-shares of hard games in the past, but this isn't exactly a challenging game as in challenge like Metal Gear Solid 2's extreme mode with guard who hear gunshots from miles away, and they're in no way Emerald and Ruby weapons from Final Fantasy VII. Now what people never seem to notice is that there is a fineline between challenging, and down right frustrating. In the later races, challenge is thrown out the window (Unless you want to do the challenge mode..) and it comes full-ledged with frustration. Arcade mode is probably going to get you angry a few times at that red or black racer who passes you up in your glory to 1st place out of know where mere inches from the finish line. The league challenge on the other hand.. That's going to want to mangle your control in utter frustration because of it's coin-like draw edge. Sometimes you have good days in AG (Or AC or whatever) League, sometimes you simply don't. Most times you simply don't. Try getting far in AG League, and you'll see the complete frustration of getting blasted by gravity bombs constantly. Gravity bombs are just one of the more useful amount of weapons. (Autopilot is the worst.. Basically you get AI-like control who loves to usually plow through other racers) It's a light that shoots in the air, comes down, and stops other racers almost suddenly. Just alot of them at once. Or if it's used on you, it stops you for a couple of seconds as 6 more racers pass you up almost instantly. Then there's Quake. Self-explainatory, a quake ravages the course, stops all enemies and causes damage. Cool weapons right? Just not used mercilessly on you. That's one gripe right there. The AI. The AI are basically wolves, and you are the sheep with steak strapped onto your face at some points. They don't care where they turn, nor if you happen to be in the way. They just plow you into the wall or screen you, or do alot of other annoying things to prevent you to getting to first place. But then again, in later Leagues, the AI end up clearing out most of the other racers for you. That's good, but they still come after you like you're the prey. That's why you get good distancing between you, and them as humanly possible. And the odd turning doesn't make that any easier. One last gripe, don't use weapons like missles, grenades, or rockets to a racer infront of you in a narrow space. Ever. You are traveling at about 1000 kmh, so once you hit the guy, he stops suddenly, most assuringly, you're going to run into him a split second later. Oh wait, forgot one. This game is kinda buggy too. Sometimes you're hit by a weapon, and you fall through the floor, or the wall for no apparent reason at all, but this doesn't happen too often. It only happens when you seriously least expect it.

Control 8/10 - Control is good, typical for a racing game that is. You can pretty much guess the controls on your own if you've ever played any racing games. (After all, this is a review, not a manual) But one bad thing that happens is your turning. Well, your turning is something to get used too after awhile. As I said before, your inability to not run into walls will be your downfall as it goes on a shield system. Now your ship's center of gravity is at the center, so you can sort off see your ship leaning, yet turning nearly 50 degrees in the degrees you want to go in. Not too bad, but the tracks are sometimes small, and you'll be running into walls alot. Not even pulling hard on the analog is going to save you from grinding into a wall, scrapping off your shield energy from full health to 3/4ths of a shield rating. You can use your break to try to pull off of it faster, but that'll only force you on the wall faster, and harder. Try using your break before a turn, and that'll save you. Well, you break pretty fast, so just kinda, tap and hold until you are in the direction you want to. Don't even try to do this around other racers, but the control is good, and you can get used to the turning.

Graphics 7/10 - Graphics aren't everything, as everything looks nice and crisp. Although.. These graphics aren't anything to right home about. Sure if this was a game in the first generation of the PS2, they would be spectacular, but we've seen games like Final Fantasy X who can push PS2 to new limits. This game has pretty standard graphics as far as PS2 graphics go. Also, the game has a few popups every now and then. Like mountains, domes, etc. But atleast some of the weapon effects are pretty nice.

Features Here are some additional features of this game that'll get you hooked.

- If I recall, there's atleast 8 tracks with 3 courses. Somehow BAM! manages to pull reverse courses off as they look (and feel) almost entirely different courses. So that's 6 courses per track.

- Lots of weapons to tourtue your enemy with.

- Unlock a ''Zone'' mode. You're in the biggest unmanned racer in the game, and you drive on a oneway track with no opposition. You gradually speed up faster, and faster. And you can't hit any breaks. See how fast you go until you crash and burn!

- AG League. Good for unlocking additional challenges and racers, but still highly frustrating. For all you guys who like challenges with have a ballgame with this one.

- Challenge Mode, you can do challenges with every racer you get. Like elimiating 5 opponents under 5 laps, getting through one lap under _ Seconds, etc. Pretty interesting, and I haven't beaten it yet.

- Two pilots per racer. The second pilot is usually the best of the other racer pilot, so I guess doing the challenge mode will unlock them, I'm not sure.

The Final Verdict

WipEout Fusion is basically a good game with very few frustrating flaws to become my all out best racing game ever. Then again, I'm more of an RPG man myself, so I wouldn't know. Feel free to disagree, since there isn't exactly a right or wrong with the common mind of the readers of reviews, but I would rent the game like I have. And rent it as the only game you're going to get so you can unlock some things on your own. You can't save a game that you used cheats on, so feel free to complete this game. Probably not as good as WipEout and it's series for the PSX, but who knows. IMO, this is a pretty good attempt at a future racing game for BAM!.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/02, Updated 07/14/02