Wipeout Fusion

"Weapon-Blazing, Hi-Octane, Anti-Gravity Vroom"

Not being much of a racing genre fan, many of my friends looked at me funny when this Final Fantasy otaku walked into a mutual game room with a Wipeout Fusion disk on the tip of his finger and a smirk on his face. Mind you, I'm not the best race player in the world; compared to most players, I stink. But having experience with the previous Wipeouts/Wip3outs, playing through to form a review wasn't that tough. Enough of my blather, on with the review:

Gameplay:Overall 8/10
Controls: 8/10
If you've played the previous games in this series, controls should be generally familiar. The only command changes since Wipeout XL/2097 is that we lost the nose up/down commands and gained a jukebox. Having different configurations to choose always helps, but a function to custom-tailor your control settings would have been better.

AI: 7/10
Opponent control AI is just fine. It actually feels pretty realistic. Opponent weapon AI is another matter. I don't remember opponents firing their weapons when they have no target in possible range. In most cases I've seen opponents fire off grenades in front when they're in first place. Missiles and Proton Cannons seem controlled right, though I don't understand why they should immediately have a Proton Cannon firing rate equal to the game's max fire rate. It takes complete concentration on the player's part to achieve such a feat, often sacrificing concentration from maneuvering, unless this player has a fast data transfer turbo control :P One last problem with the AI comes into play when you use the Autopilot. On some teams the Autopilot is slightly unstable, but reliable. In some cases the Autopilot just decides to Autopilot you into a wall until it wears off or until you cancel it.

Tracks: 5/10
Ok, the tracks look nice, true. Alternate sections/shortcuts and placement of turbo pads, weapon pads, and action pads make the overall tracks great. But, I don't like the fact that if I turbo into a wall, get hit by a high-power weapon (some supers, quake, gravity bomb) near a wall, get slammed into a wall by a high speed/turboing opponent, or just fail to stay on an unprotected strip, I fall off the track and have to stare at the ugly polygon ends. Now, it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that, if I don't keep moving, the rescue team isn't going to come for me and I'm going to lose major time, except in extreme cases where you're placed in first place. If they had increased the game's emergency response time, this wouldn't be such a problem.

Extra Features: 10/10
Ok, this part turned out really nice. First thing that comes to mind is the fact that this is the first Wipeout that gives you the ability to upgrade your ships. An art gallery, additional play modes, additional weapons, additional teams, and in-game codes found on later pictures in the art gallery round out the gaming experience.

Challenge: 8/10
The challenge you'll find won't come from weapon usage by opponents, but their actual racing abilities plus the way some of the tracks are built. Weapons will only come into play as you unlock the stronger weapons.

Graphics: Overall 9/10
Tracks: 9/10
Detail on the tracks is extraordinary. Everything looks almost realistic. The only real problem is when you fall through the track. All you can see is the unfinished, jagged ends of the surrounding polygons.

Ships: 9/10
What can I say? Models change when you upgrade enough, damage looks realistic, and is, in most cases, applied on the area that was hit. The original teams that show up in this season of Wipeout have much of the original ship model, and the newer teams have some really nice ships. Racer heads could use a little touching up, but not much.

Weapons: 10/10
The weapons are really basic, as far as graphics are concerned, which is perfect. Do you really want a huge, fiery smoke trail from a small missile clouding your vision? The better graphics were rightfully saved for the super weapons, and even then aren't to detailed as to obstruct gameplay.

Audio: Overall 8/10
Music: 10/10
All of the songs have a good beat to race to, and it was interesting to see remixes to a couple song's I'd run through in Frequency. Nonetheless, the music selection was perfect IMHO.

Sound Effects/Voice: 8/10
The sound of grinding metal was emulated nicely. Weapon effects matched their respective weapons. Voice, however, left a little to be desired when music, weapons, and damage effects drowned out the already slightly garbled announcer voices.

Play Value: 8/10
First time you pop this game into your PS2, you'll be happy, unless you only like realistic racers. If you can enjoy futuristic/fantasy settings, you should have a well rounded racing experience with gradually increasing challenge

Replay Value: 9/10
With the amount of locked features, you'll be coming back for quite a while.

Overall: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/02, Updated 07/26/02