Full Auto 2: Battlelines

"Take the worst parts of Twisted Metal and racing games and you have Full Auto 2."

I am seriously starting to rethink my video game rental membership. After renting Untold Legends, Genji and this game for the Playstation 3, it's definitely starting to feel like I jumped the gun on buying the PS3. As it stands, right now it is simply a very expensive wireless controller for my old PS2 games and it's missing dual-shock so even that kind of bites. All of these release games are doing little to bolster my confidence in the big shiny brick that is the new Sony system.

Full Auto 2 has some story about trying to stop some gang of some sort or another called the Ascendants. I'm honestly not too sure to be honest; you don't play games like this for their award winning stories so I wasn't paying attention to the annoying computer voice. That's how this games story unfolds by the way; you are spoken to by this annoying over computerized voice. She also gives you tips and such along the way, but all of it is really common sense.

The career mode is probably the biggest lump of turd I have ever had the “privilege” to play. You are given a bunch of annoying objectives and side objectives that you need to complete during each level to beat it and unlock things. While it doesn't seem all that bad at first, where you are told to complete laps in X amount of time or take out five enemies, it quickly enters annoying territory. You will encounter levels where during the race you must take out a certain competitor and take a high rank in the race. Now this isn't all that hard at first glance because a symptom of blowing up other racers is that you gain positions. It's actually a reliable way of gaining places in the races with the bigger cars. Blow up the opposition, gain a rank, go after the next guy and repeat.

But you would be ever so wrong if this sounds like it's easy. The developers knew that we would see this sort of thing as actually fun. Well as we know, some game developers are loathe to allow their games to actually be fun, they must be challenging. But not challenging in that Ghouls n' Ghosts way, it is challenging in that so annoying you pull your hair out sort of way. As you try to race down and destroy these targets, the other racers on the track aren't going to simply race and try to gun you down. They are going to stop in their tracks, turn around and follow you around trying to destroy you. So not only is it you versus four or more enemies, they are all going to do their best to follow you around and destroy you as a team. Yeah, that is real fun.

The controls in this game are fairly awkward feeling at first, with the buttons spread out all over the controller. It seems very hard to control, and it is at first, but with time you will eventually get used to where the buttons are. That's not so say that you will get used to controlling this game however, don't make the mistake of believing this. The car controls are so sloppy and haphazard feeling that there is no point where you feel comfortable controlling the cars. You will be surprised at how fast you end up going and how often you slide out during a turn and go right into a wall. This honestly doesn't bother me at all in the faster cars, high speed often comes hand in hand with high impact, but with the bigger trucks it seems kind of silly.

The graphics for this game are top notch, but this works against you quite often. The cars all look fabulous as does the surrounding city. It's a bit odd that the only pedestrians you will see are other cars, but this was likely done to avoid an M rating, so it's understandable. But everything you could want to see in this game looks great, whether you and another car are swapping paint or if you are smashing through a storefront or into a wall. Brick walls break, glass shatters and cars crumple all in very realistic ways.

However, there are a lot of explosions to be had in this game and it seriously works against you. Sure, the explosions and the ensuing cloud of smoke and dust looks fabulous, but it comes at a heavy price. There will be times where the screen becomes so saturated with explosions and debris with dust and smoke flying all over and you will not be able to see a thing. While this is realistic, it does make the whole racing part of this game a very dicey proposition. Especially considering the fact that the computer AI makes little to no mistakes during the race, all it takes is one crash due to lots of smoke and debris and you are pretty much guaranteed last place if you don't know the course like the back of your hand.

The audio is fairly lackluster in this game as well. Now this isn't to say that it is bad per se, but more that it doesn't really stand out very much. You have your typical sounds of deadly weapons being throw about, missiles and machine guns and the like, and you also have the sounds of explosions, crashes and the like. This is all to be expected, but added to the sub-par computer voice that you are forced to listen to and the lack of interesting music and you have some pretty sub-par audio to deal with.

What you really get with Full Auto 2: Battlelines is a decent enough game that really doesn't do anything all too well. The racing isn't the best, and this hurts because it is part racing game. The car combat isn't the best because the enemies are far too smart, they gang up on you and are generally ten times better than you are. Basically, this game takes the frustrating, omnipotent and team minded AI of the Twisted Metal games and meshes it with the over necessity to memorize every shortcut in every stage, a serious necessity in racing games. This leaves you to hunker along, dealing with the games annoying flaws in the hopes to milk a decent experience out of it. It is possible, but this is very much a matter of taste.

Pros: The game looks great, there are a nice variety of cars and weapons and the particle effects are wonderful.

Cons: You cant see a bloody thing once explosions start, the enemy AI is totally flawless, game is hard but in an annoying way and the controls are too loose feeling.

Score: 6

Recommendation: Rent this game and see if you enjoy it. If by some miracle you do, then you can consider if it is worth the price to buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/07