Score Rundown

Visuals
Sound
Gameplay
Replay

Overall: 6 (Above Average)

Ratings Explained

 
 

Developer


Bugbear
 

Publisher


VU Games
 

Released

7/12/05
 

Genre

Racing
 

There just aren’t enough destruction derby games being made nowadays. I’ll admit, they’re a guilty pleasure of mine and I’ll stop at nothing to jump on a new one as soon as it comes out. The same amount of excitement was present as soon as I heard about Flatout and was anxious to get back into the world of overly aggressive and destructive racing. After all, it’s a genre that has done me no wrong or so I thought. While Flatout offers some elements that make destruction derby/racing games so great, it ultimately falls a little flat and becoming plain frustrating in the end.

Flatout is purely an arcade destruction derby racer, so don’t look for any type of a storyline here. Staying true to the theme is the fact that you’ll be racing broken down looking hoopties as opposed to the sleek and shiny street racers of Burnout 3. The main part of the game lies in the career mode where you buy a car, race it through three race classes (bronze, silver, and gold) and earn money for purchasing upgrades which, in essence, are supposed to add more horsepower, traction, and stability to your vehicle. Once new race classes are unlocked, you can buy new and faster cars to attempt to give you an increased edge in future races.

Races take place in a number of environments such as wooded areas, construction sites, and paved race tracks. Making contact with rival cars and things piled on the side of the track will fill your nitrous meter, which you can use for some added boost as well as some bonus cash at the end of the race. In order to complete each class, you’re only required to place in the top three places for each race in order to advance to the next round. It’s the matter of getting into the top three places where the frustration factor kicks in.

Flatout relies heavily on its over-the-top physics engine which in turn can cause your car to handle like a wild pig no matter how much money you’ve invested into its upgrades. You’ll constantly find yourself careening around corners and fishtailing along straight-aways. Since this is a destruction derby racer, crashes come often. While you’re somewhat encouraged to smash into the piles of tires, cones, barrels, fences, and other destructible goodies on the side of the road to gain boost and a smash bonus, you’ll quickly find yourself involved in a number of accidents for the most obscene things. While you can oftentimes drive right over cones, once in a while a lone cone will send your car into a violent multiple end-over-end accident. The same story goes for tires and other debris left on the track from yourself and your rivals smashing things up. Your car is a veritable tire magnet. If you make any kind of contact with a pile of tires with your back end, your front end will swing around right into the middle of them. Once an accident occurs, instead of the game automatically placing your vehicle back on the track, you’ll have to wait for a message encouraging you to hit the triangle button to get put back on the track. In the meantime, you’ll lose anywhere from three to six places while you wait for the reset message to pop up, causing one slip up to almost cost you an entire race, especially if your rivals end up hitting you, which you’ll have to wait for every passing rival to hit you and your vehicle to come to a complete stop before getting placed back on the track and most likely into last place. If the debris doesn’t cause you any Hollywood caliber accidents, you’ll most likely just get stuck on them and start spinning your wheels for a few seconds until the game will offer to put your car back onto the track. You’ll also be in big trouble if your car spins out, since turning around is nearly impossible and will often times cause you to start spinning in donuts instead of straightening out, even in the more expensive cars. Luckily, the same sorts of things will happen to your opponents which evens out the ground a bit. In addition to battling your car for control, the camera will occasionally work against you as well. Driving down any kind of hill will result in moments of confusion since your car model will be in the way and without any way to manually adjust your view; you’re left in fate’s hands until you reach the bottom.

One element the game boasts is the ability for the driver to be launched through the windshield. While this is a great addition, it can really ruin a race for you, as if the frequent and unforgiving accidents aren’t bad enough. If your driver is ejected, you’ll have to wait for the body to come to a stop before being reset onto the track. While this makes sense and can happen in reality, drivers really shouldn’t be ejected if they’re side-swiped or spun.

In addition to the main races, you can also try your hand at the bonus races the game offers. This is where a lot of the fun of the game lies. You’ll find events like the long jump, where you’ll launch your driver for record distances, the high jump which is just like the long jump only upwards, a bowling game where your driver acts as the bowling ball, and a dart game where you try to hurl your driver as close to the bull’s eye as possible. In addition to the driver launching events, you’ll also have some mud races where you’ll race on a crazy eight track or a roundabout track. Of course, the real money shot of the bonus races are the destruction derbies where several opponents are pitted against each other in a bowl of car smashing mayhem that won’t stop until the last car that’s still running and not on fire is the winner. Even here, Flatout manages to mess things up by placing debris everywhere and causing normally exciting destruction derbies to become a snail paced game of bumper cars where you’ll get caught on debris every couple of minutes. You won't get many opportunities to gain enough speed and really register a good T-Bone to an opponent or deliver a hard shot to their back end for a 720 degree spin. The thrill of the destruction derby is all but gone here.

There are some fun elements to the gameplay here, it’s not all bad. When accidents all make sense, the game is capable of being fun. Each track has a number of obstacles that you’ll have to avoid while going along at insane amounts of speed in some cars, causing most races to be pulse pounding, white knuckled affairs. There’s also the excitement of sending opponents into a stack of tires or through a fence to have them feel the same pain you do. There is some excitement to be had in Flatout; it’s just that the frustration takes over most of the time.

Multiplayer mode offers the same modes as the single player game, but will allow up to eight human players to race or engage in some destruction derby carnage. Depending on who you play against, you might find the frustration not to be as strong in the multiplayer, though you’ll still have to play through single player to upgrade your cars.

The visuals are by far the best part of Flatout. Car models all look great in their run down glory and are destroyed realistically. When you lose your hood, you’ll be able to see your cars cooling fan spinning which is a very nice touch. The physics engine makes any wreck spectacular, especially when the driver is ejected which will have them flailing and contorting to the point where it’s almost sick. There’s just nothing like watching your driver fall head first into the pavement from 100 feet above during the high jump event.

There are some issues with clipping, which can result in some pretty funny moments like driving around with scaffolding sticking out of the top of your car or one instance where the driver was ejected as my hood was flying off and ended up spearing himself through the hood and into an awaiting tree. The driver will also act as a human arrow during the bonus events and end up sticking head first into walls and chain-link fences for some pretty sickening glitches.

The game boasts a soundtrack of licensed music from relative unknown bands which range from alternative to rap rock. While some tunes are catchy, you’ll end up concentrating on the race at hand more than the music.

Each car model sounds different with heavy muscle cars having more of a growl than the speedier types. Crashes have just the right amount of crunch to them and sound great. Skids across pavement sound a bit too soft though. You’ll also get some screams from your driver when they’re ejected. While they differ from male to female, you’ll get the exact same screams every time.

In essence, Flatout has all the makings of a really fun game, but ends up being pulled down thanks in part to some all-out tomfoolery from the physics engine and the fact that even the most minor of accidents are as unforgiving as the most brutal. Or maybe it’s just the fact that I may suck at the game. Either way, it’s hard for me to recommend this game as anything more than a rental, even to the most devout destruction derby fans. Games like this should be fast paced and chaotic. Flatout only manages to get half of it right.

- Brad Hicks (aka Dr. Swank), SwankWorld Media

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