Split/Second Preview

During a demo of the game, they showed a revamped shipyard level and a downtown level and a mode in the game known as Nemesis. Both the shipyard and downtown level feature massive circuits to race on, but like all of the game's tracks we've seen so far, these are "circuits" only in the strictest sense in the word. Yes, you'll be crossing the start/finish line three times in Split/Second, but every successive lap will be a different experience thanks to the destructive power plays at your disposal.

By pulling off advanced driving techniques like drifting, drafting, and jumping, you'll gradually fill up your power meter. There are three stages to the power meter. The two lower stages will set off small power plays with a press of the A button--these small explosions might take out a car or two ahead of you. If you fill up your power meter to the maximum, you can set off super power plays. These are where the money is--and the wholesale destruction that ensues didn't fail to bring a big goofy smile to our faces each time we saw it.

Chaos

For example, in the downtown level, a super power play brings down a huge stretch of elevated freeway; as you barrel down the road with the calamity happening right beside you, you'll eventually reach a derailed train lying in a flaming wreck at the head of the disaster, and you'll need to quickly swerve onto a previously closed section of track to avoid it. These super power plays essentially redraw sections of the maps in Split/Second, becoming on-the-fly shortcut creators with the added bonus of tons of smoke, fire, and associated chaos. What's more, super power plays aren't just "one-and-done." In the shipyard level, there's a massive cargo liner that starts off elevated above the road--one super power play later and it's a collapsed wreck that you're drivingthrough on the next lap. If you enact another super power play, the ship collapses even further, resulting in a different path through the rest of the course. In all, the goal seems to be creating enough power play moments to keep even the relatively short three-lap races interesting and varied each time you play them through.

Loaded helicopters are just one of the power plays

Split/Second's three car classes will have some bearing on your strategy for tackling races: supercars are fast and light but prone to getting out of control easily, especially if you're close to the shock wave of a massive power play. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the race trucks; big, heavy, and slow (well, relatively speaking), trucks are more stable in explosions, but you'll pay for that stability with a lack of acceleration. Muscle cars find the balance between speed and stability and seem like they might be a good choice for players in the early goings of the game.

We saw one other mode, known as Nemesis, which is essentially a survival mode. As you drive through a viaduct straight out of Terminator 2, your goal is to stay alive as long as possible, passing as many vehicles as you can while random big rigs drop explosive barrels in front of you. Blue barrels take time off the clock, and red barrels destroy you completely. In addition, there are random enemy cars that will further impede your progress.

Uncluttered HUD

Unlike in most racing games, where your focus is on either your car or the road directly ahead of you, in Split/Second, you find your eye roaming all over the screen looking for what huge object will explode next. The game's developers understand this phenomenon and therefore have removed as much of the HUD as possible--in fact, the only information you need is displayed directly under your car's bumper: lap number, power meter level, and your position in the race. All of the extraneous stuff--like the speedometer (after all, who cares exactly how fast you're going when a massive cargo liner is exploding in front of you?)--has been removed to make way for the good stuff.

Watch the gameplay trailer below.

Split/Second impresses me--I'm already convinced the game is going to be a lot of fun both offline and online. I look forward to seeing where the game ends up when it's released in May.