Asobo Studio is the developing company of this huge racing game, a game that has been already recognized by the Guinness World Records to have the largest playable area. I followed every detail about this game since GC 2008 because the game seemed to be so promising. It was like nothing would stand in its path to become a corner stone in the racing game genre. But everything collapsed without a reason, FUEL becoming just another open world racing game detached from the others only by its huge playable area. If I close my eyes, the only thing that comes in my mind is its hugeness and nothings else. It's like the developers wanted to show off how good they are in creating unlimited virtual environments without bothering to create a meaning for it. I could easily end this review right here, because this game is all about its dimension and nothing else.

In FUEL you have to race for fuel in order to acquire new vehicles that will help you complete new races and challenges. Although FUEL features an open world environment without loading times, every main race or challenge is accessible from the main menu. The whole area is divided into smaller regions, every region having a number of races and challenges that must completed in order to have access to a new one. Only in the end you will be able to explore the whole 5,000 sqm area. The question is, why did the developers bother to create such a huge environment if the players can access the major races and challenges from the menu? Because, every region has also secondary races and challenges. And these can only be accessed if there are discovered on the map. Besides secondary races and challenges, you can also find vista points and new liveries for your vehicles. I doubt that many of the gamers will explore such a vast territory only to look for a new livery. It's almost a sadistic goal when have to drive more than 30 miles for just a single livery. Not even the vista points, that might offer some nice views with impressive draw distances, can make you cross a region from one side to the other in order to discover it.

There are seventy vehicles to choose from across six different classes including motorcycles, quads, SUVs, muscle cars, buggies and trucks. Every vehicle has a different handling, based on the seven aspects of performance: speed, acceleration, grip, brake, reliability, asphalt, offroad. A vehicle with high offroad tolerance can achieve higher speeds on loose surfaces than a vehicle with high asphalt tolerance. The reliability aspect shows how much a car can resist until it becomes totaled. The game features no visual damage and any hit will have no influence in the vehicles' handling. The only thing that shows the state of the car is a damage indicator. Even if it's a 100% arcade game, these performance aspects can influence the success of a race. The only problem here is that the game is forcing you to choose only from a limited number of vehicles for each race or challenge, most of the time the collection available being unsuitable for the terrain in that specific race. Bike races will take place on endless wide areas, while the trucks races have a tendency to take place in narrow locations or on bumpy terrain. Also the handling of the vehicles tend to feel awkward in some categories: muscle cars tend to slide too much with an exaggerated over-steer effects, while the bikes feature no weight shifting and tend to be extremely rigid in some situations. In this way the difficulty is significantly increased. You also have to take in consideration that a race will be successful only when you will end it in first place. In addition, the A.I. is cheating on the highest difficulty by running faster using the same vehicle like the player and being "immune" to whatever obstacle it might encounter on its way.

{pagebreak}

Races can take place on any type of terrain, from plain tarmac roads, to dusty hills and snowy mountains, but most important, race will be influenced also by the weather. You will be forced to race through fog, rain, tornadoes or sandstorms. Unfortunately the extreme weather effects are not as destructible as specified in the official descriptions of the game. These effects are more of a graphical presence, which looks amazing and increases the overall picture's quality. The graphics are impressive featuring day/night cycle and lighting effects that brings the environment to life. A huge work has been done in recreating detailed areas, especially in areas where you can rarely race. Dense woods or high grass sections become overwhelming for the player's eyes. But on the other hand a lot of the landscape is plain and lacks of any variety, a general feeling that persists even after driving for more than 20 minutes continuously.  

The major problem with FUEL is that most of the content is already given from the beginning, little else remaining to be done. The exploration is not rewarding enough compared to Burnout Paradise or Test Drive Unlimited, two games that FUEL was weigh against. Races are repetitive and consists in driving through checkpoints either we are talking about an Endurance race, a Knockout Race or simple Races. The only original challenge in this game is the Helicopter Chase: a race between you and a chopper on an unmarked route. In this type of race not even the smart GPS assistant can help you, a system that comes in handy on most of the game especially when you want to explore any of the regions. The system can be activated or deactivated at any moment even while in a race. It always calculates the shortest drivable route to the next checkpoint. Compared to the huge environment, the system is extremely accurate, but you have to keep in mind that it will always show you the drivable route. If you decide to drive straight into bushes, you will be on your own. 

{pagebreak}

Conclusion

I still can't believe how shallow this game is! So much work put into creating a huge environment without any reason. Checkpoints races and hidden liveries for vehicles are not enough to make you drive for days in this otherwise beautiful environment.

Gameplay: 60

If you are into racing games there is a probability you will also try out FUEL. But its pointless arcade races collection, will not make you stay too much in this post apocalyptic world. On the other hand, some of you will praise the Free Roaming option where you can drive offline or online exploring the whole map and finding meaningless view points and secondary races or challenges. Even the huge vehicles collection with their unrealistically design cannot increase its playability. The whole game stands out only for its 5,000 sqm surface that can be fully accessed only after completing the main events.  

Graphics: 89

The only thing that should not be underrated in this game, are the graphics. Compared to what huge surface the graphical engine has to display, the overall picture looks amazing. A lot of detailed zones are in contrast with plain zones where there's nothing to be seen. At least you are in a car and you can pass fast these zones. The vehicles didn't receive too much attention so there is no damage modeling and some of them don't look too credible. Although I've tested the XBOX 360 version of the game, I was overall impressed by the high fidelity visuals considering the high amount of terrain the graphical engine has to cover.

Multiplayer: 71

If you really want to have a straight fight, you should definitely try out the online component. You can race against 15 players in career races or in Free Roaming mode. The biggest problem online is the lag present in both XBOX 360 and PS3 versions. It causes players to teleport on occasion anywhere around the race area. Another minus is the fact that after the end of every online race, the players are thrown automatically in the Free Roam mode without having the option to remain in a lobby or in the main menu. If you get bored of any online race available, you can create your own ones like in Test Drive Unlimited. The problem here comes in placing the checkpoints, an operation that can be done only by using the map. In this way the player will not know exactly on what terrain his race will take place nor can he create a smart course.

Sound: 58

The sound is annoying and repetitive. A couple of electro-rock tracks tend to play in a continuously loop in each race. The ambient sounds should have been carefully analyzed, as this game takes place in an open world, but not a chance.