Full Auto

Lighting up city streets in Sega's road race blaster. Some lovely final direct feed gameplay videos included.

	Version Xbox 360	Developer Pseudo Interactive	Publisher Sega	Genre Action Racing

By Joseph Jackson

When details on Sega's first batch of next-generation offerings first emerged it was interesting to see that they weren't starting out in their usual fashion, instead attempting to branch out and provide something different to their usual Japan-developed wares. With Full Auto, Sega has charged onto 360 with a nice combat-racing game.

Ever since we checked out earlier builds last year, the game transported us back to the arcade scene of the late-80s where the deluxe arcade cabinets for Atari's Road Blasters and Stun Runner gave players an early taste of vehicular-based combat. And while Sega's Full Auto plays a bit differently, the basic gameplay is comfortably familiar, with a variety of cool features.

One word that describes Full Auto's gameplay is "chaotic". Players take control of a variety of cars armed with a pair of front and rear mounted weapons and a set of different racing options. While the vehicle choices are pretty slim at first, players will be able to unlock more than twenty additional vehicles and around ten weapon types in the game's Career mode. Career mode is where the meat of the game lies - pretty lengthy with a number of racing objectives and a large number of tracks to clear in each chapter - but things are a little on the repetitive side.

Outside of the weaponless Time Trial events, the racing and shooting gameplay mechanics of Full Auto remain pretty much the same all throughout the game. Fortunately the game is lots of fun to play, so the repetitiveness isn't a crippling problem. As players complete challenges and win medals, they'll unlock tracks, vehicle classes, paintwork, and weapons that can be employed for some quick play action in arcade mode. The arcade mode is a pretty standard single-player affair that initially contains just a handful of tracks, as well as a very limited selection of cars and weapons to start off with.

In two-player split-screen mode the action does chug along at times, but still makes for some pretty decent head-to-head racing action against a friend. Online play allows up to eight players in battle and for the most part, our online sessions ran pretty smoothly with only minor lag creeping in at times, while retaining a solid set of racing options and easily navigable interface, plus standard stuff like voice chat and leaderboards. Not too shabby.

CPU-controlled racers are an aggressive bunch and you'll spend a good deal of the races not only trying to maintain your lead by dodging missiles and gunfire, but also dodging grenades and mines dropped from other vehicles in the lead, making races a constant effort to stay alive. Machine-guns, shotguns, and missiles make up some of the hood-mounted weapons you can use to blast cars in the lead, while grenades, smoke screens, as well as mines can be left behind as gifts to cars approaching the rear. Players will be eventually be presented with the option of tuning their weapons and making them more powerful, albeit at the expense of the secondary weapon.

Full Auto's fast-paced, arcade-styled gameplay is plenty of fun and really easy to get into. Thanks to the game's short learning curve, players will be up and running in no time. The controls are pretty solid and intuitive, while there's decent depth too; the vehicles all differ in terms of speed, handling and amour. They're pretty well balanced in that regard and all of the cars control well in general, allowing for fast and comfortable navigation of corners without much trouble and powersliding should quickly become second nature.

There's also a Boost feature that players can activate to give themselves a much-needed advantage when falling behind. Like 'nitrous', its use is governed by a gauge that fills as you perform slides, or accumulate Wreck Points, which are awarded for carnage and destruction to your surroundings. While your main goal is to finish the races as quickly as possible, you'll need to think about wreck points to complete some races.

And the wreck points system is pretty good at highlighting the sheer level of interactivity throughout the game. Environments crumble under machinegun fire, missiles, as well as the impact of the cars smashing through them. It's cool to see, and provides additional play strategy, since some damage allows for your own little shortcuts. You can also perform stunts by launching vehicles off of ramps at various spots, with the camera capturing it at various cinematic angles.

The other major feature is the Unwreck time-reversing feature. Using each car's Unwreck time-reversing energy allows players to rewind the action back a few seconds in order to prevent a previous screw-up. If you lose control during a power slide and go crashing through a seaside pier into the water or get blown up by the competition, rewinding the action and planning a different course of action can be a sneaky and satisfying solution. Again its use is limited by a gauge, preventing overuse and keeping things balanced.

Visually, Full Auto looks pretty decent for an early generation Xbox 360 game. The tracks are well designed, with a variety of nicely interactive environments, complete with solid lighting effects and textures. While the car models won't blow you away, they still look good in this action-oriented setting. The damage modeling isn't bad and although there's mild popup and the framerate takes a beating during more chaotic moments, it does sneak up to sixty frames in closed areas.

Full Auto is a whole lot of fun to play. Speeding through tracks and power-sliding around is effective thanks to competent level design and controls, and the interactivity adds a nice feel to the races, opening up carnage and short cuts. The chance to obliterate rivals and rewind the action also help make Full Auto a decent and often thrilling racing experience.