There are four core settings (desert, saw mill, factory, and snow) which each extend two tracks, with FlatOut 4 attempting to induce variety by offering forward and reverse racing options. And much of the game’s thrills emanate from an enlivening sense of speed, as you careen around corners and whizz past competitors or the straights, across stages that usually revolve around three-lap heats.ĭuring the campaign, you’ll probably long for more courses. Pleasingly, each course has a number of forking options- most branching mercifully signaled by signposts. Races are tense enough to produce a vise-like grip on your controller, with track design favoring pure arcade-like acceleration save for the infrequent hairpin corner that requires deceleration. That’s not to say, that Total Insanity doesn’t demonstrate some entertaining lunacy. While it’s possible to perform a PIT maneuver on an adversary, it’s also common for an unseen challenger to induce a spin just as you are about to cross the finish line. Another problem is the game’s fondness for spin outs. Anyone who ever enjoyed the over-the-top mayhem of the Burnout series will likely be yearning for Criterion’s take on rear-enders. All too often if your rocketing into the tail end of a competitor, both cars feel fastened, slowing down both drivers. While stages that supply weaponry can provide of thrill of taking opponents out of the race, shunting and ramming rivals is a dicey proposition. While you might be able to smash right through the underside of an upraised building, scaping against one of the foundations can be detrimental.Īnother downside is found in the collision system. You see, while some lethal obstacles are signaled by yellow-and-black banding, other obstructions that can bring your car to a halt or eject the driver aren’t indicated. But in execution, earning boost requires track memorization. In theory, it’s an intriguing system, paying dividends for dangerous driving. One you head out to the first rock and sand-covered milieu, you’ll discover the game’s core hook, where destroying objects on a track’s periphery or crashing into other racers rewards you with nitro. While individual races are capable of elevating heartrates, new developer Kylotonn doesn’t exhibit the type of mastery of material that should have raised FlatOut 4 to required status.įollowing the conventional format for most racers, FlatOut 4’s career campaign provides you with a meagre amount of currency, just enough coin to choose from one of two lower-tier rattletraps. Destined to draw comparison to other unabashedly low-brow, pick-up-and-play racers like the MotorStorm and the DiRT series, the game’s delivers the horsepower, busy tracks, and cobbled cars, but lacks the finesse of its contemporaries. Six years on, FlatOut 4: Total Insanity has come to offer its own petrol-swilling apology. FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction wasn’t just a minor letdown- with laughable controls, collision, and artificial intelligence, some thought the title had irreversibly damaged the brand. But when the Helsinki-based developer exited to pursue other four-wheeled experiences ( Sega Rally Revo, Ridge Racer Unbounded, and Wreckfest), Team6 Game Studios took the wheel and disaster ensued. Across the first three iterations of FlatOut, Bugbear Entertainment was confidently slung in the driver’s seat, guiding the destruction-based racer to critical and commercial acclaim.
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