Despite the flaws, global warming has never been so fun.
The sound is a little disappointing, the motorbike and car sounds are underwhelming and boring, out of all the vehicle classes, the quad bike was the best sounding. The sound effects themselves are a mixed bag, the sounds of a dull "Thunk" are heard whenever your motorbike lands on anything, and it is the only landing sound it has. The sound of the tires screeching on the roads do get annoying after a while. What has been done right in the sound department is the weather, it really adds to the chaotic atmosphere of the game. Also the music, whilst iffy when racing, when you are free roaming the music turns to a more chilled out and non intrusive score.
Controls are arcade like, but feel right in Fuel, the sense of speed is good when you are going fast.
The obvious highlights of the game is the weather and sheer size of the map, I just finished a race with a tornado thrown in, and it really adds to the madness, it just feels much more frantic and urgent when you are throwing your vehicle round a mountain hairpin, on the edge of your seat because you can feel the back end of your car being sucked in by the tornado. Another thing that I found awesome was tearing through a snowstorm through some mountainous roads, and lightning was cracking across the sky, it was brilliant to see, just me on my tiny quad bike against the snow and storms.
The draw distance is impressive and there is a lot to see, but it is unfortunately blurry at some points. Some of the views and surroundings look fantastic, and others look plain and flat.
The set pieces that are done when tornadoes are thrashing around are predictable, such as a house being ripped apart or electric pylons coming down, but are a nice touch.
The size of the world can be a little daunting at first, and it took me over half an hour to cross 3 zones, where it then unfortunately froze and I had to restart the game. It has only crashed on me twice and I am hoping that those will be the only times, or a patch gets released to increase stability.
Asobo are not kidding when they say "Epic Scale" but sadly the only times when the game feels "populated" is during the races, when you are just roaming around it is eerily empty, bar a few people in trucks and a jet fighter going across the sky. It is described as being completely deserted due to global warming, but you would expect SOME life at least. It seems that not even birds can survive global warming. I enjoy free roaming, go anywhere you like games, so I enjoy the fact that it would take me hours to get from one side to the other, but the lack of life makes it almost boring.
Also I feel as if the GPS sends you on the longest route possible while free roaming on purpose, you can of course go the way you want to, but it is easy to get lost.
There are a few glitches here and there, on many occasions the GPS has tried sending me into the ocean, and when you crash into the bonus vehicles (which is how you collect them) some of them just vanish and re appear a few meters up the road. The frame rate also drops on many occasions, but it is not too bad, if you consider the size of the game you feel like you can forgive it for that.
The damage scaling is not impressive, there are a few dents and scrapes and things fall off, but it never looks severe, there have been many collisions that would of taken half the car off in any other racing simulation, but in Fuel you just bounce off. And if you do manage to do a crash severe enough, such as hitting a tree or truck at 120 MPH, the game will automatically reset you, without letting you see the wreck.
The game is also easy, which in some ways is disappointing. One time I was losing badly, due to going the wrong way down a mountain and near to the end of the race the other racers just slowed right down and allowed me to pass, it does not do it so much on the hardest setting, but it is still way too easy for my liking. The racing is good fun though and the other racers do a good job of taking different routes or making mistakes, the AI competitors are unpredictable and engaging when they are not letting you pass near the end of the race.
Fuel is really a mixed bag, at its best it will be enjoyed and remembered for the sense of freedom and accomplishment when you finally get to the summit of a mountain, and at its worst it will be remembered for the annoying sounds and pop up.
This game is probably the most fun you can have with global warming.