Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

I have been playin this game for a bit now, but have a long ways to go. As far as what IS working... it's working great. Driving feels fantastic, and planning out your drifts to get around corners and win speed boosts gives you the feeling of ultimate control. Planning out stunts for additional speed boosts and smooth transitions between vehicle modes feels additionally rewarding. If you don't put in the effort, the game can seem slow, but that's only because you're not truly "playing" the game. There are plenty of places to gain an advantage if you've got the skills. Driving has great control, and the boats have a distinctively different feel to them. Flight is an absolute treat, allowing you full reign of the skies, and doing stunts gives you the needed boost of maneuverability to hit some of those boosts that are just out of reach.

The variety of different race types is a nice change. Drift mode is quite challenging, and requires you plan ahead before each curve while paying attention to the other players so they don't slam you into the wall, throwing you off. Traffic is especially a treat, throwing in colored cars that act as obstacles. Each color has different actions. Green stays fairly straight, yellow weaves in and out of traffic, while the blue cop cars try to actively swerve into you. There are many other race types, each giving the same tracks a distinctively different feel.

Unfortunately, the game was released riddled with bugs. I'd say, if all the bugs were fixed, and the controls were made to be customized, it's be hard not to give this game a 9/10 if not higher. Sega seems to be well aware of the issues, and they're actively stomping out the bugs. This doesn't change the fact that the issues easily put a sour taste in your mouth, since they hinder what would other wise be an amazing racing game.

I hope Gamespot does another review of this game post bug fixes... because people really should know just how wonderful this game really is.