Full Auto 2: Battlelines

Vehicular combat has a rich gaming history, stretching from the Twisted Metal series all the way back to ancient faves like Auto Duel.

You'd think it'd be hard to muck up the joy of blowing horseless carriages into itty bitty bits, but Full Auto 2 somehow manages to do just that.

Wrecking Crew

For all its explosive mayhem, Full Auto 2 is wrapped in a lame story about a sentient AI and rolling gangs of heavily armed thugs. Luckily, this nonsense doesn't make its way into the actual gameplay, where your goal is pretty much to wreak as much havoc as humanly possible, whether you're running laps on streets pulled from the original game, or taking on a dozen rivals in the automotive equivalent of a Royal Rumble.

The resulting nightmare of screaming metal and unbridled destruction is undoubtedly Full Auto 2's strong suit. Every inch of every track responds to weapons fire in some way or another, from the crumbling facades of bullet-ridden buildings, to each level's selection of disposable architecture, all rendered in stunning 1080p resolution. The sound effects do surprisingly little to emphasize the destruction you unleash, but there's no arguing the game's visual prowess.

Grinding Gears

And yet, Full Auto 2 comes up short in the most critical aspect of any driving game: the controls. Each whip at your disposal is beautifully rendered, with the most detailed damage model yet seen, but nearly every one handles with all the agility of a school bus in a swamp. This might not have been a big deal, had the tracks been designed to take advantage of the considerable sense of speed imparted every time you hold the boost button, but alas, every route is filled with right-angled corners and tricky switchbacks that only underline your inability to drift properly.

For all the convincing environmental physics and damage modeling, it's just baffling that the vehicle physics are so poorly represented. Even after extended playtime, we never got a feel for controlling our rides. It's hard to imagine why the developers bound the cool time-rewinding "unwreck" feature to the same meter as speed boosting, since the latter is usually far more useful.

Don't Buy--Lease

Full Auto 2 is certainly worth a rental, if only for the high-resolution destruction, but it's plagued by too many other irritating issues to be a true candidate for purchase. Unless you're absolutely hellbent on creating automotive anarchy, and you can't wait for something better, keep this one in your rearview mirror.

Pros: Like a Ferrari, it's pretty and fast.

Cons: Like a Pinto, it handles poorly.

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