Split/Second is an arcade racer that feels like it’d be right at home among the games at a bowling alley. It is a racer like most others, though players have the ability to call on choppers to drop explosives on opponents, topple structures, blow up idle cars parked alongside the course, drift through corners, draft behind opponents, and various other family-friendly activities. Did I mention this game is brought to us by Disney? The single-player mode in the game is a reality show that only seems to remember it’s supposed to have a story twice every episode which is what the “Season” is broken up into.

Was it a worthwhile exchange to get front-of-the-line privileges at Disney’s various parks as opposed to them putting in the effort to make the game more accessible? Split/Second could be used as a gauge to answer that question.

Split/Second fails all across the board in terms of mobility. All racers do, but this one in particular falls apart from the time the player goes to the options menu by way of the main menu. It’s pretty much barren. There’s no ability to alter the control scheme at all, so some players will be stuck if they can’t use the stock scheme.

The ability to even look at the control scheme isn’t present. Not in the options menu or in the start menu in-game.

Finally, the inherent flaw in all racing games, they happen fast. Sometimes faster than reflexes allow, and it’s especially bad in Split/Second as there are often changes in the environment happening in front of you, and a lot of times to a degree that invades the gamers personal space… and that’s the charm of Split/Second.

When a narrow miss is experienced, the camera will switch over to a foreign camera view where the event is slowed way down, and depending on how you handle the situation, they’ll either become part of another slowed down crash video, or once in the clear will return to their normal camera view.

This also happens when a disaster occurs in front of you that takes out one of your opponents.

Visuals in Split/Second are comparable to other arcade racers. The wind lines that appear in front of the players vehicle are a cool touch, and really add to the sense of speed offered to players not only in straight stretches but in corners, too.

There are two available camera views in Split/Second - a view from the bumper and a third-person view. The would-be HUD in the third-person view isn’t exactly easy to see. It took probably half of the game for me to notice that it wasn’t smoke behind my tires at all times but instead the position in the race (1st to 8th) and a timer.

Cameras are fixed which is nice for some things, and not-so-much for others. The bigger the vehicle, the bigger the blind spot in front of the vehicle mainly.

During races, all sounds are represented well visually. More often than not, disasters will be seen before they’re heard.

Before getting to career mode stuff, AbleGamers should be aware that there are no difficulty settings in Split/Second. To make up for it, opponent AI is “meh”, at best.

Players will only run into cut-scenes in career mode, and there is very little subtitling that could have been done; “On the next episode of Split/Second” or “Up next, on Split/Second”. It couldn’t have been that much harder to subtitle all that dialogue, or at least make a nifty little graphic that conveys the sentiment, but Disney overlooked it.

As always, go check out the demo. It is far more accessible than the game itself is. The controls are diagramed, there is no dialogue, only text, and the track players race on is a pretty good representation of the courses.


At a glance

Visual

Comparable to other arcade racers. Third-person camera view in-game puts the HUD on your vehicle’s mud-flaps. Some cars take up more real-estate than others, and in certain scenarios having the same amount of screen for every car would be nice.

Recommended score of 8/10

Hearing

No subtitles in the few cut-scenes there are in the game, and the dialogue in the cut-scenes is so minimal that it is even more disappointing. All events that AbleGamers need to be aware of are represented very well visually.

Recommended score of 8/10

Mobility

No controller remapping. No choices for button layouts. No controller diagram. Handles very similarly to other arcade racers. Not a single-handed game.

Recommended score 3/10