More Like Semi-Auto Amirite? - Full Auto

In the earliest days of a console's life, practically every game gets attention when it finds its way to stores. It's just a simple fact of numbers – early adopters want software, and when even one new game pops up it garners a following during a post-launch drought. The first Xbox 360 release since Dead or Alive 4 in December of last year (not counting the XBL Arcade games), Sega's Full Auto is pigeonholed right into this scenario – a mostly inspired blend of Burnout-style destruction with Twisted Metal-esque weaponry that presents a brand new next-generation experience, but ultimately the sort of game that would never really make a dent in the 360 lineup if it was released later in the life of the system, when more, better games are bidding for your dollars. That's not really to discount the appeal of such a game; in the right environment this is a fun, brutal 'racer' that has some problems but at the same time, it's something fresh and different on a new console that's overloaded with FPS and traditional racing titles. It's difficult to recommend for $60, but when an inevitable price-drop occurs, it's worth giving a try if you like either racing or blowing stuff up.

Full Auto is comprised of the usual racing options, so whether you like playing with friends offline in split-screen action, hitting the tracks online via Xbox Live, or plowing through a single-player career setup, it's there. The career setup is pretty varied, with a bunch of different events to complete, some of which have difficult requirements aside from finishing in 1st place. Actually you don't even have to finish in 1st all the time, as each event has three different medals you can get – Survivor, Semi-Auto, and Full Auto. Getting the Survivor medal is all you really need to advance through the various leagues. Race types vary from basic circuits, lap knockouts, and point-to-point, with a couple new ideas. Rampage is one, and this isn't really a 'race', as your job is to just blow up a set number of cars and finish the lap within a set time, without any fear of competitors. Down and Back is the other one, and is pretty self-explanatory; on a common point-to-point track, the race makes drivers reach the end of the course and then turn around to drive the track the opposite direction.

To describe Full Auto's gameplay, one would need to study the crashalicious action of Burnout, along with the addition of weapons like Twisted Metal, because that's pretty much what Full Auto is, though it's toned down in many ways compared to those hits. Make no mistake this is a racing game (and there are a couple events that put away weapons and make you race cleanly), but it just has a little...bonus fun. Every car has different attributes for taking damage – some are fast but have weak armor, while others are like tanks but very slow. Usually the game forces you into a set class or car, to keep things balanced or present some added challenge, so you make do. Early on you are forced to use the 'default' weapons, those being the machine gun and mines, which offer defense for following attackers and offense for getting past the guys ahead of you. As time goes on you can get all sorts of fun weapons like a shotgun, missiles, grenades, and a smokescreen to make opponents screw up and lose sight of their target, and eventually you can customize your own sets of weaponry. The weapons aren't all for your opponents though, as they can be used to blow up bystanders so they get out of your way, or create disasters that might force opponents into mistakes.

Speaking of mistakes, Full Auto has a neat idea to help you avoid disastrous mistakes – Unwreck. By blowing up stuff, whether it's other cars, buildings, etc. you earn Unwreck points, which then can be used to rewind time and correct any screwups with a simple press of the Right Bumper. Or most importantly, it'll come in handy to save your butt if you get taken out by opponents. Getting blown up doesn't automatically end the race as you just respawn, but it's always good to correct the situation if the Unwreck is available. Granted, Unwreck does make for an easier time on the track, since it's pretty easy to reverse errors, even if the time you get is limited to use it. And sometimes it's impossible to correct a situation. It makes for some intense encounters though, when you do a race where you don't get to respawn...and you might just appreciate it more when you do the last Career series where you have no respawn or Unwreck. Thankfully, this has been taken out of any multiplayer races; it would never have worked there.

Still, while the core of Full Auto is pretty exciting, kinda innovative, and is full of potential, it has some problems that make the game a hit-or-miss scenario despite Pseudo Interactive's obvious inspiration. First off, the cars can handle a little rough; it was corrected a bit from the super-slippery demo, but it still feels like you're skating on ice and never really feel in control of any of the vehicles until you ground yourself. There's a couple tracks that are so narrow that it feels impossible to stay on the course. The tracks themselves are another source of frustration; there's just not enough of them, and a great many of them are alternate routes of others. It's very Ridge Racer like in this next-generation of gaming, and even RR has advanced past this handicap. Finally, while Full Auto's career mode has plenty of events to play, it doesn't last very long because it's all so easy, and that's not even factoring Unwreck into the mix. Few events are truly challenging, even with very cheap, rubberband AI that can respawn and be on your tail within 10 seconds after you blew them to smithereens. As long as you can keep the car straight and make ample use of shortcuts and the Boost, it's pretty simple to win. Even if you do single races on the 'Master' AI, it's not really difficult.

Visually, Full Auto is stuck somewhere between the Xbox and the Xbox 360...it's pretty obvious that this game was originally set for the current crop of consoles, but touched up to fit in on the 360. Car designs are nice and crisp, and have some nice damage models after taking some brutality. But then you see the sorta-nice looking environments and start wondering. However, soon as you hit your weapons, things do change, as most tracks resemble a war zone by the time you're done, with blown up pedestrian cars, destroyed buildings, debris all over the place, and sometimes the remnants of your attacks on other cars. The destruction model is actually pretty good even though some of it is pretty fake looking...buildings just don't fall down like a house of cards in reality – though yes, you don't tend to see muscle cars with shotguns mounted to their hoods on the road. Usually the game runs at a steady, speedy framerate, but when the carnage piles on it sometimes can really chug. As said previously the repetitive tracks contain repetitive areas that don't really stand out as next-gen, and worse off they get tiring to see after a while. The odd thing is the game has undergone a major overhaul since it first was shown at E3 last year and still isn't exactly reference quality.

Surprisingly the audio of Full Auto is very subdued – one would expect loud explosions and the sound of gunfire everywhere...but you don't. Aside from hearing the beeping of dropped mines, nearby cars blowing up, and sometimes the sound of breaking glass, it's pretty muted, and that's too bad. A game such as Full Auto should have an audio track that matches the on-screen action, and it doesn't pull it off – it's like playing the game in a vacuum. Along with that is a forgettable and repetitive soundtrack, though thankfully that too is pretty muted and you don't hear it much. Like every 360 game you could put on a custom soundtrack via the numerous sources, but Full Auto has a lovely glitch that kicks off the soundtrack after races and thus it's a serious pain to constantly restart your custom mix. Nice job, geniuses.

The Last Paragraph
So, Full Auto. On one hand, it offers a surprisingly fresh new take on racing and combat, making for a usually entertaining experience. At the same time, the limited tracks, lack of challenge, and slippery controls make it at times frustrating when things don't go your way. This isn't even mentioning the ordinary graphics (even in high-def) and poor audio fidelity. Combined, Full Auto is a good game, and usually the issues can be smoothed over since the core is pretty entertaining and is very amusing to play with other people. Still one can't deny that Full Auto would never garner the following it has had it come out later in the life of the Xbox 360 – it's benefiting from its circumstances, and suffering as well since it was the first 'real' game to come out in quite some time and thus under heavy scrutiny. Launch games are usually hit or miss affairs, and Full Auto isn't any different, though it's thankfully more hit than miss. It's going to sell (simply out of circumstance) and will almost definitely spawn a sequel, and hopefully it will improve on where things didn't go right. Of course, it probably will tank in the face of better, bigger-named games down the road...