A Wipeout Indeed (PS Vita game review)

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Now if only it was fun too.

This is a review for the PS Vita game.

WipEout (R) 2048 is a lot like it's name. It's awkward, unnecessarily complicated, feels corporate branded and mandated, and worst of all is that you can still clearly see where it could have gone right. There are downright admirable attempts at providing a great experience on the PS Vita. Even three control schemes, one built specifically with touch and tilt controls for the primary driving, can't seem to right a lot of the wrongs in this driving game. Although maybe that wouldn't be as much the case if you were actually driving.

WipEout (R) 2048 has no story. It's in the "not too distant future", where humanity is... well we have no idea how they are doing. Save for a few on-loop television screens showing three human beings talking, we get nothing in terms of story. Now, after games like Need for Speed: The Run, this might not seem so bad -- except for the fact we have no context for the world and it's rules. This isn't some indie Tron Lightcycle scenario where we can tell it's just a game, even though the internal logic suggests otherwise considering brutally murdering your opponents in Demolition is completely fine for this apparent public sport.

Part of me wants to think of it as maybe some sort of disguise used as a meta-story about how you're really something in a horrible situation, like a rat in laboratory, but they've injected chemicals that give you such delusions that you think you're in competitions and they've developed the way to transmit your brainwaves into clone bodies, so that's how you keep coming back from the dead. Their intention is to breed a super rat for their cruel D&D survival park where rats are killed on the hour, and if you get all the Elite ranks, you get to be sliced in half by a raging idiot in a costume with a sword. But then I realize that this kind of Twilight Zone storytelling would be a bit much for a racing game, so instead, you are generic faceless man who just unlocks cars and does races. Why? Because that's what the game is about.

That is all it is about. You drive fast, then faster, then as fast as you can. You'd think this would open up the avenue for Studio Liverpool to present an impressive physics-based game for the Vita. The actual game ignores physics entirely, with you losing nearly all your momentum if you so much as scratch any surface, care, or attack from your opponents. Likewise, you can only game a certain velocity, save for specific circumstances, some of which are only accessible via shortcuts (I'm sorry, "optional routes") , and others that are so specifically designed only one car from one team can use them. This brings us back to the collection mechanic, as barebones as it is.

Much like Mass Effect 3's multiplayer (of all things), You start out with only the barest essentials, then grind your way through missions to get new classes. The trading card aspect of ME3 isn't present, but the constant "come on, really? I have to do THAT much work just to unlock that slight upgrade?" feeling you felt when the DLC characters in ME3 wouldn't unlock is very much here. You can't even unlock the first team's set of cars until you've reached the second campaign (there are three), and completed a ten lap race with a vehicle you've never used before and may not ever again. While Studio Liverpool did do their best to make them unlock at convenient times, there's one car that you specifically need to get to complete certain tracks unless you are a savant at the game. Perhaps that problem could be rectified though, by a superior control scheme set up.

It's games like this that makes you wish all developers just let you change every input prompt to your preference. All but one set up will have you firing off power ups unintentionally, another will divide the job and change the impact airbraking, a key component to the game, has on your driving. The VIta specific tilting controls are probably the worst, making me nauseous from all the motion while providing the least accurate means of driving any vehicle in the game. The Wipeout control set up may be more familiar for fans, but for initiates, stay with default for the best you can get. Still, I wish I could just script the weapon triggers to my actual front triggers.

Online multiplayer fairs a bit better, thanks to not having the rubberband AI. Players may only have access to the ships they get in campaign, but you can unlock some via your rank, and it seems genuinely more fun when it isn't "be the absolute best" to get an Elite Pass at the end of a race. Combat in particular turns into a game of jousting, a rare thrill in a market where most people just camp and shoot in other multiplayer games. All modes are available from the get go, and you can send a picture of yourself taunting or at least presenting yourself to your opponents. So if multiplayer is your only interest, you are golden. It is far superior to the badly balanced campaign, although some level design issues remain prominent no matter what mode you play.

The initial levels will become easier, definitely, but by the time you reach the third campaign, you're playing maps that are like Rainbow Road but even MORE insane to try and race. You're driving experience will vary greatly as some "major" challenges pass by with a breeze while "easy" challenges break your teeth repeatedly for fun. Considering its launch title status, WipEout (R) 2048 was probably rushed through quality assurance far too fast for its own good. 

I cannot comment with any detail on the status of Crossplay as I haven't been able to get into a match of Crossplay. Waiting for a full list of players takes ages and usually I was sent to "in progress" games, deterring me from even bothering. The only match I got to play had only three active players, but I did notice one distinct factor. All my problems with the controls not being good enough for the speed of the gameplay vanished, as apparently WipEout HD is a far better paced game than this. The annoying factor is that this clearly better seeming game that obviously can work on the Vita, is locked to multiplayer only and only if you've got someone playing it on PS3.


In the future, paper people rule the earth with a papyrus fist!

The worst sin of this game though is the sheer lack of an instant action mode. There is no "random race" option or the ability to select a map and a mode. Only Crossplay seems to be a "pick a map, pick a game mode", and only for the PS3 users. PS Vita players have to play prescribed variants of each map and mode only. I can't just play the arguably standout singleplayer mode Zone for a few minutes on one of the maps -- I have to race it on X, Y, and Z and nowhere else. This is constricting and removing this would at the very least offer some remote replayability beyond Elite Ranks and multiplayer ranks. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 isn't still active on the Playstation 2 because of it's singleplayer campaign -- it's because of how flexible the instant action mode was.

As it stands, WipEout (R) 2048 is neither a good game nor a bad one. It's a mess, save for a few slightly redeeming factors. It's a waste of money for singleplayer fans yet has three singleplayer campaigns. The contradictions run rampant, as do the issues. While the art style of the cars may impress, even the graphics can't hold up under closer inspection. 

6.0/10.0

In the end, substance and personality matter more than style.

Cheers
Paradigm the Fallen

P.S. Do you prefer this formatting for the end? Please leave a message in the comments if you do or don't like it. I reply to as many comments as I can.
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*This name is so stupid -- it reads like a printing error message!

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