Spotlighting the New IPs of 2010 – Split Second

Posted by Justin On November - 11 - 2009

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Welcome to Part 2 of a week-long series at MMOMFG.com where we’ll be spotlighting some of the biggest and most original titles slated to drop during the first few months of next year. We believe that new intellectual properties (IPs) are the life-blood of the video game industry and the studios and publishers willing to take a risk on a new idea or story deserve much praise. After all, it takes a successful new IP to establish a franchise and churn out those money-grabbing sequels…not that there’s anything wrong with that. For the next five days we’ll be posting a rundown of what to expect from some of the most highly anticipated original titles of the first quarter of 2010. Yesterday we highlighted Alan Wake. In Part 2, we look at Black Rock Studio’s upcoming racing game, Split/Second.

Split/Second
Release Date: First Quarter 2010
What is it? Split/Second is a racing game with a big twist. Instead of just purely racing your car or tweaking it out to get the best performance, you’re armed with a power play meter. As the meter gets filled “special” events can be triggered. What’s so special about these events? Well they include explosions, airplanes crashing on a runway and buildings collapsing right in front of (or on top of) your car. The higher your meter, the bigger the event. Events are split into different tiers so players will have to decided whether to save up for the big bang or strategically use them throughout the race.

Why it could hit
Burnout meets Need for Speed – Split/Second looks to build off the destruction and mayhem of the Burnout series and the breakneck speeds of the Need for Speed series. Explosions are always fun but dodging a collapsing building just in the nick of time and watch the other contestants get smothered in the debris adds a whole new sense of accomplishment.

Events to gawk at - It’s unknown at the time but the few events that have been triggered aren’t just lollipop explosions. These are big bombardments of destruction! So far we known of plane crashes, building collapses, and even a ship that docks a little too close to the road. Avoiding them might be just as fun as triggering them.

Why it coud miss
Ok I’ve seen this before – The events will be fun the first time through, the second time through, and even the third time through. But how many times before we start to recognize an event and learn how to avoid them? How quickly will they become played out? Let’s hope developer Black Rock Studio has a lot of events for racers to keep coming back to after the first few hours.

A one trick pony – What else is Split/Second offering? To be fair they’ve been tight lipped about it not wanting to spoil any surprises but as of right now, these “event”s are they only thing setting it apart in the racing genre. How many cars will we have? Will we be able to customize? How many courses? What are the online options? As of right now we don’t know but if Black Rock Studio wanted to really generate some hype I’m thinking they might have told us by now.

Wasn’t there a hole in the road earlier – In a game that is broadcasting destruction I really hope the courses are blanketed with debris and damaged throughout the entire race. It really wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense if all the mayhem was reset after every lap would it?

What our Crystal Ball Tells Us
People will compare Split/Second to Burnout and it will drive fans of either series crazy. The crashes will be herald as something new but it won’t be enough to be considered “genre” changing. Split/Second will get good reviews, be a mild success, and will build upon a very interesting franchise.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s New IP of 2010 where we take a look at Sony’s first person shooter extravaganza, MAG.