Wipeout HD Fury Review

Wipeout has been the pinnacle of Sony’s list of racing games for each of their platforms. With multiple award winning titles under Sony Liverpool’s belt, does Wipeout HD Fury add to the serie’s high quality racing formula?

As with most of the core Playstation 3 franchises, Wipeout HD Fury was brought to PS3 users who were craving for some form of futuristic, high octane racing. What Wipeout is able to achieve not only stands tall in terms of overall presentation but also with a sense of variety that allows racers to find their comfort zone without being down trodden by the game’s later learning curve like in the past.

Wipeout HD Fury sees you choose between a selection of differently balanced anti-gravity ships that all have their own aesthetic beauty, strengths and of course weaknesses. From the get go you will be drooling from the mouth because of Sony Liverpool’s true eye for digital detail. They simply love the franchise they created and it truly shows in ever pixelated inch of their individual ships and topsy turvy race tracks. Through the first bunch of campaigns in Wipeout you will instantly find yourself favouring a certain type of ship. The great thing though is that while veterans of the franchise will instantly be able to pick out their classic fan favourite, the newly introduced ships that are given to the player’s disposal means that new comers to the series will find instant accessibility thanks to how finely tuned each ship is.

Once picking your rocket-like torpedo of awesome, you will proceed to take on a multitude of progressing campaigns and tournaments that introduce a variety of tracks, racing modes and of course difficulty. The best aspect of Wipeout’s content is the individual modes that players can take part in during each campaign and you will find yourself planning out your perfect path to victory thanks to a level unlock system that allows you to focus on your individual strengths as a racer. Not great at Time Trials or Speed Laps? No worries, because Wipeout will always have an alternative like the highly addictive Zone mode and multi-track Tournaments. A lot of these modes like the standard race type come with an extra dash of sweetness in the form of weapon pads. Yes, not only will you be racing in the major leagues of anti-gravity racing but you will also be blowing each other up in it.

The pads come in three varieties, which are speed boost, defence weapons, and finally offence weapons. The great thing about this is that just like games such as Mario Kart, you will always have that uber weapon that you will be hoping for among the rest, but thankfully the variety within each pad means that all the weapons and items have a very strong usefulness and balance to them. For example the feeling of deflecting a heat seeking missile with a last minute shield powerup is truely awesome, and of course the speed boost for that last second first place take over is always an instant favourite in my book.

To focus on the modes for a minute, as I mentioned you will find some very entertaining additions to the Wipeout way of racing. The previously mentioned Zone mode is a great example, which sees you solely driving down a Tron inspired version of previously existing tracks. Not only that but depending on the music that you are playing at the time, the track can change visually as if you’re in your own LSD fuelled music video. This comes together to bring a challenge that sees the ship itself constantly speeding up without anyway of slowing down. The knowing that you can outdo your previous best is an always lingering feeling and an accomplishment of Sony Liverpool’s ability to make an incredibly addictive way of racing.

Thanks to the additional Fury pack which is available through retail copies of the game or PSN, you can find even more bang for your buck in terms of additional aesthetic beauty and overwhelming content. This welcoming expansion adds even more modes, ships and an even bigger campaign to the existing single player portion. This content includes the classic fan favourite ‘Exterminator’ mode which sees racers collecting weapons to destroy each other for more points, the competitive ‘Zone Battle’ that takes the Zone formula further with multiple ships and finally the very addictive ‘Detonator’ type that allows players to see how long they can last by blasting incoming orbs in another Zone inspired variant. People finding themselves wanting to take a break from the campaign can also create custom tournaments of their favourite modes and tracks through a custom ‘Race box’ feature in the main menu. This is great for those simply wanting to take part in a quick one off race, or even create their own nightmarish challenge.

Fury also brings a newly created visual style to the title that portrays ships in a much less realistic and even bigger sci-fi inspired look. It is incredibly surprising that the developers were able to outdo themselves with Fury and because of that I highly recommend that interested players pick up the very wallet friendly add-on with the main game. Wipeout’s electronic “wub wub” soundtrack can’t be left out either and brings in a number of critically acclaimed dance music masters into the series like Stanton Warriors and MIST. If you find yourself not enjoying the really awesome set of music then Wipeout also lets you import your own custom music into its library. This custom music feature also makes an interesting effect on the Zone game mode and lets you see the track in a completely different light thanks to your chosen songs.

As to be expected Wipeout also comes with a very solid multiplayer feature that allows both split screen competition and a very active online community that is filled with many racers looking to make a name for themselves. The challenge of the game truly shines through its multiplayer that allows players to take on friends in all of the featured game multi-ship game modes.

Wipeout is an outstanding entry into the already popular franchise but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with some problems. While the main campaign brings a large, progressive variety in terms of taste and challenge, the later campaign segments might be a turn off to some players because of the incredible spike in difficulty. Wipeout is indeed a super-fast racing game at its core and that doesn’t change as you progress through the championships. This leaves beginners locked out of some races because the enemy ship AI and overall speed of the tracks will become  too overwhelming, which can be a little bit of a turn off. I highly recommend staying away from the Phantom speed class races. This also transitions into the very elitist multiplayer section of the game too, which can mean that newcomers will never get a chance to learn, or shine within the multiplayer community. It ultimately becomes a do or die fiasco.