Game Details

• Title: Fuel
• Developer: Asobo Studios (Codemasters)
• Released (UK): 05/06/2009
• Age Rating: 7+
• Game Type: Racing
• Multi-player: Online: Up to 16 players
• Length: Medium (>10 hours)

Background

Fuel is an open world racing game, that has been recognised as having the largest playable area in a console game of over 14000 km². The setting is a post apocolyptic version of America, where the roads suddenly have bends in them, and you drive vehicles that would not look out of place in mad max.

Game Modes

While open world, the game is split into 19 individual areas with each area having a mix of career events that give you stars that help unlock events in new areas, and a small amount of “fuel” the currency of the game, and challenges that give you a moderate amount of “fuel” on completion. Events in Fuel are a mixture of time trials and races, which are based on passing through set checkpoints, but otherwise you are free to choose your route.

There is also online mutliplayer, with the ranked games being taken from single player events, and a custom race option where you can design your own events and race them online, unfortunately you can only test the route out in single player, additional factors can only be tested in online races.

Technical Stuff

The Graphics are of a reasonable quality, with the weather effects being particularly impressive. One problem though is that lots of parts of the environment are too similar and models reused too frequently. The vehicle skins are also uninspiring and could have been improved. I was not overly impressed with the sound and music, and thought it was fairly average.

Difficulty/Achievements

The game itself is of an average difficulty, the AI is of the rubberband variety which causes some plausibility issues when opponents slow down or speed up to a ridiculous amount. The achievements are based around game completion, and as such are fairly standard and uninspiring.

Positives

• Massive Gaming World
• Decent Weather Effects

Negatives

• Game uninspiring and can become tedious
• Dodgy AI
• Little Variation in the Environment

My Recommendation

Consider – 6/10

If you enjoy open world cross country racers, then Fuel is worth considering. The main problem I had with Fuel is that it lacked polish and a sense of purpose, as such I would advise skipping Fuel and getting a different racing title instead.