Wipeout HD Fury Review

     I'm not going to go into too much detail about Wipeout HD, the game that Fury is a DLC pack for, except to say that it is an absolute masterpiece, one of my favorite games, and very solidly in the Tier 1 Great Game category (meaning it is almost perfect in my opinion). Needless to say, Fury needs to be really good to hold your attention after you've played Wipeout HD, and it is indeed really good and really different. It centers around three new modes of play, Eliminator (which has been featured in previous Wipeouts, such as the Pulse entry on the PSP), Detonator, and Zone Battle. These new modes are available to play on all of the old Wipeout HD tracks as well as 12 new ones drawn once again from the fertile source material of Pure and Pulse. There is a new 80 event campaign to play through that splits these new types of events about 50/50 with more traditional single races, tournaments, and speed laps, all on the new tracks. From here on out I'm going to do a mini-review of each of the three new events, as they are the stars of the show.

       First up is eliminator, which isn't new to you if you've played Wipeout Pulse. In this mode, you fly around the tracks trying to score points by destroying other ships. You also score a small amount of points for hitting another ship with a weapon (even if they don't get destroyed) and by surviving laps. You also loose points for being eliminated yourself (you then re-spawn, as do any other eliminated ships). Unlike in a normal race, weapon pads don't fade out for a few seconds when a ship flies over them, so everyone gets a fair shot at the weapons. There are no shields, turbos, or autopilots in the weapon slots, just offensive weapons, and you can't absorb them to regain energy. By pressing circle, you can sacrifice your current weapon to activate a shield for a few seconds. You also regain a small amount of energy at the beginning of every lap. The event ends when a ship hits a pre-set point target. There are a few differences between this eliminator mode and Pulse's. I can't officially confirm this, but the weapons seem less powerful than they were in Pulse. The leach beam is definitely wayyyyyyy less powerful than it was in Pulse. Also, the special weapons from Pulse (the shuriken and repulsor) are absent. I believe in Pulse you scored by the kill instead of by points. And finally, and most importantly, Fury adds a feature that makes eliminator a lot more fun and interesting. Tapping L1 flips your ship around 180 degrees, allowing you to fire front firing weapons behind you. This drastically slows you down, but you can quickly flip back around and accelerate again. This seemingly simple mechanic really adds to the event and makes it even more fun than it was in Pulse. Backward quakes, rockets, and missiles add a whole new element to the mode, and it is terrifying the first time someone charges up a plasma then spins around to instantly fire it in your face (and an insane rush the first time you do it to someone else). The amount of strategy and fun this simple addition brings to the table is really impressive.

       This is mode can get really insane, especially on the elite difficulty. It's hard to even explain how chaotic the track can get. I've literally cringed several times as weapons go off unexpectedly and exploding ships go flying everywhere all the while everyone is approaching uncontrollable speeds. Did I mention you'll be doing all this (and all of the normal racing event) in some really wonderful looking new ships, which are similar but different to their HD counterparts, and feature enhanced stats? Wild. I've had so many great moments occur in this mode.

       Next up is Zone Battle, which puts you in competition with other ships while in the always thrilling zone mode. In a traditional zone event, you are alone on the track as you accelerate automatically, going faster and faster as you go through different zones. This continues until you crash and burn. In zone battle, you and your seven opponents accelerate automatically and the event ends when one player reaches a specific zone. Running over a speed pad in this mode charges a meter at the bottom of the screen. You can drain the meter by pressing square to accelerate a certain number of zones, up to eight at a time, or you can press circle to drain the meter to recharge your energy. When you press square to accelerate through zones, you also leave a hexagonal wall behind you that you hope the other ships will crash into. When you press circle, you put up a temporary shield that lets you pass through walls as your energy recharges. Hitting a wall drains your meter and your energy, and losing all your energy means re-spawning and losing some zones. This mode is my least favorite of the three. It's a great idea, but its mechanics aren't quite as tight as the other modes. On normal mode, I found that you just need to hit many speed pads to win, pure and simple. If you don't, you'll loose. If you ever use your meter to recharge your energy or pass through a wall, you'll loose, making the whole mechanic of passing through walls and recharging energy useless. It also means that if you hit a wall or two or miss a few speed pads in the beginning of the race, you'll never catch up. The mode is more fun on the elite difficulty, as the zone goals are higher and you actually can recharge your energy without loosing. You can also catch up if you get a little behind on elite, because the goal is higher and another ship won't just get there before you get a chance to do anything. I know it sounds like I'm down on this mode, but I really do like it and had a lot of fun with it, especially on elite difficulty. I just wish its mechanics were a little tighter. P.S., the ships you use in this mode are gorgeous; black chassis's with clear holographic wings and fins.

     Last but not least is Detonator mode. This is also a zone mode with a twist. In fact, it seems like detonator was designed as a visually and mechanically trippy-er version of normal zone mode, which is wild enough as it is. In detonator, you control an odd little team-branded craft and race through up to 14 laps, each one faster than the last. Scattered around the course are mines and one bomb per lap. You can shoot the mines with your unlimited ammo cannon, but you have to reload every fifteen shots. You can also run over EMP pads to charge up your EMP weapon and then fire it by pressing L1. It is a quake-like weapon that clears all mines in front of you. The more it's charged up, the farther it travels. You score points by destroying mines and bombs, and by chaining together shots without missing. Mines you leave on the field turn black at the end of the lap, and are worth less points from then on. You earn medals by reaching score goals, and the round is over when you ship explodes or if you complete all 14 laps. This is a really great mode. It really seems to stack things in your favor, as your cannon shots hug the track, can blast through multiple mines, and even bounce off of walls, allowing you to shoot around corners (or just spay and pray and hit mines off of ricochets). The EMP lets you wipe out whole sections of mines, and the detonator ship is just as agile as a normal zone craft. You also regain ten energy per lap, allowing you to make up for mistakes. But as the laps progress, both your speed and the total number of mines on the track increase, and it's amazing and wonderful how quickly things turn into a desperate high-speed battle to stay alive long enough to get to the score goal you need for your gold medal. Things can go bad really fast if you hit a couple of mines in a row or a bomb, and as the laps roll on, you start to become very vulnerable in the second or two it takes to reload your cannon. It's also a lot of fun to learn how to get your score up when you're having trouble meeting the score goal. Do you try and be really accurate to gain chain bonuses, or do you try to blast every mine in sight to stop them from becoming black mines on the next lap? I think this mode is so fun because you have to struggle both to not explode and to achieve enough points to get the medal. This mode is also really beautiful. Mines and bombs explode into crazy colors and particles, and when you run out of energy, the camera pans around your ship as it detonates into a million little particles which stay in a sphere shape and then begin to pulse with the music as the score results pop up.

     Speaking of the music, there are a handful of new tracks, and they are all great, as usual. The Wipeout series' licensed techno/dance music is always so perfectly matched with the setting and adds so much to the experience, and these tracks are no different. Not to mention the track that plays during the new title screen and perfectly accompanies the beautiful and hypnotizing new title screen visuals.

     The graphics on the new tracks seem to have taken a small step up, which is amazing, as HD already looked great. There is plenty of eye candy here, and if you're into photo mode like me, there are many more great PS3 wallpaper photos just waiting to be taken (see photo dump at end of article).

      There are a few new trophies included with Fury, and they are generally fun to pursue. They usually challenge you to do something different than you would normally do in one of the three new modes. They are fun, but all of them can be accomplished in just a handful of tries, so if you're looking for a challenge along the lines of Zone Zeus, you unfortunately won't find it here.

       Since I'm reviewing this DLC on its own, as if it is its own game, I'm going to have to put it as a Tier 2 great game. It is really, really awesome, but if you compare it to Wipeout HD on its own, it's not as tight and perfect. However, if you look at the two games as a complete package, which they kind of are, things change a little. Although on its own Fury isn't as good as HD on its own, Fury does add to HD as a complete package. In other words, Wipeout HD with the Fury expansion loaded in is a better game than just Wipeout HD alone. That is a great compliment for a DLC pack. So the two together are definitely a Tier 1 Great Game, no question, and a must have for racing game fans and non-fans alike (I don't play any other racing games, but Wipeout is one of my favorite game series). There is so much to do. With the additions brought by Fury, there are now 8 event types, and 28 course (if you count the reverse courses, which I definitely do as they are often quite different than their forward versions). I've played these games for over 85 hours (without touching online multiplayer) and have loved almost every minute of it.