FlatOut Ultimate Carnage

FlatOut Ultimate Carnage is the third game in the series and although the word ‘flatout’ might make you think the series is all about going banzai in fast cars (like the Need for Speed games), this series is actually a closer match to the Burnout line of games. This is mainly because like the Burnout games, the FlatOut series focuses on serious demolition racing.

As far as racing and wrecking is concerned, Ultimate Carnage is quite an improvement over its predecessor. This is thanks wholly to new and improved game physics; cars deform very realistically, parts fly off in spectacular fashion and, should you hit an obstacle or another car in a certain way, you’ll be treated to seeing a virtual driver being flung out through the windscreen and onto whatever lies in front of him. While this in itself is good for a giggle, it also serves as a visual scale that tells you just how strong and violent the forces involved in a crash are. The very detailed damage can also be appreciated more this time around because this game sports a new and improved graphics engine. It’s High Definition (HD) ready to begin with so the game’s graphics whether you consider the vehicles, the environments, the dust, the sunlight etc all look great on a large screen. The engine is also well-optimised, so even if you’re racing around a filthy race track with tons of dust in the air and 10 other drivers breathing down your neck, the framerate remains silky smooth and thus adds to the sense of speed.

As you’d expect, Ultimate Carnage sports a new array of tracks and environments that will take you from storm drains to busy streets to sand-and-gravel filled dirt tracks. All-in-all the game includes 39 tracks spread across six environments and each environment can also be torn up satisfyingly. You can plow through fences, take down polls, fly through street fixtures and more. (Developer Bugbear Entertainment claims each track has about 8000 destructible objects.)

Like its predecessor, this new FlatOut game sports different game modes such as Deathmatch Destruction Derbies and Beat the Bomb and while these are good fun, it’s nothing the previous games didn’t offer. The only new mode is ‘Carnage’, which acts as a sort of second career mode though the older ‘FlatOut’ career and ‘Stunt’ modes haven’t changed much. In this respect, we were left wanting more as Ultimate Carnage felt more like a minor upgrade rather than a completely new game. A FlatOut 2.5 then.

Of all the game modes, the destruction derbies are the most fun and visceral. In this game type, you can only win if you don’t get your car wrecked and if you score a higher number of points (by ramming other drives, performing stunts etc) than anyone else in the arena. This calls for serious talent as the arena isn’t very big, which means you can plow right into another vehicle while trying to evade another. Special power-ups also appear which repair damage, help you inflict additional damage and more and this adds an element of luck and surprise to the game.

Another issue we have with this game is that the vehicles have very generic handling and driving characteristics. So while a big imposing rig will accelerate slower than a car, both truck and car behave almost identically when it comes to taking turns and braking. Ultimately, this means you have no real reason to opt for a smaller vehicle because you aren’t really more nimble in the corners and the bigger vehicles while slightly slower, inflict far more damage on other vehicles in a crash.

Ultimate Carnage allows you to tweak cars as far as performance is concerned but unfortunately you still end up getting a very generic feel from all the vehicles; we maxed out the handling on a car and a truck and both, disappointingly, handled like each other. In reality, the car should be able to leave the heavier, less nimble truck in the dust when it comes to taking corners. That said the lack of difference between vehicles doesn’t really ruin the game as far as playability is concerned.