There are days when I find it very hard to know what to write.
There are very few people that read these posts and, of those that do, most will have clicked here to see what someone else has to say about this game that they already know everything there is to know about.
I'm a bit of a hipster gamer; I'm usually playing and writing about 'hidden gems' and indie obscurities. Finding something of interest to write about Flatout 2 - a game with nearly seven thousand reviews on steam and a 9/10 rating. Wouldn't it be great if I didn't like it? That would be something new to write…
However.
What kind of person wouldn't like this game? What kind of inhuman, mad man would not find joy in careening around race tracks, smashing up other cars, in a game with equal craft given to single and multiplayer? A game that, on any half decent PC, can be enjoyed with every single setting turned up to eleven where it looks and sounds explosively good?
Not I, sadly, for my word count; not I.
So, as mentioned, you probably know the drill: You take control of a series of increasingly less crappy bangers and race them around dirt tracks, suburban neighbourhoods, and shopping malls against 7 other rednecks of unlikely good looks.
The tracks are more open than they first appear, with corner cuts and full on short-cuts adding to their already enjoyable designs. They are littered with interactive objects for you to ram your opponents into, and doing so nets you nitro for later use.
So far, so Burnout. Right?
Well. Yes and No. Burnout is very much about sleek visuals, neon city streets, cars that look like spacecraft and, most importantly, the RESULT of a crash. Hitting a car in Burnout is worth absolutely nothing if that car doesn't end up as a heap of scrap metal impaled on a pile of rebar.
Having played a lot of Burnout in my time, it took me a while to realise that Flatout 2 is all about the initial impact of a crash. The physics lean more towards the realistic than Criterions games, so a well executed P.I.T. maneuver reaps its own benefits, but, for the most part, you get most rewarded for big, hard, hits.
This is less true in the destruction derby arenas where extra points will be awarded for rolling or destroying an opposition vehicle. These events are ludicrous amounts of fun, and took me right back to the classic ‘Destruction Derby’ PlayStation games. Flatout 2 offers more crashes, more damage, more speed, and more Americans.
The sequel may have left the British banger racing scene of the PlayStation original far behind it, but compared to the settings, stylings, and unfortunate confederate flags of Flatout 2, Destruction Derby 2 might just as well have been supping a flask of luke-warm tea on the mud banking at Brayfield.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this, well, apart from the confederate flag part but I’m not going that particular ‘is accurately recreating racist insignia born by racists in itself an act of racism?’ rabbit hole, but suffice to say it would be nice to have been given the choice to not have that particular emblem on my car.
But anyway. My point was that although a lot of games are set in America, nearly all of them really, very few feel quite so American in their environments as this one - to the extent that I was genuinely surprised to hear a couple of British acts on the largely post-grunge soundtrack.
So I think I’ve padded long enough. I really liked Flatout 2. It’s slightly different take on destructive racing makes it a great addition to the sub genre, and one that can be enjoyed alongside, rather than instead of, the Burnout franchise.
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