Wipeout XL

  Wipeout XL is the sequel to the immensly popular, futuristic racing game, Wipeout.

In the sequel, as well as in the original, you pilot a highly aerodynamic hovercraft around a series of progressivly harder hover tracks. During your races you pick up weapons, speed ups, sheilds, ect.. to help you win your race.

All of the weapons are quite effective, and awesome looking in their implementation. Lightsourcing and effects were done to the max. Visually this game is stunning. One weapon even lifts the whole track up to disable all other racers in your current view. Quite spectacular! Yet, you must use these sparingly because you only get one at a time.

You begin with the ability to select one of the four teams available, as well as a choice of skill levels. Each of the teams has different abilities: thrust, speed, turning, sheild energy, and aerodynamics. In addition, each of the skill levels (novice, intermediate, and expert), has a choice of two tracks. Your goal is to win the gold cup in each of the progressivly harder races. If you get all gold (which I didn't do) then an arcade challenge is supposed to become available to you. Rest assured, Psygnosis did much to make this a highly replayable game.

As it should be, Wipeout XL does much to improve on it's predessor. Everything is bigger and better! Better graphics, better effects, improved control, light sourcing, speed, ect.. This was quite a feat, because the original was near perfect itself.

The best improvement, in my mind, was the improved reaction to wall collisions. In the original, you stopped dead in your tracks if you even grazed the wall. Very annoying indeed! With Wipeout XL, head on collisions do the same, but close brushes merely cause blue sparks to fly with hardly a loss of speed. This one improvement doubled the playability of this game.

Now that I've raved about it, I'll tell you what I didn't like. I'm not trying to cut it down, because it is an excellent game. It's just that some things annoyed me and I want my readers to be aware of them. First, I don't like loseing speed at all. In Wipeout XL, it is possible to gain incredible speeds, but it doesn't take much to be slowed to a screaching halt. The wall sparks were a great addition, but I think the designers needed more measures to keep the game speed up. Second, I would've highly preferred weapons that you can fire more continually, or at least a special mode to do this. I crave high speed non-stop action. Finding weapons and strategically placing shots is OK, but I would rather have my shooting to be non-stop. Third (and last), I know it's what makes the game unique, but I perfer tires to hovercraft anyday. This floaty type feeling is great for some, but I like more pecise steering. I'm not downgrading it, many will like it better then asphalt. I just don't.

Wipeout XL is highly unique, graphically amazing, and generally a joy to play. If your out there looking for something different, of if you loved the original, I suggest you give it a try. It is truely a cut above the rest!

RATINGS
GRAPHICS 98%
SOUND 97%
GAMEPLAY 85%
ORIGINALITY 95%
REPLAY VALUE 95%
OVERALL 94%