Split/Second

Split/Second is a racing game that acts like a TV action show, and its central idea looks the part: the track falls apart right before the player's eyes. During a race a power meter fills up from drifting, jumping, and drafting in a rival's slipstream, and the accumulated power can be unleashed at precisely designated points. A weaker hit drops a bus onto the road or sets off an explosion by a wall, but the strongest one collapses an entire tower, brings down a plane onto the runway, or reroutes the track and opens up a completely new path to the finish. So a race never looks the same twice, and the last lap tends to be more dramatic than the first.

Against these tricks stands the need to anticipate: when a rival triggers a trap ahead of you, you have a split second to dodge, so the game demands both alertness and a steady hand. The controls are arcade-style, with long, controllable drifts and a simple model that pushes car tuning aside in favor of pure driving. Alongside standard races there are modes like a duel against a helicopter dropping rockets or a run among trucks releasing explosive barrels behind them. Technically it made for a very striking spectacle on PlayStation 3, full of particle effects, dust, and debris, accompanied by orchestral music in the style of action films.

Critics received the game warmly and praised its boldness and clean execution, but commercially it didn't reach the genre's big names, and studio Black Rock eventually closed down, so a sequel never happened. That's exactly why it now has the reputation of a forgotten gem, often brought up in discussions of which arcade racers deserve a comeback. Playing it today, it's surprising how well it holds its pace and how few unnecessary systems it contains; it's a direct, loud, and confident game built on a single strong idea that it sees all the way through. Part of the motivation to keep coming back is that the player gradually learns to read each track differently, knowing where a trap can be set up and where, conversely, there's a risk of getting caught by one. Split/Second simply belongs among the titles worth trying even for people who aren't normally drawn to racing games.