FlatOut seems like a misnamed game to me. When I hear the words “flat out” I think of a car flying down a straightaway, pedal to the metal, red-lined RPMs,… in another word, “speed”. FlatOut is not a game that will send you screaming down the track – well, not in your car at least, but more on that later. Instead, FlatOut is all about demolition derby racing which in turn is as much about keeping your car in one piece as it is about being the first to cross the finish line. In short, while most games penalize you for crashing into other drivers or roadside objects, FlatOut actively encourages it.

The game is centered on the career mode. As in most racing game career modes, you buy a car and use it to compete in a series of races in order to earn money which can be spent to buy upgrades for your car. This simple and straightforward description of the career mode is appropriate because the career mode in FlatOut is itself simple and straightforward. There’s no story, no flash, no excitement – you just pick your next race from the unlocked races in the list, run the race, and then return to the main screen which simply shows a picture of your car. At least a little flash would have been nice; something to get you a little excited about the game and your next race. Also it is a bit of a disappointment that upgrades to your car are not visible – your loaded machine will look just like the stock version. I suppose that this is not too surprising since you can’t really notice the effects of your upgrades when you’re on the track anyway.

As for the racing itself, FlatOut is not a demolition derby sim. Far from it. The game has a very arcade-like physics engine, but one that’s been pumped up on steroids. Cars powerslide around curves at high speeds at pretty much full throttle and wrecks send cars bouncing and flying all over the track. Bumps in the track will launch your car and it’s not uncommon for it to bounce and ricochet off of cars and objects on its way back down to earth. This is a game for crash enthusiasts more than racing enthusiasts.

This kind of racing is certainly fun at times, but there are a couple of issues with FlatOut that prevent it from being as much fun as it could have been. The first is that the game makes extensive use of “rubber banding” – a cheap trick that keeps that gives the AI a boost if it falls behind in a race. If the other cars get too far behind they’re given a boost to put them back into the race again, just as if they were attached to your rear bumper by a rubber band. This is intended to keep the races close and supposedly interesting, but the actual effect is frustrating more than anything else. You can run a perfect race and leave your competition in the dust only to make a minor mistake near the end that costs you the race. Thanks to the loosey-goosey controls and physics, it’s quite easy to scrape a wall at the wrong moment and find yourself flipped over and suddenly out of the running. Not fun.

The other problem with the racing comes as a result of the game’s overuse of its flying man routine. It seems that none of the cars in the game come with front safety belts because whenever you get into a wreck your driver will come flying out of the windshield and onto the track. The first time you see this it is admittedly pretty cool as the hapless driver is subject to all the cruelties of ragdoll physics the game can dish out. He’ll not only fly down the track, he’ll bounce, twist, and roll along the way. However, losing your driver will cost you time in the race so you’ll need to keep him safely behind the wheel if you’re to have a shot at winning. The problem is that the ejections are far too common. Scrapes and bumps that don’t look all that bad can still manage to send your driver flying – and always out the windshield no matter from which side you’re hit. You can’t win the race with your driver on the track, so you’ll begin to avoid collisions so you can hang on to your driver and avoid the frustration of watching him go slowly flying down the track for the umpteenth time. It’s ironic that a game about destruction derby racing in reality discourages you from hitting your opponents.

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