Powerslide

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Review: Powerslide

I hear you: A racer with a story? Get off my property.

Honest: Unlike the vast majority of driving games, which appear to acquire a story line about two weeks before they ship, the tracks in Powerslide are pleasantly faithful to the games theme.

The theme is bleak. The disappearance of the ozone layer early in the 21st century has led to the near-annihilation of the human raceand given the survivors unparalleled access to abandoned cars. These have been cannibalized for parts by rebellious racers called Powersliders, and the resultant behemoths are pitted against one another on eight progressively tougher circuits (plus four bonus tracks) in a competition for, uh, fresh fruit. Apparently the hated brussels sprout is the only vegetable that grows in this variously irradiated world.

You pick a car from a roster of muscle-bound buggies, a tranny, and a character from a crew that appears to have been borrowed from Road Rash, then off you go into the desert against up to 11 opponents. Complete a set of tracks at a given difficulty levelthere are fourand youll unlock additional circuits, characters, cars, and type-in cheats. (The first, Burn, allows you to send fiery missiles up your opponents tailpipes.) Theyre offered up in a straightforward fashion that doesnt leave you guessing what you may or may not have achieved.

Now, if you play only the early tracks, youll probably be tempted to blow off Powerslide as another graphically vivid arcade racer. The trek around towers of wind-blown desert stone at games opening and the simple dirt oval that follows recall Psygnosis Destruction Derbya great concept in brutal physics that was done to death by lackluster tracks. They are pretty. They are fast. They are seamless. They are dull.

But stick around for the third go-round, which is based around a beaten-down dam, and youll find in its rich gray and brown textures and creeping darkness not simply a good challenge, but a persuasive sense of a world that has been allowed to slide into neglect. Theres no one around to shovel away the sand, re-lay the concrete, and live in the cities. Its not a place where youd want to get out of your car, but its the only racing game that has me slowing down to read the signs.

Its also agreeably open-ended. The desert track allows you to go off-road into a sand-washed ghost town. The dam has some infuriating dead-ends. The brawny mine track has more potential than I had time to explore. (Its almost in Carmageddon territory in terms of complexity.) Even the dirt oval allows you to launch your car into the grandstands and drive around in the aisles.

Now, if theyre going to allow us to drive around the bleachers, there really should be something in the bleachers worth finding. By itself, the novelty of being able to do something unconventional isnt enough, and Id love to see more of this post-apocalyptic world. And on the mine level, with the cars bunched into close quarters at the starting line, the update on my 3D-accelerated P200 MMX was so jarring that I couldnt steer properly and invariably wound up driving into a wall and finishing last.

But theres more to Powerslide than simply winning. This is one for watching and experiencing.-- Peter Olafson / GamePro