There are two ways of looking at Bullfrog's latest release Hi-Octane. The first is on the merits of the game alone, where I look at the graphic quality, nifty features, gameplay, etc. When seen from this viewpoint, Hi-Octane is a solid game with good features that virtually anyone would be proud of. The second way is to view it from the standpoint that this is a Bullfrog game, the company that, in my opinion, has put together the greatest string of ultra-fun and innovative games in recent history, such as Syndicate, Magic Carpet, and Populous (the game that virtually created the God-sim genre). When looked at in this light, Hi-Octane starts to lose some of its respectability.
First, let's take a look at the game itself. Hi-Octane is a racing game set in the future where the racers fly hovercraft instead of driving cars. But in this sport, the racers forego trying to go around each other, opting for equipping their hovercars with guns and missiles designed to go through opponents. It's a good looking, fast and furious racing game where blasting the bejesus out of your opponent passes for finesse. So what's wrong with it? Well, basically nothing. In fact, the Hi-Octane game engine is the same kind used in Magic Carpet, and if you're familiar with Carpet at all, you'll really notice the similarities, which isn't at all a bad thing. Hi-Octane is one of the better futuristic racing games out there. The only trouble is, that while nothing is really wrong with it, there's really nothing great. You know ... nothing clever, ingenious or original - nothing really Bullfrog.
It's very difficult for me to criticize Octane on features that really aren't design flaws, because the designers obviously knew what they wanted. I guess what spoiled the Hi-Octane experience for me was playing the game Slipstream 5000. Both games are very similar in gameplay, both take place in the future, and both use hovercraft fitted with weapons. I thought Slipstream was a wonderful game with superb features, but it still had a little room for improvement. So when I heard that Bullfrog was making Hi-Octane I expected something that went beyond Slipstream, but I don't guess it was to be. However, seeing that my job is to write what I think about the games I play, here goes.
Let's talk first about the way the hovercars drive. The player is flying futuristic hovercraft which float off the ground. Well, that's fine, but there's no true freedom of movement - you can turn left and right but you can't fly up and down. There are ramps to go flying off of, and curved banks that allow you to move up and down a small bit, but if you're on a straight piece of track you're strictly limited to two options. So even though your hovercar is airborne, you might as well be driving something with wheels. But again, this really isn't a design flaw because this is exactly what the designers wanted. But what's the use of flying these hovercars if you can't move in all directions?
There are weapons mounted on each hovercraft, just to make things more interesting. Each vehicle is mounted with a mini-gun and a missile launcher. You can upgrade both weapons by collecting power-ups found along the track. As far as carnage goes, Hi-Octane is probably the most action-packed racing game I've ever played. When a bunch of hovercars get bunched up, the track turns into a war zone very quickly where someone is going to die. It is, quite literally, a blast rounding the corner and letting everything fly. Few, if any, games have the intensity of fighting and racing found in Hi-Octane. But if you take the time to read the back of the box HO came in, it says there are a "range of weapons" for the player to select. This statement is absolutely misleading. First, the player doesn't really get to select his weapons at all since the hovercraft is automatically equipped at the beginning of every race. And what's more, there is no "range of weapons" to use even if the player could choose what he wanted. The racer starts with the basic gun and missile launcher, but other than increasing the power of those two weapons, there are no other weapons to use. No lasers, no canons, no super weapons, no harsh language, no nothing except a gun and a missile launcher. C'mon Bullfrog, even Spy Hunter had smoke screens.
Now that I think about it, there is actually one problem with the design of the game: there aren't enough racetracks. There are six tracks ranging from a basic oval design to tracks with ramps and sections that twist and turn all over the place. But with only six tracks, playing Hi-Octane gets dangerously close to becoming the bane of a game's existence - boring. This is where racing in only two directions becomes a real setback. Slipstream's racing allowed for tracks which go in all directions - left, right, up, down, you name it. So when you played a different track, the designers had different "themes," where some tracks were a flat design while some went all over the place. Hi-Octane doesn't have that ability. For all of the complex twisting and turning of the tracks, about the most fantastic it gets are the jumps off ramps your hovercraft is capable of and, every now and then, there are short cuts which have gates which open and close, providing a little variety.
Perhaps offsetting the lack of weapons are the nifty variety of hovercraft. Six different vehicles are available to race, each with its own specific attributes in the areas of armor, firepower and speed. While not an original feature, the designers have thrown in some really great vehicles. There are small speedsters which are compact and have no firepower or armor to speak of, but the behemoths of the Hi-Octane circuit are what really stand out. The big boy, the Jugga, looks like a big semi-truck that takes virtually a nuclear bomb to destroy and can wipe you out in a second if you get if front of it. But, just like the tracks, I wish there would have been more cool hovercraft to choose from, maybe even customize.
About the only Bullfrog-ish innovation I could find in Hi-Octane is the sequence after a driver gets killed or runs out of fuel. As you drive along each track, you notice these huge flying saucers with legs on the bottom. These ships pick up drivers who have been killed, have run out of fuel or have just gotten stuck in a part of the landscape. They come swooping down, pick up and repair the troubled hovercar, then place it back down on the track to resume racing. This was a lot better than just waiting for the computer to "let" me start racing again since I was waiting for something tangible to happen.
Hi-Octane includes all the basic features you'd expect like tournament racing and the ability to practice on each individual track. Hi-Octane can also support up to eight players through it's network capabilities. Overall a good game, but why am I not impressed? Most of all, it's like watching Mike Tyson go the distance against a weaker opponent. Sure, he won the fight, but it didn't end the way you wanted - with a knockout. In my mind, Bullfrog is a heavyweight game designer, and playing something like Hi-Octane reminds me of what they've accomplished in the past and didn't deliver this time. Everything in Hi-Octane has been done before in some form in other games, just maybe not as flashy. It feels like it was rushed through production, with some super-duper features that were begging to be added being left out along the way. If you want a fantasy/futuristic racing game, get Slipstream. If you want a fast paced, fire-as-fast-as-you-can blastathon, get Magic Carpet. If you want a racing sim, get NASCAR Racing. If you get Hi-Octane you won't be disappointed but, if you played any of the aforementioned games, this is one heavyweight that won't knock you out.
