Fuel

Overall Technically audacious, but the huge map means FUEL loses focus.

FUEL has a ton of potential, and moments of brilliance stashed under its rough exterior. The problems are hard to ignore though, and unless you have a ton of time to dedicate to it, the races will likely grow boring long before you uncover half of this massive world.

FUEL didn’t meet its goal. Actually it went quite far from what Codemasters had promised. Although it is evident that the dev team has put a lot of effort in creating an innovative and fresh concept, and has produced a vast free-roamable terrain of proven technical quality, some unfortunate gameplay solutions and a improvable AI have mined the overall experience.

Fuel is without a doubt a complete game, that thanks to the numerous unlockable areas, cars, challenges and so on, reaches an enviable longevity. Unfortunately the gameplay lacks all the functionality typical of the competition, and there are some techincal issues that ruin the overall score. Fuel is a game for all arcade-off-road racing games, but beware as you won't find the dynamism of Motorstorm nor the attention to detail of Pure, but a different game, with good free-roaming gameplay.

Huge as it is, Fuel has many good things to offer. Fun gameplay, incredibly big environments, good visuals and a lot of challenges are on the plus side. But it lacks any depth, and the lack of a career mode makes all the trip a bit illogical. Good game with good ideas, ideal for arcade lovers, but not so much for those who look for a much deeper experience.

FUEL is a huge project but never quite fulfills its potential. The game lacks polish and style, and the overwhelmingly enormous world is too lifeless to keep you entertained. Thus, FUEL never manages to impress, making it nothing more than an average off road-racer inferior to competitors like Pure and Motorstorm.

Those who have followed the development of Fuel will be disappointed with the final result, while those who know nothing about its scope will find an enjoyable but at the same time unremarkable game.

FUEL is a very good addition to open world and off-road racing genres. But despite the overall enjoyment I got from the game, I can’t help but feel that it lacks the competitive elements that have enabled so many racing games to succeed.

At the end of the day, it seems that the developers were a little too ambitious with this game, although I must admit that we did enjoy the first half of this game, unfortunately after that it does become a little too repetitive.

The structure (divided in free roaming phases and simple races) is unbalanced, the global style not so shiny, and the phisical engine has many issues. Just for Arcade lovers.

14000 square kilometers are not enough to make a good game. Fuel tries to overlap its competitors by taking a sand box approach to the genre, but it fails by offering races that are neither challenging nor thrilling set in enormous and boring open spaces.

While the racing experience in Fuel is far from perfect, the sheer size and beauty of the game world still makes it an off road racing game worth checking out.

This expansive arcade racer may be ambitious, but it doesn't nail all of the basics.

Fuel was a bit of a disappointment. Yes, the world is large and looks good. Yes, there is a lot to do in this Guinness Book of Records-game. And yes, I like the notion of a free world to do whatever I want in. But the physics and the feeling lack several important pieces for this to be a great game.

Minor details takes down the magnificence this game could have. Nevertheless, some good ideas made me want to see a possible sequel with this whole basis, but free of errors.

A cool-looking racing game that ultimately crumbles under the weight of its own slow pace.

Despite its massive terrain, a barren game world, a poorly structured and limited scope prevents Fuel from being anything worth your time.

Fuel feels like one giant exercise in proving a point, a huge technical achievement that manages to eschew the fundamental rules of a good racer and drive itself, tragically, into mediocrity.

Fuel may set records and feature tons of things to do, but very little of it is actually worth doing. While the scale of its world may be impressive on paper, this is one case where bigger isn't necessarily better.

After putting in numerous hours with Fuel, I've struggled to find anything that I especially like about it. The racing has issues, but in and of itself (outside of not being able to select a ride you might want), it works well enough. Not great, but well enough.

There's no denying Asobo's achievement in building such a daring, beautiful landscape on such a vast scale, but the core of any good racing game is falling in love with its vehicles, the things you can do with them, and the places you can take them, and by that measure FUEL is distinctly average.

We had high hopes for FUEL, which promised to offer an expansive game world teaming with insane weather and even crazier racing. Ultimately, however, Asobo Studio has served up a barren wasteland filled with nothing to do, bland race events, and weather effects that are far less dynamic than Codemasters might have you believe.

Ultimately, this is a missed opportunity through and through. I would have expected better from a Codemasters published game.

Fuel is a race game with two faces. On one hand you've got a huge and open world in which the impressive weather effects and the sheer size alone are a new milestone in it's genre. But on the other hand the game feels a little lost and lacks decent gameplay mechanics. In the end the flaws take the upper hand and giving us the feeling that Fuel could have been so much more.

Lot of content, little quality. A huge world to explore is not enough.

It's always fun to race through FUEL's huge scenarios without a particular reason, if you're patient enough.

The massive world and tons of secrets to be found in it are two of the few strengths in what is otherwise a really bad racing game. Poor AI, horrid driving mechanics, shoddy physics and tacky design. Put simply, avoid at all costs.