Full Auto Review

The release of Full Auto marks the end of a long drought of no new Xbox 360 releases and for that reason alone it will likely sell well whether it is good, bad, or in between. The good news is that it plays quite a bit better than the demo that was released earlier this year, but the bad news is that it still isn’t all that great. It can be fun in small doses, but probably not $60 worth.

Gameplay

Full Auto mixes head-to-head racing with weapons-based combat to create a fast and frenzied driving experience. The actual driving is pretty much like every other Xbox racing game – the stick controls steering, triggers control gas and brakes – and it feels pretty solid. The demo was rather slow and slippery and clunky but this final version handles noticeably better than that.

The other major aspect of the gameplay is, of course, the shooting. You’ll have several different weapons sets including machine guns and rockets as well as defensive weapons such as grenades and mines that come out of the back of your car. Some weapons can be precision aimed with the right control stick, but for the most part you can get away with just shooting straight ahead with your weapon of choice.

As you race and destroy stuff, you’ll build up two meters. The first is a boost meter that can give you a quick burst of speed. You’ll also fill up an Unwreck meter that allows you to rewind time when you crash or get blown up by your opponents.

All in all, the individual aspects of the gameplay are executed fairly well here. The driving and racing is decent and the combat can be quite satisfying. Unfortunately, the thrill of it all fades surprisingly quickly. There isn’t really any depth to the experience and after the first couple of races you have literally seen and done it all. You can unlock several different cars and even upgrade the weapons a little bit, but the core experience never changes. You just hold down the fire button and blow up anything that moves. Also, the tracks all have big, wide open corners so you never really have to slow down or navigate any tricky sections of track. You can spend entire races just holding the gas and the weapon buttons and you’ll win most of the time. And if something goes wrong you just use Unwreck and you have another shot at a particular jump or can dodge that missile someone shot at you. The first few races can be pretty fun when you see all of the destruction you can cause but after that Full Auto becomes rather repetitive.

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