Fast & Furious: Showdown Review – None of the Above

Game Reviewed: Fast & Furious: Showdown

Release Date: May 21st, 2013

Developer: Firebrand Games

Publisher: Activision

Platform: [Reviewed: XBOX 360], PlayStation 3, PC

Genre: Racing

Rated: T for Teen

When you think of Fast and the Furious, you can’t help but think of some of the streets fastest and most whipped out rides. Secondly is the likes of Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez and more. Now Firebird Games is giving you a reason to think more “interactive” as they’ve developed a new Fast and Furious game titled “Showdown.”

It’s not too often where most gamers may put a game in their console and have mixed feelings through the main screen;  literally before starting  off any sense of gameplay. Prepare yourself, this is one of those games.

The story kicks off in Moscow where Former S.A.S.  Owen Shaw  (Luke Evans) and Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) are ripping the streets, destroying anyone that comes too close by flipping vehicles. From here, the story shifts over to Toretto’s crew. While all are under investigation, detectives believe that both Hobbs and Shaw’s crew are somehow working together.

From there, the story just goes everywhere and becomes more about the racing and shooting up enemies that are looking to take you out. Most of the chapters consist of time trials, eliminations, races and special objectives.

If you went out to the box office and saw Fast & Furious 6, you’ll have a much better grasp of where the story is leading you through gameplay.

On each chapter there are secondary objectives as well. Mindlessly, you must pause the game to review this list. You would think as an objective, it would be displayed on screen, not here. However, completing them will unlock mods and other special items for challenge mode.

There’s also a challenge mode full of mini games like speed check that has you being marked by camera with the fastest speed possible, or air support that allows you to “get In the chopper” and provide air support. Some of the modes are interesting but isn’t enough to hold it all together.

Mechanics are far on the rough side as you delve into the story. Sometimes you’ll feel control of the vehicle, and later realizing drifting can easily spur the vehicle out of control.  There’s also parts of the game where the A.I. seems to almost work against you on certain missions. For example, on a mission with Han and Rio, you are pulling down cell towers. If you play as Han, Rio sometime park too far for you to grapple the towers. Even if you switch characters to pull in closer and switch back, Rio will again drive further away, making the pull difficult.

Expect to not only see but hear character likenesses throughout the campaign. However graphically, Showdown is a mess. Imagine The Sims creating an action-packed video game, if you have that in mind, you’ve just pictured Fast & Furious  Showdown.

I now have to wonder, especially since the same horrific method was done with The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, does Activision really care about some of the titles they publish? This is the second title this year that Activision could have cashed in big on, instead they allowed the developers to embarrass themselves with piss poor quality. Think I’m joking? If this had been Call of Duty: Showdown, the game would’ve been amazing. But it isn’t.

Fast & Furious wasn’t the worst either. It sets in as one of those games that could’ve possibly been much more than it is, but something was missing.

The Scores

Gameplay: 2.5/5

Visuals: 2/5

Audio: 4/5

Controls: 3/5

Value: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.5/5