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Plays like a demo

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game has great graphics, but the courses are very short. Demo-version short. You won't believe how little space you cover before you see the message that you've gone another lap. Also, the AI is ridiculously skilled, and as the crafts you pilot are not that easily maneuvered, you're usually left in the dust. I wanted to like this, but I can't recommend it as is.

It has its charms.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Fatal Inertia is a title whose shortcomings are mostly the product of inaccurate expectations. This isn'ta deep modern racer like Forza or Gran Turismo; tracks aren't very long, and if you're expecting a calm endurance race, you're parking up the wrong tree. This is a 'combat racer' in hover-crafts, on fast-paced tracks that require some well-practiced reflexive play (at least, on the harder difficulty matches.)

The game has lush graphics and an appealing design, though vehicles can feel a little generic until you unlock all the various parts, paints, and decals for them. I find the lack of money a welcome decision, since you can swap parts and cosmetics all you want until you find a combination that suits your style, rather than having buyer's remorse about that engine or those wings that slow you down too much.

Fatal Inertia doesn't have a whole lot of track enironments, but each track has a variety of different iterations, creating 51 in total. Top that off with several different race types (Knock Out, Combat, Velocity, etc) and you've got a package that'll entertain you for a while. Weapons are also implemented in a neat way; all weapons have a secondary fire, which will either fire the weapon backwards, or utilize it in a way that'll speed you up for a short time. There's even a grappling hook, ala The Empire Strikes Back.

However, in the polish department, this game needs a bit of work. Combat races can degrade into an all-out brawl whilst in the mix of other racecraft on higher difficulties, and all the riff-raff going on can disrupt your concentration on the actual racing - causing you to hit bumps in the road or slide off the path. The control of pitch and yaw, while helpful at times, can become too much to pay attention to during the mayhem. At these points, you just want to get up front and forget about the pesky AI, as they beat the snog out of eachother.

Still, this introduces a challenging gameplay scenario. I've been hooked on it because it tests my piloting skills in many ways, and gives me a shiny, stream-lined flying machine to do it with. You definitely get a sense of power and speed, and on a good track, getting that grappling hook snag on the leader's tail, only to attach the other end to a boulder and stop him in his tracks as you fly by him over the finish is a good feeling.

Overall, if you can forgive the developer's inexperience, you'll find a niche game that rewards long-time players.

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