FLATOUT REVIEW

 

Developer: Bugbear Entertainment

Publisher: Empire Interactive

Series: FlatOut

Release date: November 2004

Platforms: Windows, PS2, Xbox

Genre: Racing

Mode: Single Player & Multiplayer

 

 

My love for racing video games knows no boundaries. If you look on my blog (once I manage to organise things out so you can reach the beginning of my writings, my fellow reader), I have written 2 pieces on racing games: Race Driver GRID & “30 Years of Necessity for Velocity”. One is a game review, and the other is a retrospective tribute for my absolute favourite racing game series of all time. The quantity may be small, but the quality sure isn’t.

Point is, when it comes to this genre of gaming, I will not stop talking about it until I am done, similarly to Tomb Raider and Street Fighter. FIFA, while also a fan of it, I have only few games in there that I truly like and go in full detail expressing my love for them. What was I talking about again?

Oh yeah! Racing video games. I love them, but GRID & NFS aren’t the only racing games I enjoy. You have the rally games (those made by Codemasters) such as Colin McRae’s Rally and DiRT, the F1 games (either made by EA & Codies), Trackmania, Sonic Racing All-Star Racing Transform, Art of Rally, and so much more!

But one series in particular has a special place in my heart. A series that I’ve played before GRID, alongside NFS, but would argue the games are on par, if not, better than NFS in some areas.

That’s right, my fellow reader… It’s time to go FLATOUT!!!

 

 

The game was developed by the Finnish studio Bugbear Entertainment, who prior to making FlatOut, made other two racing games: Rally Trophy and Tough Trucks, with both being well received by critics and fans. Their magnum opus would be made in 2004 and based around one of Finland’s most popular car sports: Folkracing (Jokamiesluokka in Finnish). It’s essentially entry level rally racing with dirt cheap cars that are about to die at any moment because they’re falling apart, and it is also a full-contact sport, so bumps and crashes are occasional. You do get disqualified if you intentionally crash or obstruct an opponent, so don’t get it twisted thinking you can go out there and crash into other racers. So, if you’re a teen or someone who doesn’t have a regular driver’s license, you can freely hop into a shitbox and go out there to race.

FlatOut was inspired by this sport. You get to drive shitboxes in a variety of tracks, with an INCREDIBLE damage system, and the best part of all: YOU CAN BE A TOTAL DICK TO THE OTHER RACERS, CRASHING THEM LEFT AND RIGHT!!! But you wouldn’t be wrong to assume to make connections to other racing games that have destruction as their main gameplay feature, such as Destruction Derby, Twisted Metal and Carmageddon

I could just end the review here, but there are other aspects of the game that need to be covered, so yeah…

 

GAMEPLAY

Thrasher welcoming you to the world of FlatOut...

Before doing anything in the game, you are first to name your driver, choose whether you’re a man or a woman, choose the driving level between Normal & Professional (no clue what’s the difference between these two) and have you or the game change gears. Afterwards, you are free to do whatever you want.

The actual gameplay of FlatOut is divided into 5 categories:

-        Racing

-        Stunt

-        Derby

-        Time Trial

-        Career

Racing in FlatOut is pretty simple. You get to pick a car, then the course, and just race. The handling plays a huge role in winning in FlatOut. The cars are super sensitive when turning and landing from a huge jump, so letting go of the gas and sometimes hard breaking into a corner are the keys to having a successful race. Hitting your opponents and destroying the environment is VERY crucial, as you get Nitrous for slamming into anything.

The damage is still impressive even today...

The race tracks are all circuits and are set in various locations: Forests, Construction, Race Tracks, Little Towns, Ranches, Special Tracks… Some are 3 laps short, some are 6 laps long. It all depends on the track. Shortcuts are present, but not on the minimap. You need to have a keen eye to spot them during a race. But should you be careless when racing, well…

Ah yes! Launching the driver through the windshield. It never gets old!

What may happen to the other drivers, may also happen to you. So if you’re careless or you get in a situation that you can’t get out of, expect your driver to get launched through the windshield and fly across the race track. And since we’re talking about launching people through cars…

 

STUNTS

FUCK IT!!! YEET THAT DRIVER OUT OF THE CAR!

An ingenious and fun game mode… IF IT WAS ACTUALLY FUN!

It’s not all bad, but it is super frustrating if you aim to get to the top 3 or score any points. But if you just want to launch the driver, then it’s fun as all hell. You pick a course, car, and go for the launch. Oh and I almost forgot the controls: Arrows for driving, Spacebar for the handbrake, C for cameras, B for looking back, and Right Ctrl for nitrous/launching the driver. Pretty simple control scheme if you ask me. Bellow you can see an example of how stunts work in the game:

Just look at the damage of the car! Isn’t it awesome? Don’t feel sorry about it though. These cars are made for taking a beating. The damage of this game is incredibly detailed. If you hit a car, let’s say, on the right side of the bumper, only that side will get damaged. If you roll out, body parts would start flying all over the place. And if it gets EXTREMELY damaged, the engine could end up being lit. Thankfully, you won’t explode, but it’s crazy to win a race with a killed car and a burning engine. Stunts featured in the game are: Darts, Long Jump, High Jump, Bowling, Clown & Curling.

This talk about destruction is the perfect moment to talk about:

DERBY

“Drive Hard. Die Last”

In this game mode, you are pitted against opponents and your goal is to be the last participant alive. The nitrous is replaced with a damage meter, and if you fill up said meter, you get launched through the window and it’s game over! Eliminated opponents show up as black dots on the minimap to let the player know when they’re out of the event. This is also the only way to totally get wrecked, as doing so in normal races just isn’t possible. In racing, you can take a beating, but here? Nope. Few mistakes and you’re a goner. You don’t get points for how much damage you’ve done, but a time limit. The faster you finish the event, the better the end result…

TIME TRIAL

You have one lap to set the fastest lap. The courses are the same as those you race. A lot of people forget this exists, but not me. It’s a decent mode that challenges your driving skills.

CAREER

It’s not a somewhat modern racing game without a career mode...

The career mode in this game is rather simple and straight forward. You are given a small amount of cash to purchase your first shitbox car to use for racing, and then do one of the following:

-        Enter a race

-        Upgrade your car

-        Trade your car for another

-        Check your career statistics

The first level of racing and car selection is BRONZE. You can complete the events in any order you want, but there’s a catch: The events at the top have the opponents race with 0% upgrades, the middle row at 50% and the bottom with 100% upgrades. This also applies for the difficulty.

During career races, you earn additional cash bonuses for causing property damage. The reward isn’t big, but it’s enough, I suppose. And if you’re short on cash, you can join in one of the many Special events, which include Stunts, Derbies & Special Tracks. And just like before, the more the events are at the bottom, the harder they are, but the reward gets bigger and better. Completing every single race in a level (not counting the Special events) awards you with big money and unlocks the new level and cars of said level. Completing the Career mode just unlocks everything for the player to use in the Single Race menu.

The game has its quirks. But before I dive into fixing these quirks, I just want to mention that the soundtrack of this game is unique, as it features indie/garage type of bands and not well established ones, such as Mötley Crüe, Audioslave, Rob Zombie, etc. But they create a vibe that fits well with the game’s art style and graphics. One of my favourite tracks from the game, Anger Management 101 from Deponeye, served as a teaser for this review, and it was tucked away in one of the videos I featured before.

QUIRKS

-        While the music in this game is plentiful, it doesn’t play a whole lot during races. The same song repeats on loop until you finish the race and/or quit

-        TIRES & DRIVETRAIN make the car absolutely horrendous. Tires make the car oversteer too much and take control out of the car, and drivetrain reduces speed instead of increasing it. Avoid upgrading these when playing the career mode.

-        The game’s settings tend to reset after not playing the game for a while. As far as I know, there’s no fix for this (I could be wrong), and the only way to fix this is to launch the game through steam, and select the “Configuration Tool” to set the settings you used prior.

-        When you go off bounds during a race, and you return to the track, your position will still drop unless you return to the place where you drove out of the track. It’s better to reset your car (by pressing R), and resume your racing.

-        The game on Steam comes with the “Enable Steam input option”. It allows players to play the game using a controller, but everything is delayed when this option is enabled. To disable it: Open your Steam library > Click on FlatOut > Then on the cog icon > Properties… > Controller > And where it says “Override for FlatOut”, select Disable Steam input.

MODS

You love them, I love them, WE ALL LOVE THEM! FlatOut is no exception to this and is feature rich with all sorts of mods. There are even mods that fixes the handling and music problems. In this video here, you’ll find out how to install them for the game…

 

 

GALLERY

 

LINKS

- Steam

- GOG

CONCLUSION

A short review, but there's nothing much to say about this game because it’s a pretty good game. Damn good! It definitely shook things a bit when it came out in 2004, during the hype of NFS Underground 2. Instead of Japanese Imports, equipped with all sorts of body parts, you drove around in old and abandoned cars, crashing into one another and causing havoc. The shortcomings of the game don’t ruin the game’s replay ability at all. 20 years later, and FlatOut is still played and some even prefer it over its sequel. Also let’s be real, almost everyone is familiar with the series thanks to its sequel rather than the first initial release. But to those that were there since day 1, I SALUTE YOU!!!

Just get out there, grab your dead beat shitbox, and wreak havoc!

Next game on the chopping block is FlatOut 2 and its enhanced remaster, Ultimate Carnage. Coming out next month. It’s gonna be a wild one!

 

 

Ѓорѓи „GioGio“ Илиев