Fuel Overdose – PSN’s Most Addictive Racer

When I first started playing Fuel Overdose I realized that the warning I received from the publisher about the difficulty of this game was not something that I should have taken in vain. Even for skilled gamers it is going to take a couple of sittings before you will feel that you can truly compete against other racers. The controls are very touchy and precise and the slightest adjustments can take a player from a straightaway to a wall in an instant. It is this challenge that makes Fuel Overdose as addicting as it is. Seeing the things that players are capable of doing in this game made me push myself to want to master the controls and unleash my vehicles true potential.

The player has access to multiple vehicle builds all of which posses different skills for the many different challenges players will face. These vehicles can also be upgraded in 4 different categories which will improve the cars speed, acceleration, handling and shields. Shields play a large role in this racer as each player is outfitted with an arsenal of weapons. Each racer will have a machine gun, rocket launcher and mines as well as grappling hooks and bomb detonators which are used to activate the bombs places throughout the many courses. Players will also have special and ultra attacks that can be unleashed using the right stick.

Fuel Overdose is not driven by the strongest of stories. The game takes place in a future where global warming has turned the planet upside down and killed millions. The repercussions from the change in climate has shifted the positioning between the moon and earth making for some pretty intense versions of real world locations. New York is a flooded mess, Las Vegas is now an even hotter and unforgiving climate than before and the changes don’t stop there. Humanity itself has seen the effects of this change and have started dying in record numbers at the hands of the disease caused by global warming which the writers have names Lilith. After the devastation humanity broke up into sects and started vying for power over the remaining lands. The largest and most dangerous of these groups was called Consortium, these individuals held the most abundant stock of the only vaccine that could help with the effects of Lilith’s wrath. The population was given three choices, join Consortium, try to find the vaccine on your own, or send the best of your clan to the Race of Chaos.

The Race of Chaos is where the player comes in as we are able to choose from any of the 8 initial characters that are available to you to take part in a litany of modes. Free Race, Challenges, Championship Mode, Story Mode and Multiplayer make up the choices and all of them have something to offer the player. In Story mode is where players can uncover more details about the story and uncover the secrets that Consortium is hiding. Each character has 4 races they must play through, each one having its own special circumstances to clear them. For instance you might have to finish ahead of a certain racer without attacking them throughout in order to clear that particular race. Clearing these 4 races will unlock new entries into the games help file which will unravel the worlds secrets one step at a time.

In order to unlock the many vehicles and upgrades that are available for each character players will have to earn CC, and the best place to do that is in the Championship Mode. Championship is a 5 race set that awards point for the top 4 finishers of each race. Make your way to the top of the leaderboard by the end and you will be rewarded richly with a large sum of CC. This mode is also the most efficient way to unlock all the variations of the courses that are available. Each course has four variations and Championship Mode runs you through all of them. The challenges are an interesting and difficult addition to the traditional race modes that we see in the other sections of the game. Objectives range from winning a race without using any weapons to killing all of the other drivers before the end of three laps. Players will also be tested with time trials and drift competitions that will allow the to fine tune all of the skill sets that this title has to offer.

With all of the different game modes and the high level of challenge, it is very easy for me to call Fuel Overdose the most addictive and rewarding racer that I have played in quite a long time. With the high replay value and free DLC that was just recently announced it is very easy for me to recommend Fuel Overdose to any gamer looking for a challenge or just looking for their next game. At $9.99 with 2 free DLCs that were just announced this is a must have for fans of the arcade racing genre. This is a game you will come back to time and time again and there aren’t many games out there at this price point that can make the same claim.