Full Auto 2: Battlelines (PlayStation 3)

Full Auto 2: Battlelines is the sequel to the auto racing combat game Full Auto, that debuted in February of 2006 on the Xbox 360.

The sequel builds on the original in many ways by offering improved damage modeling on all of the cars and environments, new gameplay modes, expanded multiplayer, new cars and weapons and a new story.

The gameplay revolves around vehicular combat, with players choosing from one of several cars and then kitting them out with various primary and secondary weapons that can be mounted on the front and back, or just the front of the car. Each part of Meridian city is a different district with a different graphical style. As you move from area to area, you’ll usually have three or four levels that culminate in you earning a new car. In each level, you’ll also have the opportunity to complete secondary objectives which can net you extra skins for your cars, new cars and new weapons when you’ve completed a number of secondary objectives.

There are two basic types of levels: Racing and Arena. In the racing levels, you’ll be tasked with getting from point A to point B or going in a number of laps in a circuit. Levels get complex though as you might have a time limit, a specific car you need to destroy, a car you need to project, or a certain number of level objects you need to destroy in addition to getting to the end of the race. Arena matches are non-linear battle arenas where you’ll be pit against a number of cars in a free roaming area. You’ll often need to destroy a certain number of cars, a certain car a number of times, or destroy more cars than any of your other opponents. There’s a wide range of objectives for you to complete in both arena and racing.

Back from the previous game is the ‘Unwreck’ feature that allows you to rewind time. Don’t like the way you got killed there? Rewind time. Miss a power-up? Do it over. Narrowly miss killing an opponent? Try again. Just be careful, as it also uses boost energy. Using boost and unwreck at the long time will either make you not fast enough to win or cause you to run dry when you really do need to unwreck.

Environments are now much more interactive. For example, you can destroy a monorail train’s track supports and the monorail will crash onto the race area, or destroy the supports on a dry docked boat to try and make it land on cars behind you.

The game also has eight player online multiplayer and two player split-screen multiplayer. You can race or fight in an arena free for all or on a team. Online play has two additional gameplay modes called ‘Cat and Mouse’ and ‘Base Assault’. Cat and Mouse will have you protecting your ‘mouse’ while trying to take out the other teams – attack and defend while your team counts on you for success! Base Assault has you attacking the other team’s base while defending your own. To score a point, you need to drive the bomb power up to the opposing teams base to blow up their building to score.