Fuel Demo

Every once in a while, video game designers come up with a great idea and create a lot of hype and excitement around it, whether to showcase their creativity, or just convince as many people to buy it immediately after it is released. However, things do not always go according to plan and some of these grand ideas end up not being so great when put into practice.

Fuel captivated the attention of gamers by promising a revolutionary gameplay, one that encourages exploration and almost completely eliminates linear tracks from the equation. Naturally, in order to provide a satisfying experience, the game needed a large and interesting map to do so, because anything less would quickly become boring and repetitive.

To start off with, the developers did manage to deliver when it comes to the environment and the map itself, since it supposedly spans on around five thousand square miles, which is more than plenty for anyone. While the environmental design is not exactly top notch, a lot of effort went into portraying a believable post-apocalyptic scenario, featuring desolated landscapes, forest fires, rivers and plenty of other decorations that inspire a bit of life into the game.

Things went downhill from there, however, since everything else about the game is very annoying, confusing and badly implemented, starting with the frustrating camera control. Beside the fact that you can barely see where you are going most of the time, the actual vehicle simulation is based on some very loose arcade mechanics, which makes for very bland and uninteresting races. Thus, nothing really happens when you hit a tree, except maybe for a reset that sends you back into the race. Moreover, the vehicles react poorly to the environment around them and the suspension barely breaks a sweat, regardless of what the terrain looks like ahead.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, you can either compete in normal races in the career mode, or try to accomplish various challenges around the map, which reward you with fuel. Fuel is actually the currency used inside the game, since it can also be picked up around the map by driving into barrels. However, other than the fact that you must pay for the races using fuel, it really does not have much of an impact on the gameplay, regardless of how much fuss surrounded the concept and even inspired the title.

In the end, Fuel can be a fun and entertaining experience, for about fifteen minutes, as you realize that there's nothing more to the game. After that, you can still squeeze a bit of fun out of it by simply driving around the map, since the environments can be quite serene at times, thanks to the integrated day/night cycle.