Off-road comedy of physics
I grew up driving big American cars around a farm and Flatout does a great job of bringing those memories back. Flatout is a fun, crashing ride around dirt roads where you get to do a lot of damage to your car and others.
I love this game. I love the crashes. I love the physics. I love the way that the cars handle. I can feel the response of every wheel to the ground. If one wheel hooks a ditch, it feels like that wheel catching and not the whole car responding with an average response like many other racing games. It feels truly amazing to play.
The crashes tangibly damage the handling of the car. As the car gets smashed up, the wheels become eccentric and the shocks give out. The car bounces over every bump making it difficult to handle. With enough destruction it becomes a comedy of physics.
The other drivers are agressive and it pays to shoulder your way into corners, shoving them off the track before they do it to you. There's nothing more satisfying than pushing another car into a pole and hearing the driver yell as they are tossed from their car.
There are some entertaining rag-doll mini-games. You get to launch your driver over and into various obstacles. The rag-doll effect is great in the mini-games, but it gets annoying to find yourself launched from a vehicle in the middle of a race. (The great thing about the GOG.com version is that you can turn the rag-doll option off. You can't for the retail or Steam version.)
The game has lots of adjustments to "level the playing field". If you crash into things, you get extra boost to help you catch up. If you fall behind, the computer controlled opponents dawdle around the track, waiting for you to catch up. This can be a blessing or a curse because you will also find them driving aggressively when you are in the lead. They won't hesitate to shove you around and knock you off the track.
Flatout performs best as a crash-em-up derby. After the crashing novelty wore off, I also enjoyed the racing portion of the game. It's the opposite of refinement, but I liked muscling the idiosyncratic cars around the track.
One of the subtle things about the game is how damage throughout the game affects the handling and the performance of the car. The game encourages you to crash by giving you boost when you wreck, but you'll go faster throughout the race if you avoid damaging your car.
The other subtle thing is the upgrades don't always help. Too much power to the rear wheels of a big car can make it difficult to handle. I'm not going to say which upgrades are best but you might want to experiment. It is possible to beat the bronze level without any upgrades at all. It isn't easy but it is possible.
Flatout is not without faults:
1. You can only own one car at a time, and when you sell your car, you don't get much for it, even if you've put in tons of upgrades. The best solution is to use multiple profiles with a different car in each profile.
2. Ridiculous rubber band AI. It's definitely there in big way but there is a limit on how fast they can go. With some upgrades, it is possible to out pace them if you drive cleanly. Given that they do have an upper limit, I don't mind the rubber banding.
3. Getting tossed out of the car as a rag-doll is really annoying in the middle of a serious race. (Thankfully, this option can be turned off in the GOG.com version.)
4. A great number of obstacles in the terrain are destructable but some of them are extremely rigid. This can be annoying.
5. The game gets too fast on the higher levels. Racing in dirt is intrinsically a low speed affair that requires planning before each turn. The cars handle loosely and this makes the racing on dirt difficult at higher speeds, especially when the crashes have severe consequences. (Or, maybe I'm just not a great driver.)
All this said, I found Flatout to be a lot of fun. It's my favorite racing game. If you like driving big American cars off-road and crashing them, you'll probably love this game too.
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