FlatOut 4: Total Insanity Review

Flatout 4 is almost worth it thanks to a couple of interesting modes. But ultimately there are too few tracks to sustain the bulging amount of content.

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Falls flat?

Flatout is one of those series that felt like it was about to go global, until creators BugBear left to make Ridge Racer and then Wreckfest. After a disastrous third game, can WRC developer Kyloton get things back on track?

Gameplay:

Certainly the core modes are a welcome return to form, with options to fling your driver out of his car through a variety of obstacles and hoops in Stunt mode, the ability to smash up other cars in Deathmacthes, and racing (with or without weapons) in Flatout or Assault mode.

There’s even two ways to play, with a more traditional Career mode, and individual events in Flatout mode. In the latter, you’re given a target, competing against the clock, a points target or something similar. You’ll need to score high enough to keep unlocking the 42 events, but there is plenty of variety across the spectrum. Some event types are exclusive to this mode, such as Carnage, where you score points based on crashing into opponents and scenery, and get a multiplier for where you are in the order, encouraging you to be both fast and dirty. There’s also plenty of variety to the stunts, some of which even include takes on golf and baseball. Not every event type hits the mark though.

The checkpoint based ‘beat the bomb’ is tough, and relies on you getting very technical with the racing to beat the scores, something which the handling model just can’t cope with all the time. It’s not good when you sail across the same piece of ground one lap, when the next lap, at essentially the same angle and speed, you can be completely thrown off course. It makes these events feel extremely frustrating, because the game, rather than the driver feels at fault.

The career mode has a more structured set of championships, but also bites off a bit more than it can chew. The game has a pretty limited set of environments to race in, so within a few of the events you’ll have already raced across all the tracks. If you do keep progressing, then there’s a good few dozen hours of content, and plenty of unlockables for quick races, but there’s no huge incentive to keep going. More tracks could have supported the sheer amount of content, but as it stands, less races using just the better game modes would have played into Flatout’s favour.

Good

  • Stunt mode
  • Assault mode
  • Demolition mode

Bad

  • Handling can be inconsistent
  • Too few tracks
7.5

Good

Graphics - 7.5
Sound - 8.5
Gameplay - 7.5
Multiplayer - 6.5
Value - 7.5
Editor - Reviewer GamerKnights

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