Review: Fired Up!

Gratifying explosions, Smooth controls, No learning curve, Solid frame rate.
Looks bland, No environmental interaction, Gets boring after a while, Story is narrated in a most painful manner.
Rating :  Click here for legend

Even though the PSP is a nifty toy, it hasn't got an extremely impressive library of games. Most of the games released on the PSP seem primarily geared (look ma, a pun) towards the racing genre, be it pure racing or vehicular combat, which by the way is fine by me but it does tend to get a tad boring after a while (unless you're playing games like Burnout). The only novelty here is that you're playing it on a high resolution color screen and once that novelty wears off, there goes the UMD. The game to be reviewed today is another racing game (surprise surprise!), which is nothing like Burnout but it still manages to keep you interested for a couple of hours.


We didn't start the fire
Fired Up has an interesting concept; give players vehicles mounted with guns, let them loose into a huge city and allow them to blow the crap out of anything on two or more wheels. While this sounds good on paper (and to give the devil his due it does get certain elements like the combat right), the game tends to slip into monotony after a while.



The game starts off in a war torn city that's been over run by the republic. You play as one of three rebels who plan on ending the anarchy once and for all. The story is pretty uninspiring and its presentation is most drab, i.e. via text and pictures. Boring!



The game's primarily divided into three hubs. Finish a certain amount of missions in one to unlock the other. Similar to the checkpoints in Midnight Club 3, story based missions are denoted by huge green markers rising into the sky. This is a cool touch as these markers are visible from almost any location in the map and you won't have to waste time driving around trying to find one. While driving to access a particular mission, you'll come across a lot (and I mean a LOT) of enemy trucks and tanks which can be blasted to oblivion thanks to the weaponry mounted on your car. You have a machine gun that never runs out of ammo and a Rocket Launcher, which unfortunately does. This isn't a major problem as there are plenty of ammo pick ups scattered all over the level. Besides re-spawning trucks and tanks, every level has a vehicle of sorts which when destroyed thrusts you into a mini game called Fired Up that'll require you to kill an X amount of enemies during a stipulated time period. Complete this successfully and you'll be rewarded with health pick ups and ammo. The first few times you indulge in these side missions, its fun but after the 75th Fired Up, it starts to get a bit annoying.

A very commendable aspect of Fired Up is that your car controls really well and the conducive controls allow you to blast a lot of stuff while you race around the map with ease. The city is laced with a lot of ramps and canals and navigating through them never becomes a chore because of the sturdy car control and the fact that your car will almost never turtle top.


Graphically the game isn't bad, albeit a bit on the bland side. While the city certainly looks good, it's devoid of any sort of activity and there's nothing that'll motivate you to explore it, except the fact that you could stumble upon Scavenger icons that'll reward you with additional weapon and shield pick ups. None of the environments are interactive so don't expect to be blowing off any thing save for a few explosive barrels. Vehicular explosions on the other hand are the real stars of the show. Every enemy taken down will grant you an incredibly satisfying explosion accompanied by the sound of twisting metal, further followed by the burning heap of your nemesis. The game's frame rate holds up pretty well most of the time, except when there are probably too many explosions on-screen.


Fired up isn't a bad game per say as it has it's moments but it's tough to recommend this game as it's fun only for a couple of hours. With a hefty price tag of Rs. 2,999, you're better off playing Ridge Racer or Burnout Legends.


Source: Techtree
posted on Saturday, February 18, 2006 11:22 PM by Auri

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