The Split Second demo is live on Xbox Live today and I’ve played all of it. All one race of it. One race. One. Race. Aaaaaand, well, it was a bit underwhelming. For those that haven’t heard, Split Second is a Stuntman meets Burnout Paradise racer that allows you effect your race track environment, either to attack your fellow racers or fundamentally alter the track.

The game looks like Burnout Paradise. It races like it too. This is all good. The underwhelming part is the actual power ups and explosions. First off, you build up a meter to trigger “Powerplays” you’ll need one bar full to do a Powerplay. If you fill all three, you can trigger a Powerplay Level 2 that makes even bigger stuff go boom, which alters the environment. You can fill up these meters either by drifting behind someone, or drifting around a corner, or getting a close call on a Powerplay that was meant to take you out. And that’s about it. You don’t get points for bashing into your fellow racers, so it doesn’t make sense to do it. In fact, I was unable to take a fellow racer down, without using a Powerplay, much to my dismay.

If you are able to save up three bars, you’re treated to a fairly nice explosion and a new route to take in the track. Eh… I just wasn’t feeling the excitement. I was more annoyed with trying to save up three bars, because it’s kind of hard to get ahead in the game without using powerplays, so saving up three not only takes a while, it’s just not that fun to do. It’s way more fun to use each individual bar as you get it, to get into first place and you’re sure to lose if you save up levels to get that Powerplay level 2. Seems like the game balancing is way off in that regard.

I dunno though, because I could see this being a beast to play with online with friends. If a multiplayer demo comes out, I’ll be sure to let you know, but for now, I’m off to delete this demo from my hard drive. Give Split Second a whirl and let me know if you agree or disagree below!