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Mixed or average reviews - based on 44 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 25 Ratings

  • Summary: Get fuelled up and prepare to race and explore the world's largest ever racing environment - over 5,000 square miles of spectacular wilderness. Set to revolutionise multi-terrain, multi-vehicle racing, FUEL is a fiercely competitive game without boundaries. On and off-road, two and four-wheeled vehicles race a massively diverse environment, from scaling the highest snow-capped mountain to racing the deepest arid canyon. In a fictional present, vast swathes of the United States have been ravaged by the extreme effects of accelerated global warming: tornados, brush fires, hurricanes and tsunamis have driven people from their homes leaving huge areas of America abandoned. Now these dangerous areas have created the perfect playground for a new breed of adrenaline junkies who set out to conquer each other, and Mother Nature, in closely fought races. There are over 70 different vehicles with which to take on any challenge that FUEL’s stunning environment throws at you. On-road and off-road bikes, cars, quads, trucks, buggies and dragsters take dangerous short-cuts, perform death-defying jumps and tear through spectacular cross-over points. FUEL's landscape is powered by cutting-edge technology and, using satellite data, features some of the most exciting and inspiring areas of America - including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, Mount Rainier and much more. In FUEL, if you can see it, you can drive to it, taking any route - on or off-road - that you want. With a draw distance of 40KM, 100,000 miles of roads, tracks and trails and hundreds of race events FUEL’s epic world demands to be explored. [Codmasters] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 44
  2. Negative: 2 out of 44
  1. You want Bikes, ATVs, Muscle Cars, SUVs, Buggies, Trucks…they’re all in here, along with every conceivable type of race set across thousands of miles of populated ultra-realistic topography, complete with dynamic weather. And it all looks and plays spectacularly. Unless you’re looking for an authentic hard core sim, there’s no reason you shouldn’t leave right now, and even if you are, a little FUEL might just change your mind.
  2. Fuel is a good game, reveling in its goodness and its genre, without trying to be the exclamation point for every racing title ever developed.
  3. A decent racer, though not in the same class as others such as Codemasters own Race Driver: Grid.
  4. 49
    Fuel is just too ugly, unpolished and lacking in focus to have any impact on the genre, crossing the finish line on just the wrong side of average.

See all 44 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 12
  2. Negative: 4 out of 12
  1. SébastienM.
    9
    Great game, nice graphics, not much eye candy like Motorstorm. but good nonetheless. Sound effects are quite average. Controls are a little bit floaty, but the vehicles behave nicely on the different surfaces (gravel, asphalt, mud,etc). The game is very focused on exploration and unlocking things (liveries, challenges vehicles and so on). The game map is splitted in 19 areas, and there are tons of stuff to find and races to win in every one of them. You can free roam where you want and when you want. You have to unlock areas to race there by completing races and earning stars. The map is absolutely huge, never seen before in video gaming history:it took me 45 minutes of real time to drive from one area to two areas further.; I suppose it can take 5-6 hours to drive around the map. Don't worry, you can "teleport" with the helicopter to places you've already been. Multiplayer seems good to with lots of stuff to do and free roaming with other pilots. Good game, not for everyone, but if you like to free roam and like "sandbox" like racing games like Burnout Paradise and Test Drive Unlimited give this one a try. Expand
  2. I like fuel. although It wasn't as good as I was expecting. Good, but could have been better. the good things first. obviously the massive world is one thing. It's great to be able to explore a world. The weather plus the day/night cycle is cool. I was expecting tornadoes in free roam, but that was when I was younger, before understanding that doing that would be almost impossible. The races are fun too. I don't know what anyone means about easy Ai! I play until I unlock the four areas before dust bowl city, and I have not got past since! I love the cars. You can choose from a massive array of cars, and when in free roam, it couldn't be easier to change to a different car. See a hill your truck can't handle? pop into pause and get a dirt bike! I'll be honest I was expecting more tornadoes. As far as I know, only TWO races have them in. I thought you'd get all the areas from the beginning for some odd reason. There is little damage on your cars. smoke comes out. that's it. sometimes, I don;t feel rewarded for winning or exploring. I'll drive for half an hour and find one set of oil barrels. all those problems, I can live with. The only REAL problem I have, is how bland and repetitive the area is. although, to be fair, I wasn't expecting sprawling cities in the apocalypse... To conclude, This game is great! I was just expecting more when I saw the trailer... I give it... 8/10! Expand
  3. a intresting concept that just doesnt feel like it delivers what it could have . it is a nice idea having a huge open world style racing game thats over 5000 sqaure miles but it wears off pretty fast when you relise all there is to do in this open world is look for oil drums , vista points , new skins for your car , or occasionaly find a new car. there is a nice varity of vehicles ranging from qauds to monster trucks . the game reminds me alot of motor storm . i do like the idea of in races you can pretty much take any kinda short cut you can find but it gets very limeted in 90% of the races since thoose 90% of the races you ride in are ruled by tightly orginised check points that you have to pass through . so most of your races you will be pretty much stuck on the track . the game has 70+ cars in it which for some may be fine but for me after playing gran turismo 70 cars feels like nothing . the game also has abit of a freesing isue that will happen from time to time but you can save pretty much any where outside of in the middle of a race . the 5000 miles you get to race in also feels pretty empty and lifeless all you will see is rocks , trees and a few old building now and then and a occasion truck passing by . would have been nice to see some old citys in this waste land . the game does have some cool things going for it . like racing in a massive storm with things blowing all over the place and stuff being ripped up and thrown around . its just an shame that there arnt many races in the game like it . the challange mode is ok there are a few fun things you can do in it like get to point A to point B in the time aloud where you can take any path you like . the chopper race is rediculas for one you have no idea where the finish line is . you just have to follow the chopper and hope to hell you find it before the chopper crosses it . all in all its a ok racing game but with gran turismo 5 now out there . i dont think any racing fan is gona look at this now when you can get the king of racing games . Collapse
  4. Ah fuel. It's fun, that is no doubt. The absolute best part about it is the large, expansive world to just play around in, exploring one of the most beautiful landscapes video gaming has to offer. However, it is technically a race game. The problem is that the actual racing is a abysmal, frustrating chore required to unlock the expansive world.

    Why is the racing so abysmal? The game cheats. The game cheats horridly.
    How does the game cheat? Let me count the ways.

    1. Even if you have the fastest vehicle in the game, it is impossible to accelerate faster than the pack, you have to wait for the individual members to reach their own "max speed" and pass them. The pack does not even have performance stats based on the vehicle they drive, as you do, but rather their starting position in the grid. The last cars will be able to be passed fairly quickly, but the lead cars will gain a 200+ meter lead in less than a second, as it seems they start the race already traveling at top speed.

    2. The AI cars, no matter how spread out they were when you fought through the pack, will ALL be clumped around the car just following you. So if you passed the slow pokes early, and fought to the lead, and have just now passed the leader (who was cheatingly far ahead of the rest), and then make one mistake enough that the former leader passes you, the rest of the pack will all be in a clump right behind him, and pass you.

    3. The AI cars do not follow the physics you do. This is a major problem which makes the it enourmously frustrating to fight through the pack, because any bump with the AI car will result in the AI car veering into you and running you off the road, even if you are twice their size. The AI has unnatural grip, and you have almost none. A single bump from them sends you careening all over the place, while even trying to pull a PITT maneuver on them results in nothing more than you being run off the road while they continue unhindered. Aggressive driving will only ever slow you down.

    4. The AI teleports after errors. I've been run off the road by the AI, but as I was in an offroad truck, I decided to fight through and run back to the road. well, the AI didn't like being off road with me, so they teleported back to the road at full speed to join the rest of the pack. Any attempt for you to use the "reset" button to teleport back onto the road after an error has you immobile for a few seconds, then have to accelerate painfully slow to rejoin the race. The AI teleports and does not just return to the track, but returns to the middle of the pack at full speed already.


    There are more ways that the AI cheats, that are more just variations on those main 4 ways, but those are the most concise. The cheating makes the races frustratingly difficult, with much foul language upon the multitude of restarts required.

    The fun of the game, and why I do not get rid of it, is the wide open world. I'm a player who likes a game that is more "toy" than "game", and the ability to drive like a hooligan through a multitude of beautiful and wonderfully rendered landscapes, with seemingly no limit to where I can roam, is wonderful. It's actually quite fun and relaxing to me to be able to play the game in the free roam, and meet personal challenges of "Reach the top of that mountain" or "find a way up this cliff" make the game very enjoyable.

    I just wish it was not required to race against that godawful AI in order to unlock the wide world or the more entertaining vehicles.
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See all 12 User Reviews