Sony continues their hot streak of PSN exclusive content with the recent release of WipEout HD Fury DLC. The Fury campaign could be considered by most a whole entire game on its own with its staggering 80 events in comparison to the original Wipeout HD’s campaign, which contained an impressive 87 events. That’s right folks, you’re pretty much getting double the content at $10 versus the $20 you spent for the game at launch. Valve and Microsoft maybe you guys should take notes here? But let’s get back on topic; The Fury Pack is a tremendous value with its 8 new tracks, 3 new game modes, and 13 new ship models. The Fury Pack has arguably more appeal than the original game, because it takes some of the focus off of hitting perfect lines and more focus on mayhem and destruction.
The first new mode included in the Fury Pack, called Eliminator is a fight to the death between you and your fellow opponents. In Eliminator, you are trying to be the first to cause enough damage to your opponents and get to the damage goal that is set at the beginning of the race. There are multitudes of ways to score points, but the task is made easier due to the addition of the 180 degree turn that is mapped to the L1 button. The 180 degree turn makes things way more interesting, due to the fact that now when you have a Shockwave and you are out in first that you can turn around and unleash it on everyone trailing you dishing out lots of damage. This mode is by far my favorite mode because there is a lot of strategy involved with winning the race. You gain points by causing damage to an opponent. You can also gain even more points for destroying an opponent, and the only way to regain health is to complete laps. You also can absorb pick-ups to cause a temporary shield to appear around your ship and if timed right, you can use it to thwart your enemy’s attempts at damaging your ship, because if your energy reaches critical levels and you are destroyed, you lose points off your total. So with all these elements involved, it becomes a high wire balancing act of life and death. Do you stay in the pack in hopes to damage more opponents faster, or do you blaze ahead to get back precious energy? When you take this mode online, watch your opponents and your ship go to hell in a hand basket. This mode is great and reminds me a lot of a Twisted Metal games on rails.
The next mode in the Fury Pack, called Zone Battle is a race of risk and reward. You drive around the track looking for zone pads to hit in order to fill your zone bar, which you can use to boost and hit the target zone that is set for each race. However, while you’re looking for zone pads, you run the risk of hitting an opponent’s zone barrier, which can lead to you losing energy. Also, when you lose energy you then have to absorb your zone bar for ship energy. Zone Battle requires true mastery of your vessel. I hope you’re up to it because things can get insane online in this mode with everyone leaving behind Zone Barriers.
The last mode in the Fury Pack is called Detonation. This mode comes packaged with a new ship that can shoot limited bullets, but can replenish by reloading; also you can ride over zone pads to build up energy to release a shockwave that goes all the way down the track. The goal of this mode is to shoot as many obstacles as possible and detonate bombs to rack up points. This mode is akin to arcade shooter put on a race track, this is definitely not your average experience with a racing game; however, it is a welcomed addition.
Also, there are new trophies added in the Fury Pack for all you trophy mongers out there.
The new trophies include:
Hold Your Fire (Bronze) - Reach stage 10 without firing on any track, in any Detonator event. Sharpshooter (Bronze) - Score a hit with every round in an entire cannon clip in any Detonator event.
Da Bomb (Bronze) - Destroy all 14 bombs in any Detonator event. Zone Battle Legend (Bronze) - Win a single player, Racebox, Zone Battle event with a target of 40 on talons Junction (forward).
Just Passing Through (Bronze) - Pass through 15 Zone Barriers in any Zone Battle event. Zen Evasion (Bronze) - Win any single player Zone Battle event with a minimum of 25 without absorbing.
Elimin18 (Bronze) - Eliminate 18 opponents in a single player Eliminator event.
Cannon and on (Bronze) - Hit 5 different opponents with rounds from the same Cannon clip in a single player Eliminator event.
Stay on Target (Bronze) - Stay locked onto an opponent with a Missile or a Leech Beam for 30 seconds in a single player Eliminator event.
The Pure Four (Bronze) - Obtain 50,000 points on each of the following tracks in Zone Mode - Pro Tozo, Mallavol, Corridon 12, and Syncopia.
Stats Life (Bronze) - Attain and view every stat in the game.
Amphi-scenic Route (Bronze) - Successfully perform a barrel roll whilst navigating the Amphimuseum (Reverse) shortcut in any event.
Fury Campaign Legend (Bronze) - Obtain a medal in every cell in the Fury Campaign. The Fury Pack is a definite must buy for gamers and fans of the Wipeout series.
Studio Liverpool continues their domination of the DLC front with their high quality releases of DLC for the WipEout series dating back to the PSP versions.
Final Score: 9/10
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