I’m quite fond of Split/Second to put it lightly. If I had to make a complaint about the game, it would be that there simply isn’t more of it. Or rather, there wasn’t.

The very appropriately titled Quarry Onslaught DLC pack expands the explosive racer by adding one new track, the Quarry, and one new mode, Onslaught. This pack will run you 800 Space Bucks ($10).

Quarry: The Track That Keeps On Drifting

One thing you’ll find in the Quarry is split paths. I’m not talking about the normal alternate routes you expect to see (though those are also present). No. I’m talking about walls that briefly divide the road down the middle into two narrower roads.

It doesn’t seem like much, but there are two very notable situations that arise from this. If an explosion has just happened before you approach, it’s easy to not see the wall through the smoke. A head-on collision with these walls was not uncommon on my initial races. These narrow pathways can also get tricky if the racers are all clumped together and head down the same path.

My favorite parts of Quarry, though, are the large turns. In many regards, it is a drifting paradise. Some have the safety of walls, some have breakaway railing on cliffs, and others have you zigzagging through to the end.

Sadly, I was a bit disappointed by the Level 2 Power Plays. They’re certainly adequate, but not quite as exciting as the ones you’ll find in other tracks. The Level 1 Power Plays, however, are great. There’s some neat uses of construction equipment along with a lot of familiar staples.

Quarry is quite an enjoyable track. It has a nice sense of variety throughout that keeps out on your toes.

Onslaught: Missile Fury

In Onslaught mode, you can finally have a full, eight car race while the helicopter does what it does best: shoot missiles at the track. Much like the other modes involving helicopters, the missiles are shot in waves with markers indicating where they will hit.

Score is determined by what position you’re in at the end of each wave. If you’re in first place, you’ll rack up tons of points. The farther down you are, the lower the score added to your total. After 20 waves, the game ends.

But being in first place comes with its own set of dangers. The missiles are targeted at the current leader of the pack. One false move can get you blown sky high, leaving the other players to zoom past you and snag that sweet, sweet score.

You can’t use Power Plays during Onslaught. But considering how ridiculously chaotic it is when a helicopter constantly fires missiles at race car drivers, that’s to the mode’s benefit. There’s no shortage of insanity found in each race as it is.

The interaction between other racers actually makes Onslaught even more fun than the other helicopter-based modes. It works especially well with tracks such as Storm Drain Speedway, where there are wide areas for everybody to weave through the missile indicators.

Final Thoughts

Whether or not the $10 is worth it for you is going to depend on a few factors. If you have friends to play it with, the Quarry Onslaught DLC is a no-brainer. Quarry is a great track and Onslaught mode is a blast.

If you’re playing alone, you won’t have the motivational carrot of new events within the single player mode to master. Instead, your motivation will simply be to have fun (crazy, I know) in Quickplay mode with no rewards dished out for finishing first.

The easiest way to look at it, though, is that it’s a great excuse to play more Split/Second. Do you really need any more reason than that?

This review is based on the Xbox 360 version of the Split/Second Quarry Onslaught DLC purchased by the reviewer. The Quarry track was played with every available mode and Onslaught was played using every available track.

Tags: Black Rock Studio, Disney Interactive, dlc, explosions, ps3, racing, Split Second, Split/Second, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.