To trigger a power play, racers need to build up energy through drifting, drafting, making jumps or dodging events set off by opponents. There are a total of three bars to fill, each enabling a single power play, like blowing up a truck. Things get really interesting when the third bar fills up, enabling massive tier 2 player plays, which can collapse entire structures. An icon flashes over the cars ahead when they are in within range of a power play, but they can't be used to shake off opponents in close pursuit. Some events can only be triggered once during a race, so players have to consider when and where to activate power plays in the hopes that none of the other racers do it first. Racers will also have to think about timing, since they can easily fall victim to their own events. Power play energy can also be used to uncover shortcuts, like opening up a warehouse door, in order to gain the advantage. Activating a tier 2 shortcut will actually alter parts of the track with spectacular events.

Whether you decide to stick to the triggering a lot of minor power plays or hold out for big ones, there's no doubt that these disasters on demand change up an otherwise straightforward racing game in a huge way. This game wouldn't be much fun without them, but their inclusion makes the experience very exciting and unpredictable. A single well-timed event can send someone speeding into first place or set them back into last - and really, who doesn't like blowing things up? Power plays don't need to hit players directly to have an impact. The shockwave from explosions knock cars askew for a second, which slows them down and can potentially cause them to crash. Smoke and dust from some of these events obscure vision, so drivers have to speed ahead blindly. There's also no "catch-up" feature that we could discern to bring players lagging behind closer to racers ahead of them. Racers that manage to gain a significant lead can stay out of visual range for power plays and go uncontested for much of the race, barring any driving mishaps.

With that being the case, power plays are absolutely necessary to win the game. Computer opponents can be very tough and unforgiving. They're prone to certain mistakes like driving a little too close to potential power play events, overlooking shortcuts or clustering into groups, but they take sharp turns with expert precision and have no trouble with passing. In Elite Races, used to unlock the next "episode" of Split/Second, players are pitted against cars that extremely high top speeds, which can easily beat out anything the player has during the early levels. We also found it a little hard to believe that these big trucks have better top speeds than the exotic sports cars unlocked later on. These large vehicles often use their bulk to block players, to the point where we started to take it personally, and can shrug off most shockwaves from power plays and bumps from other cars. Most of the sports cars have absolutely no effect when trying duel against them to knock them off the track. There's something upsettingly wrong with driving a car that looks like a Lamborghini at top speed (Split/Second does not feature licensed cars) and watching a tricked out Dodge Dakota breeze past on a straightaway.

The game includes a number of challenge modes that make great use of the destruction theme. In Detonator, players race against the clock on a track where power play events go off automatically, giving a true cinematic feel. Another mode is Survivor, where players have to race past freight trucks that drop explosive barrels onto the road. Often, we felt that this mode required as much luck as it does skill. There's also a unique challenge called Air Strike, where an attack chopper shoots missiles down onto the player's path. Our favorite is Air Revenge (the most pro-active challenge mode), which modifies the Air Strike concept by allowing players to use power plays to fire back.

Split/Second's major weakness is in its user interface, which could have used a little more thought into as the game was ported to the PC. There's no way to change options from the start screen and the game automatically brings players to the tutorial at the lowest settings when starting the game for the first time. Then the player has to quit to the main menu to make graphical adjustments. Not exactly what we'd call a great first impression. Furthermore, the interface doesn't switch over to different icons when a controller is being used, so the main menu and tutorial will always show keyboard commands. Players also can't customize the sound output, so although the game is great on a surround sound setup or with headphones, it comes out a little weak and uneven on stereo speakers. Lastly, even though the game performed well most of the time, there were occasional moments where the graphics would hiccup or freeze for a few seconds when a power play was activated using the highest quality settings. Our PC exceeds the recommended system requirements, but we still had the same problem pop up after significantly lowering the game's resolution.

When it comes to multiplayer, Split/Second sports a lot of great features. It's one of the few PC racing games that supports split screen, so two people who don't mind sitting in front of the same computer can have a great time competing using one copy of the game. Additionally, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the game supports the use of two keyboards (or two people on the same keyboard). Those who can afford a second copy may appreciate the LAN gameplay, which is a feature that's fast disappearing from many PC games. However, all race tracks are fixed and players can't customize them with additional laps or car restrictions. The online options are also a bit limited. This game uses a proprietary matchmaking and ladder system, and while it's very clever that achievements show up as decals on the car, we were disappointed that there wasn't a more straightforward way to share them. Also be aware that this game is published by Disney Interactive, so usernames that include words that might be deemed offensive are censored, even in offline mode.

While the overall experience can be a little uneven, we can't deny the fact that we had a ton of fun playing Split/Second. Triggering power plays and watching debris rain down as fortunes change in a heartbeat is an exhilarating experience, and we get a rush each time we play. However, the game could benefit from including race customization options, and some more consideration could have gone into porting the user interface to the PC. We also wished that there was a cinematic replay mode, preferably with an announcer like in the trailers, so that players could save and relive some of their best runs. It would certainly fit with the action movie theme. Despite all that, Split/Second puts a fantastic twist on racing games and is well worth checking out. Since the port is a little too straightforward for our liking, we recommend doing so as soon as there's a sale.