Full Auto's average graphics and lack of variety bog down what could have been a very solid and enjoyable game.
Full Auto's game modes feature head-to-head, arcade play, online play and a career mode. Arcade play is self-explanatory, as it is your standard “pick up and play” mode where you can play a couple of different game types, the best being Rampage where you just and shoot every car in sight. The online play is online play: functional racing experience with little to no lag, which is always a plus.
The career mode in the game progresses you through different classes of cars and then different game types. Sadly though, the cars in the game are pretty forgettable and for all the different names they give these sixteen different series, they all play pretty much the same. Hold down the gas and the A button and get to the end before the other cars do. Rinse and then repeat.
One of the main features of the gameplay is the ability to rewind time, called "Unwreck." This is particularly handy when you turn a corner poorly and would like a second chance, or you didn't see that mine coming from your opponent. You press the left and right bumper buttons, and you have that second chance. This is probably one of the best feautres that the game has going for it, and it really works well.
Full Auto does feature some satisfying gameplay, at times. It was great to shoot a missile at a foe from a distance and hit the other car in stride. (And then, naturally, see the driver’s body go flying in the air.) All of the weapons feel powerful and can cause some damage. However, the game’s total lack of variety just rides the whole combat part too hard, making the game extremely repetitive after a while. Another thing that is apparent from the get go is the utter lack of tracks. There seems to be about five or six tracks in the whole game, yet they send you on 60 to 70 different races, sending you forwards and backwards through the same old tracks over and over again. Sure, the player will know the shortcuts faster and whatnot, but even within the small number of tracks there are striking similarities.
Besides the overall repetitiveness of the game, it also does have some pretty “cheap” A.I. that you see in a lot of racing games. Full Auto’s A.I. is a lot like an earlier Xbox 360 game, Need for Speed: Most Wanted in that you’ll have a huge lead on every car and then all of a sudden they'll just pop back somehow, inexplicably. This will lead to some frustrating moments, but on the whole, the car is basically only going to pass you either for a short while or just give you a slight scare when you’re going for that Semi-Auto or Full-Auto Medal.
Visually, Full Auto isn’t too stunning, but it looks sharp. The background environments look crisp; the explosions on the cars and the environment can look very neat. However, when you get into some big pile-ups, the frame rate can drop to the point where you think you’re watching a picture show. Generally, Full Auto looks nice, but you could find much better graphics in most of the Xbox 360 titles. Full Auto is not going to impress your friends with its looks.
Full Auto’s sound is rock solid. The cars sound fine, weapons firing and hitting other cars sound powerful and give you a feeling that you’re doing some business on these other drivers. The soundtrack in the game, though, was not especially spectacular and the music seemed to just loop to add another repetitive thing about the game.
Full Auto also doesn’t feature much in the way of value, unless you really get into the online portion of the game. The career will only keep you busy for six to eight hours, depending on your skill level, but I would assume most people would fall in at the lower end of the scale. After the career is done, all you have left is the online, and after you get through the career, you really have seen all that Full Auto has to offer.
The points also do not leave much in the way for added value, as they are doable and most of them are attained during the career mode, with the exception of the Xbox Live Ranking achievements.
At the end of the day, Full Auto is a good game that was not necessarily as expanded as it should have been. The developers really should have worked on varying the gameplay a bit and making about ten more different tracks so they could justify sending people through so many different races on the same tracks over and over again. There are too many problems with the game to recommend to most anyone to buy this game at its $49.99 price point. However, 360 owners who have had enough with Project Gotham, Need for Speed or Ridge Racer might find something worthwhile in Full Auto over a weekend rental.