Wipeout 2048 - PSVita

In 2048, we will all grow out of Formula 1 and be watching incredible levitating cars dash around cyberpunk cities at mach speed to the music of The Prodigy. WipEout tells us so.

With this PlayStation Vita launch title, Studio Liverpool has arguably created the best WipEout game in the franchise’s history. The gameplay has been fine-tuned to perfection, the clutter has been swept away and it takes advantage of some of the Vita’s features without ever encroaching on gimmick territory.

Take, for example, the user interface and menu presentation. It’s clean, nicely designed - and created entirely with the Vita’s touch screen in mind. Everything is packed into neat little corners on the screen - your rank and profile sits on the top right corner, any new ships and links to the game’s main menu are flagged on the top left, while you can change game modes in the bottom right and see friend notifications in the bottom left.

Gameplay is just as you remember it. Classic WipEout. Hold the accelerator to move your futuristic vehicle really fast, bank using the left stick and weave in and out of opponents with the help of offensive and defensive weaponry.

Corners are exceptionally tight in WipEout games, and require an understanding of the drifting mechanics. Here’s where 2048 differs slightly from its forebears - instead of using L2 and R2 as your drifts for left and right respectively, all airbraking is done using the Square button. The lack of triggers obviously has a lot to do with that, but it's a welcome change.

As well as regular Races, Time Trial and Combat stages, the Zones mode makes a welcome return in 2048. For the uninitiated, Zones puts the player on a track with no control over their acceleration - the longer you stay on the track, the faster your ship goes. The aim is to survive (without hitting any of the walls) for as long as possible. Each stage in the campaign comes with a regular Pass requirement and an Elite Pass, which has some additional skill-based conditions for completion.

And if you don’t spend the time in single-player, you will undoubtedly be doing so in the online multiplayer campaign. An incredibly addictive twist on the traditional WipEout ‘events’ setup, here you play against human opponents online to complete challenges. The stages themselves don’t factor into it - you can vote for any track you like, but the objectives will always remain the same. They’ll either be race or combat-based goals, such as finishing above last place or hitting a specific player with a weapon.

All of this and we haven’t mentioned WipEout 2048’s killer feature - cross-play with PlayStation 3 consoles.

There’s no doubt about it - WipEout 2048 is the must-have game for your PlayStation Vita. more