WIPEOUT: THE OMEGA COLLECTION
Set FEISAR to stunning
Admit it: you didn’t think WipEout’s return wouldn’t be good. A 22-yearold game built on what was cuttingedge graphic design, music, and speeding polygons should’ve faded from view by now. But there’s something in its DNA that means, like the techno beats it’s based on, the hook is still there, demanding one more play. It helps that WipEout: The Omega Collection – a compilation of WipEouts HD and Fury for PS3, and Vita’s 2048 – is a remake done right, with new textures, lighting, and, for PS4 Pro, players, 4K and HDR support. It means WipEout looks how you remember. Better still, it plays how you remember. There’s a moment in the Zone mode, which demands you glide around an endless circuit, experimenting with how much speed you can gather, when The Omega Collection’s promise matches memories. The trippy visuals and graceful handling epitomise the series’ futuristic vehicle and world design – you feel like you’re there. Later, when you’ve adapted to the toughest competitive races and unlocked and learned how to handle the quickest ships, WipEout comes even more vividly to life.
WipEout 2048 is the strongest game, but they all hum smoothly along. There is never a dropped frame, an unfair collision, a moment that reminds you this series is over two decades old. If the original game characterised the power of what was then the new PlayStation, The Omega Collection captures an aesthetic that is uniquely WipEout. Banking corners, sheer drops, and pointy, angular ships have never looked more vibrant.
ALPHA AND OMEGA
A warning, though. Despite its reputation as an almost arcadestyle racer, a great game to play late at night with friends, WipEout is still very difficult. A mistimed turn may cost you a race. The best ships and tracks take hours to unlock. If you hope to glide and blast through, in a way the game’s ships and weapons advertise, you’ll be disappointed.
This would dissuade a lot of people. For a game to go to such lengths to look stylish and simple then require hours of practice feels almost contradictory. I yearn, sometimes, for a more artificial kind of WipEout, where the difficulty curve is lower, allowing me to look and feel as cool as the futuristic surroundings. But that’s not what these games are about. Newcomers then, should press Start with a warning: WipEout is uncompromising racing. Far from being a pick-up-and-play arcade party game, The Omega Collection reminds us this is a series that requires attention and, perhaps too often, a lot of patience. But if you give it your best you’ll get the best from it.
Comprehensive, technically flawless and capturing, usually for better, sometimes for worse, all the series’ idiosyncrasies, WipEout: The Omega Collection is a worthy ode to a PlayStation stalwart.
VERDICT
Some dated ideas are masked by the visual makeover, but WipEout still plays and looks like nothing else. If you have the patience, The Omega Collection will reel you back in. Ed Smith