Been an action racing fan since Road Rash for the Sega Genesis and Carmageddon for the PC. The S/S demo race from the PSN Store sold me very quickly, and the full game more than met the promise of the demo: the excellently rendered graphics invoked a hyper-realism sense, with details ranging from DOT-standard MBGF and CTB, down to camera smudging when driving thru fire/debris clouds. The massive set pieces with the immense-scale gags (in the cases of the cargo plane and the dam, "whoa" inducing) made it like navigating an Irwin Allen or (as PSM mentioned) Michael Bay film.
Granted, the knee-jerk comparisons to THE standout arcade racer series Burnout are unavoidable - but they're also unfair: yes, both feature full-on action in hot racing vehicles blitzing thru wondrous scenery, but that's really about as far as it can be applied. Whereas Burnout relies strictly on interactions of intra-vehicular mayhem, Split/Second depends solely on obstacle courses redesigned on the fly - by dynamite. ("Jamie wants Big Boom", indeed...)
The designers could have easily had a 5-star game, what with the graphics and action cranked up to eleven; problem is, the frustration is cranked up to twelve...
Serious design flaws crack the facade early on. AI opponent vehicles are able to do the pit maneuver on the player vehicle, but trying to return the favor is just like hitting a guardrail. And hitting guardrails is inconsistent - too many times the software determines a crash for what was clearly a grind.
There are also a high number of instances where an AI opponent just taken out by a PowerPlay triggers the immediate next PowerPlay location against the player. This coincides with what is much too quickly a crash recovery for the AI opponents, and a too long delayed recovery for the player - sometimes a drop of 5 or 6 places. Also, the AI drivers rarely make mistakes, and seem to always have better vehicles.
Action-wise, there seems to be a substantial friction penalty for traveling by rail - of which there is a lot of. The application of shock-wave effects and what must be invisible oil slicks varies widely within reruns of events. The ENTIRE game places far too much emphasis on skidding-out-of-control, especially in turns (drifting, schmifting).
And though the premises of the high-score challenges are excitingly unique, they and the beat-the-clock races depend far too heavily on having to discover that indescernable just-right-groove in order to attain the goals - that are a bit too much out of reach. Perhaps the designers have the dedicated play-all-night-and-skip-class gamer in mind instead of the maybe-evening-and-weekend working stiff...
Personally, I could have gone for some more variety in the courses to see more of the well-rendered surroundings. And an extra second or 2 on the time-trials' clocks - I never felt the Burnout Burning Routes were unbeatable, though difficult; many of the Detonators on the other hand have all but ruined this game for me: I think I have spent just as much time on 5 races alone as I had the entire rest of the game - and 1 race is half that; it's to the point that I want video proof of those who claim all-gold.
Judging from the closing cutscene after reaching the podium, Disney & BlackRock plan a sequel. Unless the glaring errors and poor choices are corrected, I won't make the same mistake of pre-buying it; if I get it at all, I'll wait till it hits the bargain bin.