Releasing a new game into a crowded genre is always tricky. It helps if you have a hook of course - something unique, something that no other game on the shelf has. FUEL has that hook: five thousand (yes, five thousand) square miles of open world terrain to tear up while driving a variety of robust vehicles. FUEL may not be the only open world racer out there, but it's certainly the largest - and by a long way. What it doesn't have, however, is the quality to match the quantity of its unique selling point.

FUEL isn't a bad game by any means - no aspect is especially awful and in fact it's home to some of the more memorable moments you are likely to find in a racing game - it's just that, beyond the size of the world you have to race in, everything else feels distinctively average. It also doesn't help that at no point does the epic world created by Asobo Studio feel like its being fully exploited or taken advantage of. FUEL may be the biggest racer on the market, but you can't help but shake the feeling that Asobo Studio have spread themselves a little too thin and maybe been a little too ambitious for their own good.

FUEL certainly can't be attacked for lack of ambition - it has it in abundance - what it is lacking though is refinement and, in many cases, polish; as soon as you start up the game, this emphasis toward scale and excess is apparent at every turn. FUEL's world is a daunting place when you start off - I mean, really, five thousand square miles... what the hell are you supposed to do with that? Well, not as much as you would hope, sadly. This is the first problem you will come across; FUEL has the largest world ever created for a videogame but there isn't a lot to do within it. Sure, there are races, but you can reach those for the most part at the push of a button. Where's the incentive to explore this leviathan game world? Well, there are slightly lame liveries to find and vista points that double up as both checkpoints and locations of unlockable extras, but beyond these slimmest of rewards, exploration yields little in the way of compensation for your endeavours. In fact, beyond the races themselves, one of the biggest problems with FUEL is that it simply doesn't offer up nearly enough incentive to experience its potentially strongest asset.

Although the open world may be a disappointment when left to your own devices, structure that open world around one of the hundreds of races and events available in FUEL and suddenly you have a far more interesting proposition; be it a simple point to point race, a time attack challenge, a helicopter chase or a seek-and-destroy event, the vast world and multiple routes make for some exhilarating racing experiences. Although the events are varied, each of them essentially has the same premise: get where you are going as fast as you can. Whether you are racing a helicopter or looking to take down another vehicle, you need to get to your location as quickly as possible, and this is where FUEL shines. Some of the events have checkpoints that must be passed but the level of freedom to get from point A to point B is often staggering and, at times, very tactical; that shortcut through the forest may look enticing, but give it a go with the wrong kind of vehicle and you will soon find yourself grinding to a halt.

You see, these aren't just cobbled together race tracks; many of the events have obviously been created with excitement and variety at the very forefront of their design. It's a shame then that this kind of care and attention is too often abandoned for the sake of a world that is clearly too big for the game inside it; for every shortcut down the side of a mountain there is too much aimless wandering, for every nail biting finish there is a graphical glitch, and for every moment of awe and wonder there is an array of mindlessly stupid AI drivers trying to ruin the fun for you - and believe me, they are very good at this particular task.

While the many shortcuts found in FUEL may be home to some of the more exciting moments the game has to offer, their necessity to win races against the often faultless AI can sometimes take the shine off an impromptu dash through the trees. After the first few races you will quickly come to realise that finding such shortcuts is night on essential; keep to the track in an attempt to win the old fashioned way and more often than not you're going to come away empty handed. Your opponents simply aren't affected by the laws of physics the same way you are; as you slide and drift around corners, you are forced to watch your opponents glide around the corner like they're stuck on rails. You can honestly complete a perfect race and still not win the event if you keep to the track, but you can race like a jackass and win if you make your way safely down a hill or through a forest. Needless to say, the AI just can't keep up with the possibilities that the game has to offer; they keep to the track at all times and they race like demons, so it's therefore your job to find a shortcut to negate their godlike driving skills and nab that all important first place.

The result is that all the emphasis is put upon finding shortcuts instead of them being a secondary option if the opportunity arises in a closely fought race, thus diluting their excitement and unpredictability in the process. The AI also has an issue with speed; one minute your opponents disappear into the distance - even when you have the pedal to the metal, they happily drive off into the distance - only to suddenly slow down to a crawl towards the end of the race. Some may argue the case for rubber banding akin to Mario Kart, but in races as diversified as these, they just come across as random and at times bizarre.

As tough as FUEL gets - and believe me, it can be annoyingly difficult at times - Asobo have given the option of a three-tier difficulty option for every race. Although lower difficulties offer up less Fuel reward (which is needed to unlock new vehicles and thus unlock new events) and consequently make for slower career progression, the option to take the game down a notch when you hit an especially severe difficulty spike is a more than welcome one. What makes these difficulty spikes harder to bear however is that there is absolutely no reward for coming second or third; this is all or nothing racing, and while that may sound exciting, getting pipped to the post after an especially long race and come away empty handed is pretty hard to swallow, especially considering how unforgiving the AI can be.

For all the AI's faults though, FUEL really could have been a serious contender in an extremely competitive genre if it weren't for the fact that the racing feels so, well, average. Complaints about the lack of things to do in its vast world would have been a lot easier to forgive if the vehicles moved with any real sense of speed or grace, and while they're hardly shopping trolleys, very few of the vehicles have an impressive sense of speed and few are genuinely exciting to manoeuvre, be it around a track or across the open world. They simply don't have the kind of kick or presence you might expect from a modern day racer. The bikes have their moments - especially when speeding down the side of a cliff - and while the selection of quad bikes can be enjoyable, the muscle cars and trucks are just too laborious and unforgiving to be of any use. It might have been a different story if the races were mixed vehicle affairs ala MotorStorm, but for the majority of the time it's a matter of one type of vehicle per event, a very strange choice on the part of the developer, especially given the multiple routes and shortcuts available.

Still, while the racing may feel a little too forgettable, the weather effects are a lot more likely to leave a lasting impression. Rather than just acting as admittedly very attractive window dressing, some of the more extreme weather effects can seriously influence the outcome of any given race - the tornadoes are especially impressive. Strangely enough though, the most hazardous event you are likely to deal with is the day/night cycle; let's just say, when it gets dark... it really gets dark. Luckily, be it driving through a tornado, down a vertical cliff face or through the dark of night, you always have your GPS to point you in the right direction. You can turn it on and off at the press of a button but once you get used to it being onscreen it becomes a very valuable tool, both within the confines of a racing event and when roaming around. It doesn't work perfectly, but given the strains put upon it, it functions admirably for the majority of the time.

With a large portion of the FUEL's failings falling upon the poor AI, it really comes to life when played against human opponents online. While free roaming does improve greatly with human players, you still can't escape the fact that there isn't anything to do - so, like the single player experience, it's down to the structured races to get the best out of the online component. Entering the huge selection of races is certainly a lot more fun when dealing with mischievous humans rather than the rigid, physics-bending AI drivers. Shortcuts suddenly become a lot more interesting and even general track racing becomes infinitely more playable thanks to the jostling and competition that comes with playing against human opponents - and if the huge selection of online races wasn't enough, you can also create your own tracks with the handy race creation tools. Needless to say, the online content is vast.

Like so much of the game though, the visuals pay the price for the unrelenting ambition of the developers. Sure, some of the scenery looks awe inspiring and the weather effects are spectacular, but take a closer look and things start to fall apart; textures are a little muddy up close and the vehicles aren't nearly as pretty as the locations they travel across. Although the visuals are commendable given the scale of the game, when that scale is not really justified, those faults aren't so easy to forgive, especially when the competition is home to some of the finest graphics found so far this generation. The audio certainly has its high points (the weather effects sound as fantastic as they look), the atmosphere is often undone by unconvincing, largely annoying engine effects and the altogether forgetful and frankly rubbish in-game music.

FUEL is a huge game in every sense of the word, but all too often the quality just can't match the quantity. There are some impressive ideas on display and a truly epic world to explore, but there's so little incentive to roam and with merciless AI and racing mechanics that fail to make a really exciting impression for the most part, those ideas just aren't fully realised. If FUEL had been scaled down, refined, polished and given a greater sense of purpose, we could have been looking at a potential triple-A title; as it is, FUEL stands as a flawed but brave attempt at something truly different and a promising foundation for a hopefully blistering sequel.

Reviewed by Liam Pritchard for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).