Wheelman

Rating: T

Score 8.5/10

Vin Diesel? In a video game? Sounds like something worth checking out. Does it succeed in being the Hollywood action style it promised to be, or is it lost in the dust?

The storyline is as follows: you’re Milo Burik, a good guy who goes undercover to infiltrate the city’s three biggest gangs. The cutscenes are predictable in dialogue. Expect the cheesy, action movie-style dialogue that’s been used way too many times. The animation is fairly good…most of the time. Some cutscenes look better than others, for some reason.

In your first mission, you get a handle on half of the gameplay. The gameplay is a racing-combat kind of game, where you burn rubber while trading paint. You get a cinematic cutscene after most cars’ annihilation, which is worth the effort and makes it seem more Hollywood action film based. It’s not until you get a gun that you learn about the other half of the game, where you shoot bad guys with bad controls and minor problems. You can’t aim or jump. This means that you must shoot randomly to kill, and you must walk around all objects to get past them. Is there any reason I can’t jump over a small bench? That’s something you don’t even have to be a Hollywood action hero to do.

Thankfully, the racing is fun. Milo is empowered with special moves that go a long way toward making you feel like an amazing movie-style racer. He can slow down time temporarily and gingerly shoot down everyone in front of him or spin his car 180 degrees to do the exact same move, but against the poor chasers unfortunate enough to be behind. Of course, each kill offers an explosion. Not only that, Milo can jump from his car to another car, while driving. Other than the special moves, you can simply ram other cars, with you car being the only weapon you need.

This game is a sandbox game, meaning you’re free to roam the world until you want to accept a mission. This means you can shoot all of the people in the city? What is this, Grand Theft Auto? No, you can’t actually kill anybody free roaming. You’re the good guy, remember? There’s some stuff to find thoughout the city, but little motivation to actually find the items.

You can breeze through the story mode easily, or complete every side quest there is. Each side quest gives your car, and your powers upgrades. Example: Rampage, where you drive around smashing into everything for points, will make your car more durable. Another example: Made to Order, where you find cars and return them to garages, will get you garages throughout the city. Garages give your car a new coat of paint, and helps you to evade cops.

This game is Grand Theft Auto meets Burnout. Free roaming madness with insane, fast paced racing. If it wasn’t for the on-foot missions, this would be one of the best you’d play this year. With it, though, it’s not Vin Diesel’s best.