Wheelman Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 28th April 2009

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We go for a spin with Vin Diesel.

Wheelman Details:

	Action
	PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
	Tigon Studios
	Midway

18+

Out Now

I had high hopes for Wheelman when I first heard about the game! And it does try very hard to impress you! However, ultimately it fails with what is a disjointed and lacklustre endeavour that feels slightly unfinished!

That may seem like a somewhat harsh opening statement but its not! Why? Because Wheelman gives you high expectations from the outset and then instantly dashes them with a disjointed story that is near impossible to follow and countless side missions that don’t seem to have any relevance to anything whatsoever! In fact the game is so disorganised in its approach that it soon becomes a bore to play!

The game puts you in the role of Milo Burik, an undercover agent posing as wheelman intent on bringing down the organised gangs that operate in the Spanish city of Barcelona. Sounds fairly believable so far, that is until Milo starts working for every gang in the city. Undertaking tasks against the rivals in the name of one gang who strangely repeatedly keep hiring him? Anyway as the game progresses the story becomes increasingly difficult to follow and disjointed until soon, you simply won’t care what the hell is going on.

Missions are exactly what you would expect from a driving based action game. Drive to A meet Mr X and then drive to B, kill some bad guys and escape whilst more bad guys chase you. It’s all very un-original. Side missions in the game as already mentioned feel like an after thought giving the game a rushed feeling, which is echoed in several other areas of the videogame, including the story missions.

Wheelman features a vehicle melee system that allows you to attack other vehicles using you car. This melee system employs the right thumb stick to allow you to slam and ram enemy vehicles with devastating affect. However, it largely feels ineffective and the same results can often be achieved simply by ramming enemies as you would in any other driving game. This as you expect makes the melee system seem like nothing more then a gimmick! Wheelman does however, feature some interesting features. Mainly the focus and air jack moves! The game allows you to fill up your focus gauge this then allows you to perform special moves. Moves able to be performed vary from a simple speed boost to aimed shot and the cyclone. Both the aimed shot and cyclone pull the camera into the driver’s seat of the car and allow you to aim your gun at the opposing vehicle with deadly accuracy with results that see cars exploding into flames. The cyclone differs as Milo swings the car around with a handbrake turn allowing you to quickly and effectively take out enemies behind you. It’s an interesting system that can often give you the edge when things become intense. The Air Jack system is fairly novel, although a little bit ridiculous and sees Milo leap out of the driving seat of your current car when you approach another from behind, onto the roof and through the window knocking the driver into the road. This allows you to quickly and effectively change vehicles during a chase without the disruption of having to get out and walk to another car. Yes it may look a little silly but its quite novel and can be strangely fun!

Despite its weaknesses in the most important gameplay areas, Wheelman is a fairly good looking game. Vehicle models are fairly detailed and range from scooters to super bikes and cars to trucks. It’s also nice to see some licensed vehicles included in the game such as the Opel Astra, Pontiac G8 and even the humble Smart Car? The city is fairly detailed and features everything from open highways to tight winding alley ways that come in very useful when trying to escape. Sadly though there does seem to be an issue with the games draw distance which can at times be very short. As an after touch the game features a lot of cinematic effects these range from simple jumps which cause the camera to switch and huge explosions. All of which have been crafted well.

The games audio for the most part is good, the game does feature some tunes most will recognise playing in the various vehicles but there’s not too much variation. Voice acting is reasonable Milo is voiced by Vin Diesel and you get pretty much what you would expect from him! If you’ve ever seen one of his movies you’ll know what I mean. The support cast serves up a bit of a mix some is performed to amusement whilst others are fairly convincing. There was one thing that did bug me about the games sound design and that was every single car in the game sounds like it’s got a V8 under the hood even the Smart Car sounded rather sporty?

Ultimately Wheelman isn’t a good game, its disorganised approach gave the game an incomplete feel and you can’t help thinking it could have done with more time in development. Overall the game is far too laborious to play and to put it bluntly, boring! Undoubtedly Wheelman will leave many gamers disappointed!