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Pursuit Force
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Graphics & Sound:
More like this please! Pursuit Force is a glass of cold water in the face of mediocre racing and mission-based car games, and I love it. Imagine if Burnout and Dead to Rights met at a party, got sloppy, and somehow ended up in bed with Spy Hunter, and you can start to imagine how this thing plays. Across the board, the visuals are excellent. From crowded city streets and winding country roads to off-road action in caves and ski-slopes, the scenery is pretty dazzling. The cars take real damage, throw sparks, fall apart and explode. In one mission, you’ll be riding a motorcycle, and then you’ll be in a boat or riding mini-gun in an attack helicopter. If it sounds like an action movie, just wait ‘till you see it play.
The voice acting is hilarious, a little over-the-top and campy in a good way. The music is great, and sounds like something out of a James Bond flick.
What really steals the show is the combination of simple controls that trigger awesome action sequences, a la Dead to Rights. Where DTR could sometimes fall a little short on variety, Pursuit Force consistently comes through. Unlike most mission-based driving games, Pursuit Force takes you out of the car. Ride up on a bad guy, push the circle button, and watch your driver leap out on the other guy’s hood or trunk. Then, pump some lead into the car to clear a path before grabbing the wheel and continuing on down the road. I can honestly say I never got tired of watching this play out, and there is enough style in how it happens to keep things fresh. Although Pursuit Force has a lot going on, commandeering a vehicle – much like in GTA – really becomes a defining moment. |
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Gameplay:
It’s worth noting that even without Career mode - the meat of the game - Pursuit Force would be a decent racing game. Through your career, if successful in missions, you will unlock race and time-trial levels that can lead to greater glory. Thanks to some great scenery and well-designed tracks, racing and time-trials don’t feel nearly as ordinary as they do in other driving titles.
Career mode is where you’ll play out the story of a heroic cop, pitted against some of the worst gangs ever seen on screen. Although you’ll start walking a beat, promotions based on your performance may eventually earn you the respect of the force and the fear of criminals. The bad element has a lot to fear. On foot, in cars and trucks, on boats and behind a big gun in a police helicopter, Pursuit Force dishes out some hard police justice. The cop in this game is part of an elite force that is called in when all other options have been exhausted. Each mission briefing includes a voice-over from your commander, who inserts funny comments during each game in progress. There’s some good humor in the game. Some missions are short adrenaline rushes, while others play out over several chapters. Being able to continue from the beginning of a mission chapter rather than starting the mission over is a lifesaver.
There are five gangs in the game that can be unlocked, and some missions are unavailable until you reach a certain rank. Promotions are awarded depending on your performance in missions, which is a function of how many bad guys you take out, the time it takes you to complete the mission, and how much collateral damage you cause. Each of the gangs presents a slightly different style of play, and the difficulty ratchets up quite a bit from mission to mission. Depending on what “grade” you are awarded after successfully completing a mission, you may unlock features such as time-trial tracks or races against gang members. Unlocked cars, boats, trucks and bikes are available to race, which provides nice variety. The choice of what to drive in the game is almost unlimited, since you can commandeer any vehicle (including boats) that you come across. |
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Difficulty:
Rather than create different settings for difficulty in Pursuit Force, the designers opted for a nice smooth curve that takes each mission a notch up as you work your way through Career. About 50-60% of the game should be accessible to all but the clumsiest, casual gamer. Anyone will have fun in the early levels, and more dedicated players will persevere through some fiendishly difficult boss battles and missions. There were very few times when the difficulty felt unbalanced, but there are some areas where winning comes down to luck and timing rather than strategy. If you want strategy, go play chess. This is a button-mashing, pedal-to-the-metal frenzy where the best offense is a good offense.
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Game Mechanics:
There isn’t any multiplayer or online content for Pursuit Force, which is a drag. We can excuse the omission up to a point, because the game is so damn good, but it would have been that much better with some network features. Regular progress is saved separately from the results of time-trial laps, so even some ability to share and update scores on a friend’s PSP would have been better than nothing.
Much like Dead to Rights where simple button combinations could trigger really cool action, Pursuit Force seems to give more than it gets. The key combinations outlined above are ridiculously easy, but the result on-screen looks like you did some killer button combo. Arrest enemies by rushing them on foot, and bring up a quick movie that shows the cop doing take-down moves. You also end up with whatever gun the bad guy was holding. Sure, it’s derivative, but in a good way.
Controls for driving and piloting vehicles are generally great, with the complaint that a few vehicles feel way too spongy, or liable to go out of control on a moment’s notice. Another awkward implementation is the mini-gun in the helicopter scenes. The targeting on the gun is pretty difficult, which may be realistic, but doesn’t add to the fun. The damage to vehicles is monitored by a small bar on screen, right under the cop’s health bar. If either should drop to zero, you’re starting over. Earning points through take-downs or fatalities will charge the Justice Bar. With a full bar, you can do special moves, cause more damage and heal faster. You can also do an “all at once” healing for you and your vehicle by depleting the Justice Bar all at once.
Pursuit Force is easy to pick up and play, and missions are generally short and action-packed. Nobody could play this game for five minutes and not register a quicker heartbeat, and the only chink in the Pursuit Force armor comes from the lack of networked or multiplayer options and some fudged controls in places. For most of your time on the road, you’ll be exhilarated and dying to see what comes next. Most mission-based driving or combat games have a hard time keeping the pace high, but Pursuit Force totally nails the formula. This game is art imitating art, like watching great guy movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and anything by Steven Segal play out under your control on the PSP. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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