Spy Hunter
Score: 60% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Midway Developer: Point of View Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Mission-Based Driving
Graphics & Sound: Spy Hunter, the remake of the classic arcade game, is nice looking, but overall its visuals are disappointing, especially when compared to other Xbox titles. Other racing games, like RalliSport Challenge or Project Gotham Racing, have exceptional graphics that are not matched by those presented in this game. The cars and boats in the game move at convincing speeds, and textures on walls, barrels, vehicles, water, and other surfaces are good although not spectacular. Overall the visual presentation and animations are fairly well done, but they get bogged down with sub-standard, non-interactive cut scenes, and weird graphical glitches, like strange artifacts that appear on-screen. The sound effects, while not varied, are suitable and quite pleasing. The music, which is a new rendition of the classic 'Theme from Peter Gunn', is recorded by the hard rock band Saliva, and is quite well done.
Gameplay: The basic premise of Spy Hunter hasn't changed over the years: You find enemies and destroy them. You also deal with communications devices, but these really amount to shooting things without destroying them, and don't add any depth to the game You start off the game in a training mission, and if you wait for the initial cut-scene to complete, you almost have enough information to complete it. After several attempts though, you master the training mission, and move on to the first real mission. Missions are somewhat open ended, and although it takes a while to learn the various vehicles you will interact with, you basically just roam through each level, looking for enemies to avoid or kill, and follow the visual and audio cues when necessary. Game play is pretty basic, but overall most of the 14 missions are pretty satisfying.
Difficulty: There are no difficulty levels present in the game. Missions tend to be pretty tough, though, so it may take several attempts to actually complete a mission. The vehicles you drive tend to be pretty forgiving, and don't really get in the way. Meeting most or all of the objectives of a given mission, which you must do in order to progress through them, is quite difficult, and is hampered by incomplete documentation and mission introductions.
Game Mechanics: There are a number of camera angles to choose from, including third person 'behind the car' vantage points, as well as a first person 'in the car' view. This provides some flexibility in viewing the action, but the one glaring problem you will still face is how obstructed your view actually is. There is a targeting cursor on-screen at all times, and this makes it hard to see where you're going, or whether you've acquired your target yet or not. There are other aids to indicate when a target is in view, as well as audio cues of upcoming targets, but just providing a clear forward view would make a substantial improvement. There are few options in Spy Hunter, and only one controller setup to 'choose' from. The manual unfortunately doesn't really detail how everything in the game works, but there are a few hints given at the beginning of each mission. One nice bonus for the Xbox version of this game is the inclusion of the original Spy Hunter arcade game. When you enter your name as 'OGSPY', you are treated to the original game, although ejecting the DVD and reinserting it seems to be the only way to get out of this game. There are also a number of videos that come on the DVD concerning the remaking of the game, and a music video of the theme song, but these add little to the overall experience. Spy Hunter could have been a much better game then it is. I think the original was a classic, and it's too bad Midway didn't do a better job of converting it to the current generation of consoles, and that they didn't take advantage of the advanced hardware present in the Xbox. As it stands, this title is worth renting, but it's only worth buying if you absolutely have to have it, or if you absolutely have to have every car game that comes out.
-Gordy, GameVortex Communications AKA Gary Lucero
State of Emergency Test Drive