14 DAY TRIAL // There are a few gaming genres currently dominating the market, of which, besides the ever so popular music games, we also have racing and sandbox titles, which try to offer the player a great, adrenaline-filled experience in an open world.
As Midway couldn't convince movie star Vin Diesel to take up singing, it settled with two of his hobbies, car racing, as seen in the Fast and Furious movie franchise, and adventure, as seen in titles such as Triple X or The Chronicles of Riddick. This is how Wheelman was born, a game with a pretty troubled past, as it was developed by Midway in cooperation with Diesel's Tigon studio and was picked up and published by Ubisoft when Midway filed for bankruptcy.
But after such delays and events, the game is finally here and we can take out Vin Diesel through the streets of Barcelona. Here's our one our spent behind the wheel of Wheelman.
15:00 Well, it's finally here, a game I looked forward to, as it has promised to deliver great action sequences coupled with car racing and, especially, crashing.
15:10 The same sequence that you get in the demo is also present here. After a bank heist, a Spanish woman flees from the institution only to find that her getaway car is nowhere to be seen. Vin Diesel, or Milo Burik, as he is known in the game, just so happened to be around and, through some showoff maneuvers, gets her in the car to flee from the police. Of course, this is just a cutscene and now you finally get to be in control.
15:20 The chase up until now is pretty intense, but somewhat boring unless you played the demo and realized that you can sideswipe your car into your opponents. The implementation of the swipes to the mouse is pretty interesting but I can't help using the mouse to turn the camera, like I did in Grand Theft Auto IV.
15:30 After a few interesting events, a booby-trapped car and a lot of crashed police vehicles, I deliver the woman to her hideout and see yet another cutscene, in which Diesel says that she should hire a better wheelman next time, hinting that he is available for the right amount of money.
15:35 I open up the PDA, which shows the map of Barcelona, including the hoods of various factions like the Spanish or Romanians, and also displays the missions that I can carry out. I click on one, expecting it to show a route from my current location, like in GTA IV, but it already starts.
15:40 I am treated to a cutscene revealing Diesel's true allegiance to a government agency that tries to unmask the criminal operations in Barcelona. After it is over, I can select another mission from the PDA. Like before, the cutscene starts once I finish clicking on the location on my map. So far, there hasn't been a lot of driving in this game.
15:50 Things change now as I just offered to find three stolen cars for one of the small-time thugs in the city, but who does have some high connections. This is a good opportunity to practice Air Jack, one of the new features that the team at Midway Newcastle worked on.
16:00 The Air jack is extremely cool and something quite fresh for driving adventure games, as I expected to park my car in front of the stolen one and just steal it back. But now I can jump from my car onto the roof of the target one and with one smooth move, I push out the other driver and install myself into the cockpit. A very interesting feature, but hopefully it won't be overused in the rest of the game.
My hour is up and I have to admit that Wheelman left me craving for more. It looks and behaves a lot like Grand Theft Auto, but without the shoddy graphical problems that plagued Saints Row 2, or the fun mini-games that it also had. Diesel does a fair job in acting like the low-voiced government agent who is sent to take down a criminal organization all by himself and the rest of the characters also seem interesting.
Until the full review arrives, you will surely see me driving around the streets of the virtual Barcelona in this game.