After a year of sequels, remakes and ports, the PSP needs
some original content you can't find
anywhere else. By all accounts 2006
appears to be the year Sony's
portable PlayStation finally starts seeing some brand new franchises, and Pursuit Force is leading the charge.
Pursuit Force
might not have the giant buzz that games like Burnout Legends and Grand Theft
Auto: Liberty City Stories had, but don't let that fool you, this is an
action-packed experience that will rival anything you currently own on your
PlayStation Portable. It's part racing,
part shooter, and all balls-to-the-wall excitement.
Pursuit Force
starts out like a standard racer, you're driving at high speeds through some of
the most beautiful locations on the planet.
But this is no racing game.
Instead of racing to some far-off finish line, Pursuit Force has you tracking down criminals and doing everything
you can to bring them to justice … at extremely high speeds. You can shoot at them, you can ram them off
the road, and best of all, you can leap from your car to theirs and commandeer
the perp's vehicle. I'm not talking
about getting out of the car and getting into theirs, I'm talking about leaping
from one to the other at well over 100 miles per hour.
These high-speed car-jackings are not just cool looking;
they actually play a large part into Pursuit
Force's game play. Jumping from car to
car is extremely easy to pull off, which is for the best since you'll be doing
it hundreds of times by the time you've finished the game. When you get close a car a little icon will
pop up informing you that you can make that leap of faith, all you need to do
is press one button and your jump begins (in slow motion) and it's time to hang
on to their car for dear life.
Once on the car it's time for you to shoot anybody currently
occupying either the driver or passenger side, but you better do it quick before
they shoot you first. If you're taking
too much damage you can move to different parts of the vehicle, which makes for
some really cool looking fire fights.
Shoot them enough times and it's your car to drive, until you find the
next bad guy and it's time to repeat that entire process over again.
Although not all of the missions I played were the same,
most involved you having to take out a specific number of enemy vehicles to
"solve" the case. If this is
the only mission-type in Pursuit Force
then I can see where it might get a little old, but it never became boring in
the demo thanks to its amazing sense of speed and top-notch graphics. Jumping from car to car at top speed is
nothing short of breathtaking, it's one of those effects that will wow even the
most jaded gamer.
Not all missions will have you in a car; one of the three
playable missions in the demo features a high speed boat race that will have
you on the edge of your seat the entire time.
Some levels will feature more than one objective, including traditional
boss battles. The hardest playable level
in the demo (Wilde's Boys) features a unique helicopter section where you rain
bullets down a convict who is hurling molotov cocktails at you. This sequence reminded me a lot of old school
arcade rail shooters, games like Panzer Dragoon and the Virtua Cop series. I'll admit, it was a nice change of pace and
one of the first times I've seen that style of shooting on a portable game
system.
Despite the fact that it isn't coming out in the U.S.
until next month, Pursuit Force is
not a brand new game. This action-packed
shooter was released in Europe a number of
months ago to mixed reactions. Some
critics had problems with the game's handling and difficulty, two things that
managed to make some of the levels extremely frustrating. Thankfully developers Big Big Studios are
taking the time to address some of these concerns, and from the demo I played
it shows. The vehicles handle without a
hitch; they feel just as natural as Burnout or Ridge Racer. There is also brand new voice acting and a
few other upgrades in store, all of which lead to one of the most exciting new
PSP games of 2006.
Like all those big-budget Hollywood movies it's based on, Pursuit Force could end up being style
over substance, but that was not the impression I was left with after this
three-level demo. Although this demo is
short, I ended up going back through the various chases a number of times to
improve my rating and play it all again, it's one addictive arcade racer/shooter
that I'm not afraid to admit I'm looking forward to.
Expect more information on Pursuit Force as we inch closer to the game's release, including a
full interview with the people responsible for this PSP game. Expect a full review around the game's
release, but until then take a look at these pictures and mark your calendars
for what may just be the first must-own portable game of 2006.
