Stuntman Review

Stuntman Review
Stuntman Reviewed On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
Stuntman Reviewed On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
Stuntman Reviewed On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
Stuntman Reviewed On PS2
Stuntman for the PS2 is a driving game like no other; you are placed in the role of a professional stuntman performing stunts in an array of movies. Until you start the stunt you will not know what you have to do, so each movie stunt has a very steep learning curve, there is very little room for error and if you do mess it up you will have to restart your stunt.

Stuntman consists of several play modes, which include, career mode, driving tests and a stunt constructor mode. The career mode is the main option and as mentioned before you are placed in the role of a professional stuntman. The driving test mode consists of several trails that gauge how well you can drive, you will be tested on speed, manoeuvrability and your ability to perform stunts. The stunt constructor mode lets you place ramps, barrels, cars and other objects in an arena so that you can build and perform your own stunts. As you progress through the career level you will be rewarded with ramps and other extras to use in the stunt constructor level.

The career levels are spread out across various real-life locations including London, Switzerland, Monaco, Louisiana and Bangkok. Your career spans across six films that feature themes and characters close to real world action movies. Toothless in Wapping is the fist film you will be performing in, this is a similar type of film to Guy Ritchie's brand of London gangster flick. A Whooping' and a Hollering' is basically the Dukes of Hazard set in Louisiana. Blood Oath takes place in Bangkok; it is based on a John Woo action movie. Conspiracy is a sort of Tom Clancy thriller that has you pulling of stunts on a snowmobile. The Scarab of Lost Souls is an Indiana Jones based flick. Live Twice for Tomorrow is basically a shameless James Bond copy that has you driving lots of fast sports cars. After you have filmed and completed all the scenes in a film you will be treated to a theatrical trailer of the movie that features some of your own driving. After each film you will have to complete a traditional arena stunt in front of a very large crowd. The stunts include jumping through rings of fire, jumping into towers of cars, long distance jumping and synchronised driving.

Stuntman Reviewed On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
Stuntman Reviewed On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
Stuntman Reviewed On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com
The levels in Stuntman are set up in such a way that you are forced to make quick decisions and even quicker manoeuvres. Each level will feature many individual stunts within one stunt scene. A visual aid will help you know what you are meant to do, so learning these is a very important part of the game, you will also be told what to do in quick succession by the director. If you happen to finish a scene sometimes you may not progress to the next scene, as you must complete each stunt with a decent amount of accuracy. To start with you will only have to complete with about 50% accuracy, as the game progresses to the end you wont be able to miss a beat. If you don't complete the stunt you will have to restart the level again, but this means having to wait for a pretty long loading sequence as the levels reset. This can be even more frustrating than failing the level. The loading times are probably one of the biggest problems with Stuntman.

Driving the games vehicles is a pretty simple task. The left analogue stick controls your steering while the right analogue stick can be used to control the gas and brakes, the buttons on the face of the controller can also be used to control the gas, brakes and handbrake. The shoulder buttons can be used to swing the camera around your car and the L1 button is used for various actions like, turning your car over or Nitro for those really big jumps.

Stuntman looks great, the cars all look very nice and detailed, they look very convincing when they are flying across the screen. Your driver and pedestrians are all fairly simple and a bit lacking on detail but they get the job done. The scenery and environments are all very diverse from one level to another but they all have one good thing in common, loads of the scenery is breakable. When you do break something like a table for example, small pieces will explode and shatter all over the place. If you hit another car you will notice that the damage is very realistic. Everything that twists, bends and breaks looks very convincing. This all comes down to the games physics engine, which really does make the game very enjoyable and realistic. The game features loads of shading, so everything that has light shining on it will cast lovely shadows. Occasionally when a number of things happen on screen at the same time "slow down" can occur, this doesn't affect the game play as it is very slight and it only happens for a split second, but it is noticeable.

Stuntman Reviewed On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com Stuntman Reviewed On PS2 @ www.contactmusic.com

The music in the game is also based on the real life films that the game movies take their inspiration from. For example, A Whooping' and A Hollering' features typical banjo style country music that featured in the 80's series of Dukes of Hazard. The Scarab of the Lost Souls level has a theme song, which is almost identical to the real Indiana Jones theme.
The explosions, collisions and cars are all nice and believable sounds, but the main let down is the voice of the director yelling orders such as, "overtake to the right", Smash though the boxes" and "Through the gap", this can all get a bit too much at times and it contributes to the frustration factor.

Stuntman is an original game, which some people will love but unfortunately others will not enjoy because of the trial and error nature of the game play. This can be an extremely frustrating game, so much so that you may have to buy another controller after playing it for an hour or so. Alternatively when you do eventually complete the levels there is a lot of satisfaction in seeing yourself pulling off some brilliant stunts. The controls are good and it looks and sounds great, the levels are all very interesting and challenging the only down side is the frustration factor that could be just a touch too much for some players.

8 out of 10


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