So you finished Driver 2 and you are getting antsy
waiting for Driver 3. What do you do in the meantime? Play Stuntman,
of course. Fusing a unique gameplay idea with their popular style of driving,
game maker Reflections Interactive has produced an interesting, yet mediocre
title that should satisfy daredevils, thrill-seekers, and casual gamers alike.
You play a rookie Hollywood stuntman (the title does not lie, does it) who’s
been given a chance to prove himself and rise from a virtual nobody to a hero of
the silver screen. Reflections did a great job in spoofing blockbuster movies
and shows: James Bond, Dukes of Hazzard, Snatch, plus 3 others. .Starting on a
low budget movie, you must follow the director’s commands and rise in rank so
you gain a spot on the final blockbuster, Live Twice For Tomorrow. You
will earn money for the day, but make sure you have a high stunt success ratio
in order to move on. The ratio, how much money you earn, and time elapsed are
all factors in determining how fast you move up in the ranks in the Stuntman
world. Now that’s something Lee Majors would be proud of.
“Move Ya Can, Ya Chump”
When they say “time is money“, they must have been talking about this game. The
director doesn’t waste any time indicating that he wants the stunts done right
and he wants the stunts done right the first time. Many of the stunts range in
time from one to three minutes and require you to perform it correctly without
either a) totaling the car; b) flipping it on it’s top; c) going the wrong way;
d) or running out of time. If any of those happen, get ready to hear the
disappoint and frustration in the director’s voice. Sounds like talking to my
Mom sometimes. There are checkpoints throughout each stunt that will add time to
your total when you pass through them. I will warn you that sometimes you will
make it by shavings. Did I mention milliseconds? Of course, time in only one
thing to worry about. As you drive, “Scoring Zones” will pop up and the director
will scream an order at you. You quite possibly could be doing a simple stop or
reverse; a 180 degree handbrake turn; passing through a narrow gap without
hitting the sides; driving through an explosion; jumping from a ramp; getting
close to something; hitting stuff; clipping cars; overtaking vehicles; and
giving chase. All in a day’s work, right?
Essentially, the more you do right, the better chance you have of impressing the
director and going onto the next stunt. Fail and you’ll be doing it again. This
is where I found the game tiring. Doing the stunts over and over and over until
I got it right sounded fun in the beginning, but I grew annoyed. For instance,
in one sequence there were some basic maneuvers that were fine, but between
those, I had to jump a ramp, land on a trailer and continue on. Then land on an
SUV in front of that and squeal off. At the end of the sequence, I had to launch
off another ramp and land on the back of a flatbed tow-truck across a small
channel. Well, sometimes things would go right and then other things would go
wrong. I would make the first jump, but do something wrong on the last. Or I
would hit the first jump wrong, clip the truck and go flying out of control,
destroying my car. Or I’d land in the water; or get everything perfect, make the
final jump, but overshoot the truck by inches....and so on and so on. There was
at least one stunt like this that was a bit difficult to overcome. I found
myself shutting the game off and coming back to it because I was getting
frustrated and a game shouldn’t do that.
After passing all the stunts adequately you are awarded two-fold. After each
sequence, you unlock “toys” and cars to use in the Stunt Arena (see below).
After all the sequences are done and you passed, you are shown a trailer for the
movie with portions of your stunt work thrown in. I thought this was a great
idea and after the first movie, worked hard to finish stunts. The first movie
didn’t really show a lot from what I did and I found that lackluster, but it
quickly picked up the pace with the second movie.
If Driver Had a Brother
It looks like all Reflections did was take an airbrush to Driver 2. The
backgrounds were boring and not much going on. There were people walking down
the street, shopping, and setting up equipment, but that was it. The cars didn’t
look like anything in particular, except like a jumble of jagged lines
representing a hunk of metal on four (or three) wheels.
So thinking that the PS2’s processing power isn’t utilized, wouldn’t you think
that there would be no slowdown? I thought that. But slowdown can occur in the
very unlikeliest of places. Driving straight or weaving a bit was fine, but as
soon and I needed to turn a corner the slowdown would occur. For some reason,
the draw-in that happened caused this and unfortunately threw off my timing a
lot. Most of the time there were stunts that had to be done after a turn and
when your timing’s off, everything just goes to hell in a jaggedly-drawn car
from this game.
Behind a Bad Game Is Sub-Standard Control
Control makes or breaks a game and for me it broke this game. In a quote from
the main character as he is explaining his career to a cameraman, “There are
many different cars and each on handles differently... “. Is this the same game?
Oh, that’s right, he must be talking about the cars from the much-improved
Stuntman 2: Get Your Groove On.. No matter what I was driving, all of them
felt extremely heavy...even the three wheeler vehicle in the third movie. No
matter how precise you think you are with driving games, Stuntman will
change that. A little turn at high speeds sends you in a fishtail that is hard
to get back under control without breaking slightly. Turning at larger angles
causes that slowdown and throws in a pause for good measure before you realize
that, “Hey, there’s a semi right there and if I don’t move, I’m going become a
grill decoration”. And God forbid you try to weave (which you will have to do
many times) through traffic: imagine having a 10,000 pound weight that
conveniently slides from one side of the car to the other as you do weave. It’s
like have your own personal Jared, but before Subway.
Yeah, the bad control is 70% of this game.
Quake Stunt 3 Arena
The best feature of this game is the Stunt Arena Mode. During Career Mode, you
are able to unlock cars and Arena Toys to use in creating your own stunts in a
stadium environment. For cars, you can get a huge boat (Grand Marquis
look-alike), a pickup, a tow-truck, little cars, medium cars, hatchbacks, and
more. But yet, these drive the same. For toys, you can unlock a lot: from
low-angle and high angle ramps, to stackable barrels, to barrel roll mechanisms,
to things you can crash into, to flaming tubes, and more. Arrange these toys
around the stadium to create the ultimate Stuntman paradise. I played this mode
a lot after finishing the game and I felt I played the game just to get the all
the hidden toys and cars to play in this mode. Because once you finish Career
mode, your career is done.
You have 3 other games that you could do, but why bother? Precision Tests
have you racing around a course and passing through cones. Go forward through
the green ones and reverse through the blue ones. I didn’t bother. Speed
Tests is when, you guessed it, you must get from checkpoint to checkpoint
quickly. Complete the number of laps and you are successful. I am mildly
successful anyway, so I didn’t bother. Stunt Tests happen when you
complete career mode with a Lead Stuntman Rating. You then have to gather all
the Stunt tokens within the allotted time in order to get the next challenge.
For a great challenge, I played chess, so I also didn’t bother with this one.
Two Pluses Don’t Make This Game Right
The only other major downfall of this game were the loading times. They were
just atrocious and when you had to restart a stunt over, it had to load it all
up again for some reason. Average times were about 15 seconds. Fifteen seconds?
I just want to stunt...who has time for waiting?
But all is not lost in this game. I enjoyed the introduction movie, which gave a
quick background of stunt work and showcased some pretty crazy stunts. Also, you
do get good rewards for completing stunts and finishing movies for Stunt Arena.
And a subtle, but important detail for me was that the main character had some
depth and personality. He had a sense of humor, a great knowledge of the career,
and knew how to explain the stunts: great things can only happen to him.
Finally, there were some DVD extras on the game, which was different to
experience. There’s a “Making of” video, two trailers for upcoming Reflections
video games (Superman, Driver 3), TV spots and a Vic Armstrong interview. Vic is
a real-life stuntman who helped make some of the stunts in the game. This part
of the disc had the “Special Features” portion.
In The End, It Doesn’t Really Matter
Despite control issues and graphical glitches, this game in just a renter. You
can finish the Career Mode in an evening (with perseverance) and still enjoy a
few hours of Stunt Arena. Although the idea was intriguing, actual presentation
faltered into just a mediocre title.
6.1
