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Wreckless: The Yakuza Mission
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Developer
Bunkasha |
Publisher
Activision |
Genre
Driving |
Players
1 |
ESRB
T |
The Xbox gets some
long awaited driving action where the object
is to actually destroy something. Was it worth
the wait?
One
of the lessons that we all learn as children
is to not judge a book by its cover. Even
though something may look wretchedly bad
on the outside, there could always be a
kind soul at heart. Sadly, the same aphorism
can be used inversely towards the negative
aspect. Just because a game looks spectacular,
doesn't mean that it will perform as well
as its outer surface appears.
Wreckless:
The Yakuza Missions centers around one
of two storylines. In one you are in the
shoes of two rookie spies taking on the
Yakuza in a more covert sense, and in the
other storyline you play as two inspectors
from the Hong Kong police squad. I'm not
going to spend a load of time on the story
of the game. The reason for that? Like
most good Hong Kong action films there
really is no story to speak of, or if it
is there, it's paper thin. While you may
learn a few things about the evil Yakuza
gang throughout the course of the game,
for the most part your time is spent roaming
around Hong Kong running into things.
Despite
the obvious lack of a thought out story
mode, the developers did an excellent job
of varying the two storylines in an effort
to keep the gameplay fresh. If you play
as the two cops you'll spend your time
slamming into various cars and objects
on the road in a showier manner, whereas
if you employ the spies as your characters
you'll spend your time… well, spying. Missions
can vary from taking pictures of enemy
gang members to the standard slamming into
opposing vehicles. The cars are also varied
from storyline to storyline featuring the
standard speedy sports cars to the meaty
tanks typically featured by the military
and SWAT team members.
The
controls of the game take a bit of getting
used but thanks to the simplicity of the
cars and the nice stop and go nature of
the gameplay, you'll be flying through
the city's streets in no time. The basic
setup is set with R being the gas and L
being the brake, and the B button will
send your car into reverse. You're able
to adjust your view with the down button
on the d-pad.
"What I recommend is sitting back and putting on some of the wonderful replay
filters that come standard in the game."
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Driving
around the city will take some getting
used to thanks to the looseness of the
cars. You'll find yourself spinning out
and flipping over a bit more then you'd
like. Wrekless suffers from what I like
to call "flipitis" in which your call has
an amazing propensity for flipping over.
What this amounts to, is a ton of restarts
which means less and less time allotted
for each mission. Needless to say this
pumps up the annoyance factor of the game
to a staggering degree.
The
obvious pride and joy of this game is the
graphics. As soon as you enter Wreckless's
robust world you'll be overloaded with
visual pleasures. Vibrancy is the name
of the game in Wreckless and Hong Kong's
world is full of it. Watching sparks fly
off of your car overtakes any other visual
effects ever seen in a video game and the
replay mode takes things one step closer
to video game supremacy.
The
overriding factor when it comes the graphics
is the ever-present invisible wall and
clipping which you'll run into on occasion.
The wall will prevent you from roaming
around virtually anywhere, which you would
normally be able to do in a city the size
of Hong Kong. Clipping is less of a problem,
as the collision detection engine in this
game is vastly superior to virtually everything
on the shelves today. Despite those two
minor blemishes Wreckless presents quite
the visual feast in the end. What I recommend
is sitting back and putting on some of
the wonderful replay filters that come
standard in the game. But that's just me.
The
gameplay of Wreckless is basically the
same stuff over and over again. Cruising
through Hong Kong breaking stuff over and
over again. The missions can be very frustrating
at times thanks to some shoddy design and
poor planning. A nice use of a solid frame
rate helps things run very quickly on the
screen. One debilitating aspect of the
title is the inability to die. You can
pound the hell out of other cars and they'll
eventually blow up but for some reason
whatever vehicle you're driving no matter
how much damage it takes (by the way, the
real time damage model is very nice) it
will never blow up or even experience the
slightest degradation in performance.
The
audio in Wreckless is possibly the weakest
part of the presentation due to the overuse
of some watered down techno music. The
voice acting in the game is also sub par
with some obvious B-movie writing. The
actor's attempts at comedy come off as
stupid and lackadaisical, and that's being
very kind. Then again, the Hong Kong action
movie analogy stands to reason that if
you want a game to play like a genre film,
the music and acting should also play like
a genre film. The sound effects of crashing
into objects are acceptable although they
are a bit muted at times.
Yet
another stifling aspect of the game is
its length. Twenty missions of running
into different objects and making a great
many sparks fly can only last so long.
When you've completed both scenarios the
only thing left to do is go - through them
again. While the levels are fun the first
and maybe even the second time around,
is it really worth your hard earned money
for about three hours of fun? I guess it
all depends on your financial stature and
what you look for in a game, and isn't
that what it always boils down to?
While
there are many factors that bring this
game down from the echelon where it should
have resided, there is one absence that
boggles the mind. Why in the world would
Bunkasha not include some multiplayer in
the game? Sure a delay would have been
inevitable but it really could have saved
this game from a few of its many pitfalls.
Even the skimpiest of multiplayer options,
a two-player mode, would have been most
appreciated. Instead we've got a single
player game that gets stale rather quickly.
Overall
Wreckless is a seriously marred title that
really could have shined on the Xbox. With
all the hype surrounding this title, it's
a real shame that the developer couldn't
have come through in more than just the
visual department. The audio stumbles,
the gameplay reeks of repetitiveness, and
the controls are fidgety and loose. What
could have been a great Xbox game has turned
out a slightly better than average title
that every video game fan should try to
avoid unless you are in serious need of
a game to show off the power of the Xbox.
Nate "Gamer
X" Ahearn
Really really wanted Wreckless to be great.
Wreckless:
The Yakuza Missions: The
Scores |
|
Graphics |
Sound |
Gameplay |
Depth |
Presentation |
Overall |
9.5 |
7.5 |
7.5 |
6.5 |
7.0 |
7.5 |
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The
Final Word:
With so many eager and loyal Xbox fans looking forward
to this title since way back when the game went by a
different name, it's a real shame that the developer
didn't rethink the gameplay mechanics prior to release.
We could have been witness to a title that showcased
all aspects of the Xbox's power. As it stands it's a
poorly put together title that is just a good-looking,
rotten apple.
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