Smuggler's Run

UPC: 710425270550

Platform: PlayStation 2

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Developer: Angel Studios

Category: Racing

Style(s): Mission-Based Racing

Synopsis: You're a smuggler in a gang known as "The Forgotten." You and your boys need to prove yourselves as viable competitors in the seedy, crime-ridden world of underground smuggling rings. You'll be asked to deliver money, illegal weapons, and even dangerous chemicals from one point to another. Along the way you'll have to navigate hilly and rough terrain in SUVs, buggys, and trucks along with a many other vehicles that become unlockable throughout the game. Transporting item A to point B isn't as easy as it sounds, as you'll have to jump rivers, speed over mountains and through towns all while evading everyone from rival gangs trying to steal your loot to the CIA. Navigate through desert, snow, and forests as you race to complete your objective. Once you get tired of that, you and a friend can either go head-to-head to see who can retrieve and deliver the pick-ups fastest, or team up and go against other gangs. What's the quickest point to your drop off? Do you jump that river and risk getting caught up in the water current? Think you have enough speed to drive up that mountain? Or should you play it safe and take the main road? These are the types of critical decisions you'll need to make as you progress through Smuggler's Run. Single-player progress and unlocked vehicles can be saved using 324KB on a PlayStation 2 memory card. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

Package Contents: 40-page Instruction Manual

Controls: Joystick/Gamepad

Decent manual, but not as descriptive as it could have been. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

Huge environments, detailed cars and little draw-in, but there's not as much activity as in games like Crazy Taxi. The worlds are sparsely populated. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

Combine the fast-paced action of Crazy Taxi with the pick-up-and-drop crime theme of Driver and replace the populated cities seen in both titles with expansive terrain. The result is an addictive title for the PlayStation 2 called Smuggler's Run. Smuggler's Run puts you in the role of a courier. Your gang, The Forgotten, is at odds with several other gangs, viciously competing with each other in order to boost reputations and make money. You start out with basic training, practicing pick-ups and drop-offs around town. The missions get increasingly riskier as you dodge and race against the police and rival gangs while picking up and delivering the goods. Whereas Driver and Crazy Taxi took place in well-populated cities, Smuggler's Run takes place in sparsely populated terrain, consisting of three basic types: desert, forest, and snow. The mission environments are huge, allowing you to see well into the distance with little draw in. The Buggy and the SUV are the only available vehicles to start with, but as the game progresses, more impressive vehicles are unlocked. While you can often see individual seats through the windows, the vehicles do not look very realistic, and are more akin to Micro Machines and Hot Wheels than your average SUV on the road. The game physics are also unrealistic but fun, similar to Crazy Taxi. The music has a techno-like beat that fits the game appropriately, adding to the tension and race-against-the-clock theme. Yet the main songs only change after a few levels. While some may get annoyed with the repetitiveness of the soundtrack, it is an almost perfect fit to the game. Missions consist of driving to your pick-ups and drop offs with the help of an arrow compass at the top of the screen. One of the things that gamers must be able to gauge is the path they choose in order to get from one destination to the other, which is determined by factors such as the type of vehicle, number of opponents, and most importantly, the terrain. The longer you take to deliver money, weapons, or whatever from destination A to destination B, the more your payoff decreases. This, in addition to the time limit, adds to the game's frantic pace. Certain missions have you racing against rival gangs. In these missions, you choose a number of computer-controlled allies, and can either cover them by slamming into other opponents or taking control yourself and racing to the drop-off point. If an enemy happens to snatch your pickup before you, it's up to you or one of your allies to slam into the car carrying the contraband. Doing so transfers the item to you, and you can resume racing to the drop-off point. While the missions offer some variety, they tend to get repetitive after time. While the thin plot gives you circumstances surrounding your exploits, you are almost always just racing to location A, picking up an item, then racing to location B to drop it off as soon as possible. There are other types of games available at the main menu, but they mostly consist of rehashes of regular missions in the single-player mode. The multiplayer option is a refreshing change of pace from the other modes; you and a friend can go against other opponents in capture-the-flag style of play, or you can have an all-out war with your buddy and other opponents in a grab-and-deliver style of play, similar to the gang wars in the single-player mode. Smuggler's Run successfully blends the crazy jumps and impossible physics of Crazy Taxi with the crime-oriented theme of Driver. The graphics are clean, the music is catchy, and the game is fun to pick up and play. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

The multiplayer aspect adds replay value, but there could have been more modes or options to spice things up. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

Hip, techno-style music suits the game nicely. The comments from the opposition are also worth a few laughs. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

Fun, fast-paced action that is immediately accessible. The action quickly gets repetitive, but the ride is fun while it lasts. ~ J.C. Barnes, All Game Guide

the game requires Joystick/Gamepad.