Stuntman

UPC: 742725226395

Platform: PlayStation 2

Publisher: Atari Interactive, Inc.

Developer: Reflections Interactive Limited

Category: Racing

Style(s): Mission-Based Racing

Synopsis: Stuntman places you in the role of a movie stunt driver. Your career in the movie industry will span six movies, each of which are based on a specific action movie sub-genre, and are set in locations all around the world from London to Bangkok. The vehicles under your control, which include sports cars and even tuk-tuks, will vary based upon the theme of the movie, but your job is always the same -- create the most exciting stunt possible within the parameters set forth by the director. Each of the stunt sequences require the player to hit certain marks in order to make the stunt work, failing to hit a certain percentage of these marks will force you to re-shoot the entire scene. Do well, however, and you'll be granted permission to perform the next stunt or move on to another movie. An in-game movie recorder films your entire stunt from multiple camera angles, allowing you to view it, and even save it to memory card if desired. Upon completion of a specific movie, you'll be rewarded with a trailer -- which combines pre-rendered footage as well as cut-scenes of your very own exploits -- done in true Hollywood fashion. As an added bonus, your success in this mode will also unlock objects and additional cars that can be used in other gameplay modes. Among the other modes presented in Stuntman are Driving Tests and the Stunt Constructor, the latter of which allows players to build their very own custom stunt track, which can be filled with all manner of obstacles in the search for the perfect stunt. The Driving Tests take various forms, requiring the player to complete timed runs, precision racing or death-defying stunts. DVD-like extras included with the game are trailers for upcoming games and interviews with professional stuntmen. ~ Gavin Frankle, All Game Guide

Package Contents: 36-page Instruction Manual

Controls: Joystick/Gamepad

An in-game tutorial would have been helpful, but the instruction manual adequately covers the controls and explains the different modes of play. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

The graphics aren't in high resolution, so the visuals have a somewhat grainy quality to them, but the real-time damage modeling is excellent as well as the physics associated with smashing into things. Each locale has pedestrians who will run out of the way and moving vehicles. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Reflections, the U.K. developer behind the successful Driver and Destruction Derby on the PlayStation, makes its PlayStation 2 debut with a game combining elements from both titles. The mission-style driving of the former and the smash-up nature of the latter are the crux of Stuntman's gameplay, which involves racing through six differently themed movie sets in order to pull off a series of scripted stunts within a time limit. What begins as an interesting premise quickly deteriorates into a largely annoying trip due to restrictions placed on a player's freedom and the developers artificially ramping up the difficulty by refusing to let players know what they are supposed to be doing before the film starts rolling. It doesn't take an industry insider to tell you it's wrong to suddenly perform tasks on the whim of a director, but that's exactly the concept behind Stuntman. After a brief CGI cut-scene of your character tiredly explaining to a reporter one of the stunts featured in the movie (his enthusiasm makes Keanu Reeves seem like Richard Simmons after six cups of coffee), players have to wait a good 30 seconds as the game loads yet another snippet of a cut-scene showing the film's locale. Then it's on location with a perspective just behind the pre-selected vehicle for the action sequence. The director will yell "action," and players must start driving down an unfamiliar street, unsure of what to do until the director screams out the next stunt (usually at the last second), such as smashing through a series of boxes on the left, doing a 180-degree spin in front of a van, or weaving past a moving vehicle. Green arrows help define the courses to some extent, but there are times when you'll be confused as to where the route is supposed to continue. The game takes place in what appears to be a large 3D environment, with alleys, roads, tunnels, and more that <I>could</I> be viable paths if you weren't stuck performing tasks only the director knows about moments before they are about to happen. Despite the ridiculous trial-and-error format, the game could have been entertaining if it weren't so frustratingly difficult. As soon as the film starts rolling, you have to press hard on the gas button if you hope to complete the stage. Filming is of course costly, but when you don't know where you are going or what you are supposed to be doing in advance, forcing you to do things <I>fast</I> is almost inhuman. A series of timed checkpoints must be crossed or the director will yell cut -- no matter how many segments you've already completed. Each scene is broken down into approximately five to 15 individual stunts (essentially divided into smashing, chasing, jumping, and swerving) along a predetermined route, and the goal is to get a 100 percent rating while minimizing the damage received. The stunts themselves aren't complicated in and of themselves, but an extremely short time limit combined with moving obstacles means players have almost no room for error. One slight bump against a guardrail or a collision with a man riding a forklift will essentially end the route as the time it takes to recover is simply too long. While having moving cars, helicopters, trains, pedestrians, and realistic outdoor scenery certainly offers some excitement, be prepared to visit the "Restart Stunt" option from the pause menu more than you'd like. It's not uncommon to race through a sequence ten to 30 times before completing it, just because one slight mishap ruins the take. The one bright spot Stuntman has going for it is in the diversity of environments or films, and the developers created very realistic settings based on James Bond, Indiana Jones, Hooper, and more. Players will also drive a variety of vehicles, from a tank to a snowmobile, so there is some incentive to keep going if only to see the next locale. If you can think of a memorable stunt in a film, chances are it's in here in some form or another, along with several other high-profile stunts. Once you finish a film, which spans three to five levels in length, you'll be able to complete a single stunt in a stadium environment, such as flying through burning hoops, jumping off large ramps, or smashing into stacked cars. Completing each level in a movie also allows players to earn extra vehicles (like a police car or monster truck) and "toys" (ramps, barrels, and various other items) for use in the Stunt Constructor mode, another intriguing concept that's better on paper once you realize it's little more than playing Hot Wheels in a virtual stadium. You are free to position various ramps, smashable objects, and bonus items anywhere you like and then test them out with a choice of vehicles, but without a scoring system or some other incentive to keep you occupied, most will use this mode once or twice and then call it a day. In the end, the biggest issue with Stuntman is its design. Players should have been given the freedom to drive wherever they wanted while creating their own stunts for the movie. A simple checklist of things players should attempt to accomplish during their run (drive underneath six ladders, smash four objects, drive in the air for x amount of seconds, etc.) would have been great, with bonus points earned for crazier elements like flips, smashing into certain cars, or making wild jumps. Players would then be more likely to watch replays of their vehicular antics, since the action is a more personal experience than watching replays of a scripted event. Unfortunately, Stuntman's cinematic replays aren't particularly interesting when you know everyone has to follow the exact same path to complete the sequence. Instead of a free-roaming title where players are allowed to make decisions on what to do next, we have a rigidly linear game with a backseat driver yelling in your ear every three seconds. "Chase the van!" "Keep up with the van!" "Jump through the boxes!" "Get close to the truck!" Everything short of "Over the river! And through the woods!" Those who enjoy games like Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions may find this style of play entertaining, but unless repeating the same two-minute scene ad nauseam sounds fun, with the reward being to advance to a longer, more complicated scene with even less time to react, players should steer clear of Stuntman, a game whose challenge clearly puts the "devil" in daredevil. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Despite a Stunt Constructor mode, an option to race through the locales in a time attack format, and a series of driving challenges, Stuntman doesn't draw you back as it should. The main game is simply too frustrating and the extras don't offer much of an incentive to play through them. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Only one song plays throughout each film sequence, and due to the repetitive nature of the trial-and-error gameplay, you'll be sick of it much sooner than later. The director is frequently late on calling the stunts and speaks with the same inflection -- no words of encouragement, just shouts of what to do. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

The developers have made the game difficult by including an almost ridiculous time limit -- forget about deviating from the linear path or you'll never complete the route. It takes a couple of attempts just to figure out what to do, then many more to finish the sequence in time. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

the game requires Joystick/Gamepad.