Wheelman (PS3) Review

Posted by Mark Salmela on 04.29.2009

This summer… In a world where Vin Diesel is still relevant…




Title: Wheelman
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Tigon
Genre: Action
Players: 1
Rated: T for Teen
Also available on: Xbox 360, PC


Wheelman was a game announced by Midway a couple of years ago, and Midway sank a lot of money into this bad boy. Some even cite this as one of the reason’s Midway is in financial trouble. But thankfully Ubisoft stepped up to the plate after Midway announced its financial troubles and agreed to publish Wheelman for Midway. Wheelman is an action game that relies heavily on its driving sections. Actually, it rests almost entirely on its driving. Because when you’re not driving, Wheelman is an exact rip-off of GTA, and not a very good one at that. But I’ll get more in-depth below.



Graphics


I swear I’ve seen a game that looks exactly like this before…


Just because you licensed the Unreal 3 engine doesn’t mean you know how to use it. On one hand Wheelman’s environment is actually colorful and vibrant; something that the Unreal 3 engine usually fails at miserably. But the character models on the other hand are not so pretty, especially when you’re not inside of a car. Vin Diesel… I’m sorry Milo looks like a mess, and the supporting cast looks worse. These character models are something that I would have expected 3 years ago when the Unreal 3 engine was first used and no one outside of Epic had a clue on how to use it properly. Everyone is muddy and looks terrible. I don’t want to spark any racist comments, but minorities in particular look the worst. They resemble nothing like real people at times.

With that said I’m surprised to see that the game holds up pretty well. In most open-world games there are problems with the framerate and screen-tearing. Fortunately Wheelman manages to hold up at almost every opportunity. The game does look pretty when you’re deep into a car chase, knocking over street signs and other random objects. It’s just unfortunate that once you look at the characters up-close that the Unreal 3 engine bears its problems.



Gameplay


No, you can’t actually surf while driving.


As I said Wheelman is an action game that can be broken down into two segments. There are behind the wheel sequences, and there are on-foot sequences. I shall break these down individually.

The primary focus of Wheelman is its driving sections. There are races, escorts, demolitions, out-running the cops, pretty much everything you can imagine. There is a story in Wheelman, but it’s not important at all. It’s your generic mafia storyline. Work your way into the families, earn their trust, and do missions for them. At no point did I actually care for Milo. Most of the missions will have you driving from point A to point B, with some sort of obstacle in your way whether it’s enemies or time. The enemies are very frustrating and can cause players to become infuriated with the game.

Your primary weapon is your car. Flicking a direction on the right analog stick causes your car to swerve to that direction, although pushing up makes it look like your car freaking jumps forward. Just doing this in Wheelman would have been fine, but of course they had to give you a gun. Your default pistol is unlimited, and you can pick up other weapons as you move along. But once you have these weapons, the enemy has these weapons, and their weapons are also unlimited. This means that you’re going to be bombarded with gunfire the entire time.

My biggest problem with the enemies are the fact that they have unlimited respawn. There’s basically no reason to kill them. As soon as you take out a car another one is immediately put in its place with full health. You can’t outrun them either. The AI rubber bands like there is no tomorrow. If you boost they boost shortly after. If you manage to outsmart them or do anything to actually lose them they magically boost at 200 MPH towards you until they catch up to you. It’s absolutely ridiculous that an armed van can cruise 200 MPH down an alley to catch up to me.

Even more frustrating than the enemies chasing you is when you have to chase the enemies. Once again they are always faster than you, and will take 90 degree corners like an absolute champ every single time. There’s no hint that they will do this either. And don’t think you’ll be able to whip a corner at a 90 degree angle going 85 MPH either. It’s incredibly frustrating when you actually catch up to a vehicle for it to just whip around an impossible corner forcing you to fall behind another 10 seconds. But it gets worse. Towards the end of the game the cars that you chase gain friends who’s one goal is to eliminate you. They’re not afraid to sacrifice themselves either. You’ll crossing intersections just to be magically t-boned by an AI who’s faster than you and nearly unavoidable. You’ll want to throw your controller in anger. There were several times where I quit because it just wasn’t fun anymore.

But enough about the negatives. When you’re just driving around doing escort missions or races, the game is actually fun. There is a great sense of speed, as I mentioned above the game looks pretty and the framerate holds up, and you generally enjoy yourself. It’s just too bad Wheelman’s AI is so punishing and frustrating. It would be a lot better if it didn’t have rubber band AI and the ability to turn at 90 degree angles while maintaining top speeds.

Finally, there are the on-foot missions. I can sum it up in two words. GTA clone. The shooting segments are taken right out of GTA. You kill tons of mafia members, occasionally hide behind cover, and the aiming is automatic. Just shoot everything that moves until it is dead. I don’t have any actual complaints about the on-foot sections. There’s just nothing original nor nothing that isn’t done better in other games such as GTA.



Sound


Eat your heart out Mirror’s Edge


By this point everyone has heard Vin Diesel’s voice. He does the same Italian accent in every movie/game. His dialogue is cheesy, but in a good way. The other characters on the other hand are not so good. Everyone is completely over the top and exaggerated. Everyone has a stereotypical accent, and no one character stands out as anything other than an extra in a Vin Diesel project. The sound effects are rather good. The cars sound the way they should, things get loud, ect. The only complaint I have with the sound effects are the tree noises. No matter what size tree you hit you hear the sound effect of a twig snapping. I’m pretty sure running over a tree and shattering it is going to make a way different sound than some kid in his back yard snapping little twigs. I only bring this up because trees are everywhere. The music itself is alright, although nothing stands out. In fact I don’t even remember what half of the music was, which doesn’t bode well for Wheelman.



Lasting Appeal

Wheelman’s main quest will take between 6 to 8 hours to complete. I didn’t time myself but I was right around 6 hours when I finished. There are a ton of side quests such as races and rampages, but after trying each one a couple of times you’re unlikely to go back and do any more of them. There’s just no reason to. You’re never compelled to go complete all of the races. There’s also no multiplayer or co-op of any sort, so don’t plan on playing this one with a friend. I would have enjoyed a longer storyline or some multiplayer options, but Wheelman doesn’t offer that. I’m sure there will be completionists who will get more out of this game than me, but I just don’t see any real reason to complete 15 or so races when they don’t really reward you with anything other than a couple of trophies.



Fun Factor


It’s a good thing Vin Diesel didn’t land the lead of Gran Torino.


As I stated above there are times when Wheelman can be fun. The first time you jump out of your vehicle and into another is actually pretty cool. Well, it’s cool because it’s so unrealistic and over the top. Vin Diesel literally jumps on top of his car while driving and leaps 40 feet forward in the air towards another car, kicks the driver out of the car, and continues driving no problem in the enemy’s car.

You have regenerating health, so don’t be afraid to take risks. Well, don’t be afraid to take risks on foot. Another big problem I have with Wheelman is that the game encourages you to get out of your car and into another when it becomes damaged *the car does not have regenerating health*. But unless you jump from one car to another you’re going to fail if you have to change cars in the middle of a race/chase. The enemy will ram you repeatedly and destroy your car, and if there’s no one around to jump to than too bad. You don’t have enough time to get to another car on foot and continue driving, especially if you have a passenger with you for an escort mission. The AI just isn’t smart enough to get back in the car in a timely manner.

One more cool point that I will mention before ending this review is the inclusion of bullet-time effects. You go into slow motion either driving forward or you can whip a 180 in slow motion and shoot behind you. Everything you shoot will basically explode and shots are usually one hit kills on everyone. It is a cool effect but the game doesn’t require you to do it very often outside of the tutorial.



The 411


Vin Diesel lives on the edge!


Wheelman could have been an awesome action game. But there are too many problems that hold it back. Making a game frustrating does not ever equal fun. Having AI that rubber bands like no tomorrow does not equal fun. Getting t-boned out of nowhere by cars that will always be faster than you does not equal fun. For every moment in Wheelman that I enjoyed there was another moment sometimes more that absolutely infuriated me. At no point should an armored van outrun a Lamborghini. With that said there are things to enjoy in Wheelman, such as driving around destroying everything the game will let you. Wheelman will probably be a decent rental, and maybe a solid pick-up during Best Buy’s awesome $10 clearance sales, but it’s not worth a full retail purchase. Back to obscurity with you Mr. Diesel.

Graphics	6.0	The environment looks great, and the framerate holds up. The character models look terrible on the other hand. Everyone is a muddy mess.
Gameplay	5.5	The rubber band AI is totally over the top. You will never get any sort of lead on them. The enemies also respawn instantly, eliminating any reason to kill them.
Sound	5.5	The dialogue is cheesy. In a good way for Vin Diesel, in a bad way for the supporting cast. The music is forgettable.
Lasting Appeal	6.0	There are a lot of extra missions, but there is little incentive to do them. After the main storyline which lasts around 6 hours, you will probably be done.
Fun Factor	6.0	There are times when the game is fun, but there are times when the game is frustrating.
Overall	6.0   [ Average ]

Screenshots
All 3 Wheelman Screenshots