Wheelman Hands-On

Take the car-crashing chaos of Burnout, a little bit of Grand Theft Auto's gun-blasting and carjacking, add in Vin Diesel, and place it all in a fictionalized version of Barcelona, Spain, and what do you have? The next action game from Midway, Wheelman. Announced yesterday during Midway's spring press event in Las Vegas, Wheelman looks like it's shaping up to be the video game equivalent of the kind of dumb action movies that pack the theaters in the summertime, full of bang-bang action, incredible car chases, and, well, more action.

While the game will have elements of open-world exploration to it, you can expect a tight storyline to keep the action moving forward. The storyline will play out in cutscenes and missions (25 in all) that tell the tale of Vin Diesel's character, Milo Burik, an undercover agent who travels to Barcelona under the guise of being a first-rate wheelman. There will also be 80 side missions in the game, events that aren't tied to the game's story but will keep you busy and help you learn your way around the huge city of Barcelona. As the game opens up, you're tasked with getting a female bank robber to safety after her heist goes sideways.

As you speed off from the bank with your client in the back seat shouting orders, you're introduced to the basic driving concepts. There are simple things like pressing the X button to engage the hand brake for sharp turns, or pushing down on the right stick to look behind you. And then, because car collisions are, at worst, just minor impediments in this mission, you'll learn about a car melee. By flicking the right stick left or right, you can put a serious hurt on any car near you; your car will move violently left and right and give your opponent a crunch in the process. Interestingly, you can also use this technique to quickly strafe left and right on the road.

The cars in Wheelman will all have their own characteristics; one that will be particularly important for car melee will be its weight. A big, heavy truck will be able to dish out more punishment, and take more damage, than a smaller car, for example. On the other hand, as you might expect, the bigger cars won't be as agile on the road. The developers at Midway Newcastle are still working to balance how many melee strikes it will take to finish off an opponent car, and we expect that some opponent cars (such as cops) will be tougher to take out than others. Nonetheless, any time a car is taken out, you can expect a flaming, flipping, and dramatic end, suitable for any summer movie.

While a car seems to be one of the Wheelman's most potent weapons, you'll still be able to shoot it out with guns, both in and out of the car. During one mission on hand at the event, a creepy-looking Romanian enlists Milo's services to hunt down a guy named Benito. After picking up some guns and ammo, you head across town to track him down, but you'll first have to gun through a few nameless bad guys to get to him. The controls are straightforward: left trigger to aim, right trigger to shoot, and B to crouch behind cover.

While the on-foot missions look to give the game some variety in mission types, we found the driving more compelling. Beyond the idea of simply getting in the car and bashing your way around Barcelona, we also liked some of the special moves that will be part of the game, such as the cyclone, which will allow you to spin your car 180 degrees at full speed in slow motion, shoot out the tires of your oncoming enemies, and then spin back around without missing a beat. You earn these special moves as you go and will need to spend "focus" to perform them; you gain focus by performing daring stunts with your car--everything from driving quickly to avoiding collisions and using melee moves on enemy cars. As producers told us, you earn focus quickly, so once you've learned a super move, you'll have it available to you practically whenever you need it.

This early build of the game experienced lots of frame rate problems, but developers told us they're aiming for a solid 30 frames per second--an ambitious target, considering the level of detail in the environments, not to mention the amount of traffic on the road and pedestrians on the sidewalks. Then there's the city itself, a beautiful re-creation of the coastal Spanish city of Barcelona. As producers put it, this isn't a street-by-street reproduction of the city, but all of the famous landmarks (such as the famous La Sagrada Familia church) will be in the game. During our time with the game, we saw huge, open areas such as the Gran Via de les Cortes Catalanes, and narrow alleys reminiscent of the city's Barri Gotic district.

With over-the-top stunts and a cosmopolitan setting, Wheelman looks to bring some new flair to the action adventure driving genre. We're hoping the game's graphical flash is backed up with some serious substance in the game mechanics and storyline and, with months to go before its fall release, we'll be keeping track of Wheelman's progress.