Chaotic and simple fun - lacks variety, but doesn't require a whole lot to enjoy.
What is Calling All Cars (CaC)? Jaffe has taken the concepts of yesteryear and mish-mashed them into a bowl of delightful treats. As a renegade police officer you will take your hottest hot rod and hit the road in pursuit of criminals who are up to no good, or seem to be escaping prison more often than they should be. The game is totally devoid of a story aside from “Catch that Crook!” but in all honesty story’s vacancy can be forgiven. Pick a patrol car before hitting the beat in four very diverse environments and get to it! The object of the game is to race 2-3 more players (human or bot depending on your online gaming situation) to a criminal on a map. An indicator on the screen shows you where the hoodlum can be located, and a simple ramming of your car should knock him up in the air for a smooth steal. Once he lands in your car it’s off to the races, or the jail, rather, so you can score points. Points work in a varying manner of forms: The primary way to score is to return the convicts to the huge prison center at some point in the map, usually near the top of the map. The easiest entrance is a simple arch that the players can just drive through to score a single point. Next up is the two point mark, achievable by launching from a ramp to the second floor through a more difficult to reach door, and to score yourself a whoppin’ triple-pointer, you’ll need to access the hardest-to-reach door at the prison, be it up a winding ramp, launching off a hydraulic ramp or hoping to hop off a train at the right moment. Aside from these ‘basketball-esque’ methods of gaining points to win the timed match there are also two vehicles you can return the criminals to once you catch them: The chopper, which carries the crook from your car after a few seconds of cruising under it for a very decent four pointer, and the “Paddy Wagon” (Likely derived from the predominant Irishman theme of the game) which appears as a blue police van, three points, and the super-rare-red-paddy-wagon which will adorn the scorer with a stupendous FIVE points.
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Now, CaC sounds simple in its core gameplay, but whether you’re playing single player or multiplayer, you’ll find plenty of challenge and chaos to endure in Jaffe’s whimsical and vagarious world that is Calling All Cars. The first thing you will notice when you start up the downloadable title is the distinct art style. A classic cartoon style really gives the game its own distinct, fun flavor to relate to the varying amounts of ‘Hot Wheels’ wannabe-cars and charming characters. Both the unseen announcer and the various antagonists, the criminals have a really great set of fun personalities and remind me of old cartoons such as Popeye and Looney Toons. Once you get passed the visuals and learn how to play, it becomes more evidently
clear that this game is so much more than ‘Catch criminal, go to prison, get points’. Playing the (semi-lackluster) single player offers a small challenge and various difficulties, but the online multiplayer truly is where this game shines. Catching the crook when the “GO!” buzzer goes off becomes a difficult task in itself, and once he’s caught, chaos ensues. Pandemonium explodes as the players battle for the criminal, which is stolen by crashing in to your opponents, or using one of the few weapon-pick-ups as soon as he’s picked up, and you will find that the prominent amount of gameplay takes place around the primary jailbird drop off. You will find yourself having a ridiculous amount of fun as you duke it out online, or off, with 2 or 3 other players for the criminal all for the sake of a menial amount of points directly in front of the prison.
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Heartbreak ensues when you lose the criminal and see the “POINT SCORED!” icon blaze across your screen.
Four levels and over a dozen cars are available at your crime-crushin’ disposal, however, cars are plentiful but none are unique in physical attributes. The vehicles are clever and look like a lot of fun to drive around, but there is not one car that is better than another, but this provides for some really excellent balancing during matches. Regarding the four maps, while they’re all very different and all extremely fun, it just doesn’t feel like there’s enough of them. With that in mind, it doesn’t take away from your experience, but it would just be nice to have a couple more maps, at least. Each map requires you think of a unique strategy, which is really nice. Each one has different risks where you’re unsure if you should risk the two or three pointer, or just use the nitro and haul-ass to the chopper or paddy wagon! This becomes very fun online, as voice-chat is included, and it’s a humongous amount of fun to chat with someone about different strategies, as well as the amount of “Oh no!”s and “Oh! Gah! Ah?! Jeez!”s that come up provide tons of laughs. The only negative things that can really be said about this game’s online mode is that four people becomes almost too much, and too chaotic to have a great time. It’s still fun, but three people is premium and ideal for CaC online. It becomes insanely difficult to bring a criminal to a prison/jail point to the point it becomes frustrating if it goes on for a long while. Also, Peer-To-Peer online connections always leads to the odd laggy experience. A trio of weapons (missile, magnet, hammer) will aid you in your just cause as well. Why this title, a first party, Sony Santa Monica game, does NOT use dedicated servers, is simply mind boggling.
Calling All Cars is a very solid game with little flaws and incredible style. It’s the most beneficial game for you to purchase on the PSN yet, and the multiplayer is an astounding amount of fun. Just try to stick to the multiplayer (3 people is prime!) as the single player is kind of lackluster, and consists strictly of semi-fun, but satisfyingly difficult tournaments. At ten bucks, this game is a steal and reaches back to the good ol’ childhood memories of Cops’n'Robbers, and Saturday Morning Cartoons. It’s hectic and just outright fun, with slick controls, great menus and a great amount of cool looking vehicles, you can’t really go wrong with Jaffe’s long awaited title. Download NOW.