Pursuit Force Is One Of The Better Action Games On The PSP If You Can Look Past Some Of The Bugs.
Pursuit Force is an ambitious title from first-time developer BigBig Studios (formed by ex-Codemasters members) that attempts to take a Hollywood action film, turn it into a video game, and put it in the palm of your hands. In Pursuit Force, you play as a hotshot cop assigned to a newly formed unit called... you guessed it, "Pursuit Force." This new unit is given the task of ridding the city of 5 notorious gangs which have been wreaking havoc on the city as of late. This simple premise sets up the balls-to-the-wall action that ensues.
Pursuit Force is a blend of racing, shooting, and on-foot action. The main hook is that Pursuit Force offers the unique ability to jump from car to car as you're speeding down the street at ridiculous speeds. There's just something very satisfying about jumping from your car that's about to explode, landing on a bad guy's car, shooting the hell out of everyone inside, and then climbing in and kicking out the driver's dead body all while flying down the highway at 100 MPH.
Sounds fun, right? Well read on as I breakdown the game into the categories below:
Presentation : The presentation of Pursuit Force is very slick. The menu system is very clean and easy to navigate. The load times are acceptable and kept to a minimum. There are a few well-done CG cutscenes interspersed throughout the game which attempt to keep the "story" (if you can call it that) somewhat cohesive. The overall feel of the game is very polished and I haven't experienced any glitches or bugs in the 8+ hours I spent playing the game.
Graphics : This is one of the best looking games released so far on the PSP. All of the characters, cars, and environments have a surprising amount of detail for a portable game. The animation is smooth and the transitions between each one are generally hiccup free. The only thing that keeps the graphics from reaching a perfect 10 is an inconsistent frame rate. It drops when there's a lot of activity going on, such as too many cars on-screen or smoke and fire effects.
Sound : BigBig Studios really outdid themselves with the musical score. It really does sound like something out of a summer blockbuster film. The sound effects are generally very good. Each of the different guns have a distinct sound to them, and the different engine sounds for cars, motorcycles, and boats are easily distinguishable. The weakest area is the voice acting. All of the voice-overs have that bad anime dubbed sound to it.
Gameplay : The obvious draw to the game, as I mentioned before, is the ability to jump between moving cars. In order to jump onto another car, you have to pull up close to the car and somewhat match speeds with it. At that point, a "JUMP" icon will appear in the middle of the screen to notify you that you can jump between cars. After doing so, you'll have to kill all the passengers inside the car (unless it's a civilian car) in order to take over as the driver.
Gunplay is fairly easy as the game uses auto-lock on your targets. You can avoid enemy fire by ducking behind the car and using it as cover. With each kill and each successful car capture, you fill up your "Justice meter" which is used for various things. You can opt to use your justice meter to replenish your health, you can use it for slo-mo jumps between cars which allows you to shoot all of the occupants before landing, or you can keep it full which causes your guns to inflict more damage than normal.
The general idea is executed well and it is indeed fun and unique, but it does start to lose its appeal after you've done it a few times. And since the game is essentially designed around that mechanic, the game does become pretty repetitive after the first few missions. BigBig Studios tries to mix it up every now and then by tossing in on-foot missions and allowing you to man a helicopter chaingun, but both feel like they were thrown in as afterthoughts. You can clearly tell that they spent the majority of their development time refining the driving and car jumping aspects of the game.
The cars handle with a very arcade style feel to them. You can powerslide around corners, slam into walls without losing much speed, and slice through traffic with ease. Motorcycles have an even nimbler feel to them, but they have the nasty habit of getting stuck against walls if you hit them. Boats have a somewhat sluggish feel to them and are the least fun to drive in my opinion.
The game has a decent amount of replayability. It's not an incredibly long game but any means, but there are a few different game modes (Career, Race, and Time Trial) and plenty of unlockables. The Career mode took me about 6 hours to complete, but my overall completion percentage is only 67% because I have not unlocked everything. Also, the difficulty of the game, which is not evident until about halfway through, does add to the longevity of the game, but it may also frustrate some casual players.
Pursuit Force is a very fun game that offers plenty of grade-A action. PSP owners who have been looking for a quality game to play should definitely give this game a try. While it could be considered a "one-trick pony", that one-trick is pretty damn cool.