Wheelman has some interesting concepts but most of them are smothered with unimpressive and/or frustrating gameplay.
The game takes place in Barcelona, Spain. Milo is a highly skilled driver that has come to Barcelona for reasons that are never told. The opening cutscene has Milo picking up a woman who vaguely implies that she's some kind of gangster who needs your help. There are three main gangs in Barcelona and so it's Milo's job to be sort of a "go-to" guy for whatever gang is in need of his driving skills.
To put it bluntly, the story in Wheelman is horrific and it has more holes than a hundred pounds' worth of Swiss cheese. The game never tells you why Milo has come to Barcelona, who he works for, how he knows the woman [in the first cutscene], or why she needed to be picked up. It doesn't make sense that Milo does jobs for every gang because if any of the gangs had so much as half a brain they would kill Milo for being a traitor. If you knew that your right hand man was sleeping with the enemy, would you keep giving him work when you already know that he is a traitor? It also doesn't make sense that Milo never receives anything in return for being an errand boy to the three gangs. Nobody pays him even a single Euro.
The vehicular combat is clearly where most of the developers' effort was put into. You can do these little swipes with your car either to one of two sides or in front of you. These are known as vehicle melee attacks. Using the vehicle melee attacks successfully can send other cars crashing into a wall or cause them to wear down (they'll eventually explode if you damage them enough). Another thing at your disposal is shooting while driving but it's handled very poorly. You have no control over where you want Milo to shoot when you are driving normally; more often then not, he'll be shooting at a car's tires when you really want him to take out another driver. All you can do is hold down the Left Bumper on the Xbox 360 controller and hope for the best.
While in a car you are encouraged to drift, slam into other cars with the melee attack, drive at a high speed, and destroy pieces of the environment (street lamps, benches and phone booths). Performing any of these stunts will earn you what I like to call 'special juice'. Once you gain a lot of special juice you will get the ability to give your car a temporary speed boost or to use one of Milo's special abilities. You can use the 'aimed shot' by pressing up on the D pad and this will slow the action down to something that resembles a James Bond or Matrix film. A reticle will appear on screen and it's your job to align it with a circle that appears on an enemy's car that is in front of you. Several successful hits will make your enemy's car explode, and it's easier to make them explode using this method rather than manually smashing into them until they explode.
The other special ability is called 'cyclone'. It's basically the same as aimed shot but in reverse. When you have a lot of special juice, simply press down on the D pad to perform it. Your car will spin 180 degrees and the same looking reticle will appear on screen. Align your reticle with a circle that appears on an enemy's car and keep shooting them. Repeat this process to relieve them of their lives. Basically, cyclone is good for taking out enemy cars behind you, while aimed shot is good for taking out enemy cars in front of you.
There's also a move called the air jack; an action that sounds much dirtier than it actually is. When you are driving behind the car that you want to steal, you hold the 'B' button until a green arrow appears. Once you see the green arrow, let go of the 'B' button for the awesomeness to ensue. Milo will climb onto his car's roof, leap onto the car in front of him, kick the driver out of the window and then take control of the vehicle. All of that happens while both cars are in motion.
The on-foot shooting seems like it was an after-thought for the developers. The enemy AI is terrible; they almost never stay behind cover-- they prefer to stand out in the open or to hang out near explosive barrels. They never show aggressive behavior in the fire fights and most of them wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a mosque. None of the places you'll be fighting in are memorable-- they're just generic looking train stations and churches. Even if the problems were to be fixed it wouldn't solve how bland the shooting gameplay is. With a cover system and some special abilities it could've been OK, but as it is, you'll dread the shooting portions of Wheelman.
The story missions wear out their welcome before the game ends-- that's a sign that Wheelman is a one-trick pony. When you're finished with the story you can dive into over 80 side missions. There's a good variety to what they have you do; you'll be hijacking specific cars and bringing them back to a base, destroying as much of the environment as possible in a given time limit, doing street races, escaping from a mob of enemies that are all out to kill you, and more. I had more fun with the side missions than with the story missions.
Some of the story missions suffer from poor design. Most of the missions that are frustrating involve shooting from your car. That's not a coincidence. The mission that has you chasing after a train on a motorcycle will try your patience as you battle the game's flaws. I mentioned earlier that shooting from your car is a chore, but it's even more of a chore when the game throws an unfair amount of enemies at you. Enemy cars will literally pop out of thin air. If you were capable of shooting directly at an enemy driver it wouldn't be much of a problem, but because of the fact that Milo almost always aims at their tires [regardless of the situation] it's rather annoying.
Wheelman's graphics are unimpressive across the board. The car models are ok looking; they have some nice looking reflections but the vehicle damage looks totally weak, and the vehicle explosions are laughably bad by today's standards. An ugly, pixilated flame engulfs the car; then the car turns black while the car parts fall off in an unconvincing manner. The explosions make the vehicle combat significantly less satisfying than it ought to be. Milo Burik's character model is decent looking, with the exception of his eyes. In the cutscenes his eyes look very bright and shiny which makes it seem as though he's just seen the Holy Spirit.
The developers of Wheelman have somehow managed to make the city of Barcelona look boring. Most of the streets look the same, and it's no fun to explore the city. In the game-world you'll come across Arc de triomf and Port Vell which is pretty neat (they are real places in the real Barcelona).
There isn't much to rave about when it comes to the sound of Wheelman. The guns sound like cap guns and the music fits with the setting but it isn't memorable or recognizable. Vin Diesel generally sounds good delivering Milo's lines; he's got a deep and seductive voice that works well with Milo's character. Most of the other characters have stereotypical voices that don't add anything to the game. There are also some inconsistencies with the subtitles during cutscenes. Characters will occasionally speak in Spanish but the subtitles don't always match the language. In some Spanish-speaking cutscenes there will translations of what they said but other times the words will be in Spanish. Eso está loco!
There are no multiplayer, co-op or leaderboard functionalities of any kind in Wheelman, so most of the stuff to sink your teeth into is the side-missions. Wheelman is an unimpressive and sometimes frustrating game that is certainly not worth paying $60 for. Maybe in a few years it'll be worth a look when the price has gone down, but until then you already have some better options to get your open world action game fix from. Thanks for reading.