Developer Bigbig Studios takes racing excitement over the top and into your opponents' vehicles.
The frame rate keeps up with the fast pace thanks to a modest number of objects on the screen and an excellent use of the available processing power of the PSP. When you careen through the air the speed slows down to almost a bullet-time crawl. This is not a drop in the frame-rate but a very stylistic showcase of your prowess. The bullet-time effect only occurs when your Justice meter is full.
You can accumulate justice by eliminating opponents, smashing your vehicle into theirs, and taking control of an enemy vehicle. You can lose Justice by crashing into or harming unassuming citizens. Because the courses you follow are not just used by you and your opponents, some turns must be negotiated with a little more care than you would otherwise allow.
If you take too many hits, Justice may also be siphoned out of your gauge to replenish health. This is a great touch, but is not really necessary. Keeping your justice gauge full causes it to pulse with red, white and blue scintillating streams of color. Your attacks are more powerful and your health regenerates at a constant rate while playing with full justice.
The missions not only take place in diverse locales, but also use different conveyances. From snow-covered landscapes to beach-front highways the action never stops to showcase just how impressive the scenery is. The amount of detail in the boats, cars, mountains, and palm trees really is impressive when you pause the game to soak it in. The little touches of the animated opponents turning, standing, or shooting at you from within the moving vehicles makes the experience more believable.
While the topography of the levels is varied the mission assignments really aren’t too different. You are placed on a linear (but still very winding) course. Before your opponents reach the end of that course you need to remove them from their vehicles by any means necessary. You can shoot them, crash into their vehicles, or leap onto the vehicle, shoot them out and then take your new ride on to confront the next opponent. For the most part each level has one form of piloting and leaping, whether they are boats automobiles, or simply riding in a helicopter. Some exceptions apply.
A prime example of the combined gameplay levels is the Wilde’s Boys level. After dropping Billy Wilde’s goons on the road you jump in a helicopter with another Pursuit Force officer and chase Wilde as he jumps from car to car, shooting at him with a mini gun. While the blurring effect that occurs when the mini gun heats up is an impressive and realistic effect. The concentration and squinting required to hit Wilde is frustrating. Too frequently the helicopter pans away from whatever automobile he is on or in. targeting him would be a lot easier if some zoom option were to be mapped to a button (perhaps the left shoulder button). Since the mini gun does not start and stop firing instantaneously part of the excitement comes from determining just when to start and stop the barrel rolling.
The music is composed of a collection of dynamic, adventurous tunes to keep the excitement needle buried in this high-action experience. The voice acting, while abundant, has both strengths and weaknesses. The script is delivered by a capable cast, but sometimes comes off as a little too forced. Your superior officer is a tough-as-nails boss. He not only gives you a final score at the end of each case, but also tactlessly informs you when you are either doing something wrong or coming dangerously close to the end of the level. Regardless of whether or not you like the J. Jonah Jamison knock-off, it is more immersive than a running timer at the top of the screen.
The display makes excellent use of the PSP's screen space. Your justice meter is at the bottom. Dialogue pops up at the top (including pictures of the characters or enemies communicating with you). The weapon equipped is shown at the right. A mini-map graces the upper-left corner.
Your vehicle is represented as the badge in the middle of the mini-map. Opponents are the red dots on various portions of the linear display. To ensure you don’t miss any of the action, the map is semi-transparent. This is a great way to follow opponents or scenery with your peripheral vision, but not lose sight of your ultimate goal: dispensing indiscriminate justice. Each enemy on the map has a diminishing measurement above their icon. This number represents the distance the target is from the end of the level and their eventual freedom.
In case you don’t know how many zany ne’er-do-wells you have intercepted, a running counter is displayed. The number of defeated opponents is the first number, juxtaposed with the total number of enemies for the course. This count allows you to assess how many opponents you have left while providing a fair indicator for just how long the level will be. The greater the number of opponents, the longer the level is.
Thankfully the game never puts you in overly punishing situations. The encounters may be challenging, but at least you know victory is achievable with additional practice. If you don’t manage to close a case you are immediately offered a chance to Try Again. If the level was kind enough to have a checkpoint, you may select to restart from either the beginning, or the checkpoint.
Normally I don’t like being yelled at by friend and foe while I drive at perilous speeds, but Pursuit Force makes for a fun, frenetic experience for the PSP that is worth checking out.