Stuntman is a great game... if you have the patience.
Stuntman's premise is simple: you're a professional stuntman. You live a life of big jumps, spectacular explosions and the occasional movie contract. The career mode takes you through your stuntman's daily ritual of crashing, from the big screen to monster truck derbies.
The gameplay is simple, yet fun and immersive. You simply do what the director or announcer says to do. The game uses a series of icons placed near objects you need to interact with to complete the stunt. For example, if you see the 'scrape' icon next to a moving bus, you'll know that you have to rub against the bus with your car in order to continue. Miss too many icons, and you'll fail.
The big thing about Stuntman's career mode is the difficulty. Each stunt/scene you pull off has to be near-perfect. Expect many missed jumps, head-on collisions, busted axles, train crashes, snowmobile wipeouts, broken windows..... After running 15 takes on a single scene, with no remote chances of a passing grade, you're going to get a bit frustrated. But the feeling of seeing your successful stunt in the movie trailer (that's right, you actually see some of the movies you work on) is awesome.
Besides the career mode, the game offers a stunt constructor and stunt tests. The stunt constructor is probably the most fun part of the game, since you can pretty much make whatever you want. You can use any vehicle you've unlocked in the career mode, send it off a corkscrew ramp, though a flaming hoop and into a school bus at any given moment. You could spend hours of never-ending fun here, and never get bored. Stunt tests are exactly what they sound like, you just drive around and smash things in time.
Technically, the game is impressive. The sound and look of crunching metal is amazing. All the vehicles behave as they should, on and off the ground, so a monster truck can't take a hairpin nearly as well as a muscle car. Damage modeling is accurate to each shard of paint that flies off your car. Slamming into a wall at 110 mph will probably dislodge your front tires, blow off your front end and doors, crack the windshield, and warp the steering: all at the same time. Frame rates never slow down even during the most intense blasts. The game's Driver 2-esque camera offers a chase cam, an in-car view and a mounted camera to show all the mayhem you cause in the game.
Stuntman is a game for those with the time and patience to handle the game's demanding difficulty. If you do, you'll be treated to an incredibly fun and immersive experience. If you don't, you'll be treated to bouts of freaking out, tossing controllers and tearing wallpaper. Then you'll have a fun, immersive experience when you finally pass.