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Dom Robinson reviews
Sony 
- Price: £34.99
- Players: 1
- Widescreen: Yes
- Online: No
- Multiplayer between PSPs: No
Pursuit Forceis a relentless and brilliantly realised driving/shooting game for the Sony PSP that gets aboutas close to a handheld console version ofBurnoutas you can.
You’re a cop with no name who has to chase after and arrest (ie. gun down and turf them out of their cars)one car full of bad guys after another with a signature move that will be come apparent shortly.
The first level lets you meet the Capelli family, a bunch of mobsters who are after you since Leone,one of their own, has ratted on them and you need to get them to the airport as fast as possiblewithout being intercepted. Halfway there and a 2-minute clock appears so the pressure is on to helphim make that plane. Hang on… 2 minutes? Doesn’t he need to be there two hours before check-in likeevery other airport? 😉
With a police chase in cars, speedboats and helicopters, it’s like a combination of the oldChase HQ andSpy Hunter, but a lot better.And you’ll find out why in the speedboat level which is the first chance you’ll get at being able toleap from one vehcile to another. Basically, drive up close to a baddie speedboat, press jump andit’ll automatically (and in a quite cool fashion) make you up leap in the air onto their boat. Kill thepassenger shooting at you, then the driver and take over the boat.
Keep doing this as you approach your destination and until you wipeout all the enemy boats. It sounds difficult before you try it, but it comes across as quite naturaland very effective once you get used to it. Of course, you can just shoot from your boat at theirs,like you did in the first level with a car, but it’s more fun to jump about sometimes. What is a little bithard to get the hang of is when you’re almost falling off a car and learning how to climb back onto it.It *is* possible, just not particularly intuitive.
Then, near the start, there’s also the Warlords set of levels which begins with a bunch of derangedarmy types who’ve stolen a load of nerve gas and you have to retrieve the barrels by leaping from carto car, overpowering the drivers and their trigger-happy passengers, to stop them before they cantake the chemical weapons outside of the city limits. Come to think of it, perhaps this is actuallyhow the driving levels in24: The Gameshould’ve taken place?
Drive well without hitting normal cars and buses and your ‘boost’ bar, for want of a better term butyou’ll know what I mean, will increase. When it’s full, pressing ‘triangle’ will replenish yours andyour car’s “health” so you’ll actually have a chance to complete the level. If you do hit normalvehicles then the bar will decrease so it’s in your best interests to drive fast AND careful…if that’s possible.
Completing missions means unlocking bonus routes and vehicles for the time trial level, as well as beingpromoted up the police ranks so you can embark upon further missions that require such status. There’salso additional fun to be unlocked with behind-the-scenes development stills and movies.
Pursuit Force has very fast and fluid movement of graphics with great atmospheric action musicas you race along. However, despite this being exceptional adrenaline-pumping entertainment, one thingthat is bloody annoying is the lack of ‘checkpoints’ within a level. After the first few levels, theyhave more than one set of goals to achieve and if you get killed at any point during these then youhave to redo the whole level. They really should’ve allowed us to just get back to the start of thatsegment. This can be very offputting, especially when you get capped by an end-of-level baddie whodisregards the fact that you have some health left and just offs you with a single shot, exclaiming,“You’ll die when I say!” Grrrrrrr!
Also, turning almost-90o corners isn’t easy at breakneck speed as the cars don’t feel like they’lltake it and if you hit it with anything less than an intention to turn the right way then you end upfacing the wrong way, as it tells you, and you may as well start the level again given the time you’lllose attempting a three-point turn to get right again.
But does all this make me want to give up and throw my PSP across the room? Does it hell, it makes me wantto select ‘Try Again’ and get my heart racing once again. Dammit, this is one of the most addictive games ofthe year so far!
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.