'once again, be a stuntman'
 Developer: Paradigm
Publisher: THQ
Category: : Racing
Multiplayer: 1 - 8 Xbox Live
Official Site
Platform: X-Box 360
Might look like: /
Date posted: 21 March 2008 (Updated)
Written By: Ian
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Stunt-tastic?
The stuntman series has been absent from gaming consoles for a few years, but late last year, THQ and Paradigm reunited to create a sequel. After the recent news that this was to be the last Stuntman game as the series is being canned, we decided to review the game to see if THQ is making the right decision. Is the game, "Stuntman: Ignition" an underrated classic, or is it a bigger pile of junk than a smashed up stunt vehicle?
Same 'hard' gameplay
The gameplay in "Stuntman: Ignition" is pretty much exactly the same as in the first Stuntman.
It is extremely hard, and you must string together stunts in order to rack up a high score across several scenes in order to do all the driving stunts for various fake movies that rip-off famous action titles such as 'Bullit', 'Dante's Peak' and 'Die Another Day'.
Trouble is, the game is incredibly short. A high difficulty bar needn't mean a game can skimp on content, but that is the case here.
All the scenes, even with the repetition needed to complete them for the first time, can be done in three hours, and unless you love getting high scores, you may not want to revisit them.
  
There is also some DLC, but at 800 points for just 20 minutes of content, this is again overpriced.
Some of the scenes are also fairly random, and thanks to random bits of AI or the tiniest error, mean you will fail or miss out on 5 stars.
This means you can get frustrated pretty easily, and as you often feel as if it is the game's fault, rather than your own, this is definitely not a good thing.
Graphics and Sound
The graphics in Stuntman aren't horrific, but they aren't great. You can really tell that this was a PS2 game, upscaled, with a few higher-poly models and textures about. A real shame.
The explosions can be pretty good, and the game always runs at a silky 60 frames per second, but that shouldn't be hard considering the fairly rudimentary engine the game is running on.
The style of the game is better, successfully capturing the style of the films the game spoofs, so it's always clear what kind of film you're in.
Sound-wise, the game is again, merely adequate. The music is a generic remix of some of the films that are ripped off, so you get a bond-esque theme, an 80's actioner theme etc. However, none of it is special, and also the voiceovers get pretty tiresome. The directors are cheesy to the extreme, and their dialogue is pretty terrible.
Again, engine noises are fairly bland for a driving game, with some cars seeming to have an infinite selection of gears to churn through.
  
Multiplayer
'Multiplayer' in Stuntman is pretty horrific.
There are no split-screen options, and the Xbox Live feature, whilst up to 8 can play, is dead. Not only does no-one play anymore, but when you can find a game, it often lags, voice chat seems to work sporadically, and the whole option is pretty naff.
What is worth, is that for 400MS points you can buy more vehicles for multiplayer. Not only are they not worthwhile, but they actually feature on the disk, and you pay to unlock them. This is rubbish, and frankly, nearly tantamount to theft, especially as Microsoft promised this kind of thing would stop months ago.
Conclusion
The multiplayer options are rubbish, and no-one plays. The single player ranges from easy to improbable and getting five stars takes near impossible levels of patience.
To top it off, the game looks average at best; there are some pretty effects, but generally its all a bit sub-par. Extreme difficulty should also not be an excuse for a paltry amount of content.
The game is also criminally short, however you look at it, and the new content is horrendously overpriced considering it takes about 30 minutes to complete. Its clearly not just me that 'didn't get' Stuntman (the publisher and developer excuse).
With better graphics, audio and more content, this would have been a worthwhile game. As is, whilst not terrible, is very average.
-Ian
Ratings
Manual:
80 % |
Graphics:
71% |
Music & Sfx:
60% |
GamePlay:
63% |
|
This game scores
on our 5-point Rating System
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