Reviews// Wheelman

Thrown in for good measure are vehicle melee attacks. A nudge to your right analogue stick will send whatever you're driving swinging left or right, hopefully slamming whatever's next to you into a wall.

The good news is that these are fun additions to a formula. Watching a police car slam into a wall after blowing up because you just shot it to high heaven is more satisfying than it ought to be!

(This seems like a good point to mention the fact that for a dude who's secretly working for the good guys, Vin seems far from averse to blowing up cops and mowing down civilians. You might argue that it was I who, in fact, chose to do these things. I would say back that I almost certainly wouldn't have progressed without maiming a few policemen.)

Another feature that sets Wheelman aside from GTA IV is that you're in Barcelona, not Liberty City. Wheelman definitely falls down on this point. Firstly, I'm no cartographer, but I can safely say that the map is smaller than Liberty City. Secondly, while it does a good job of recreating the landmarks of Barcelona, the map offers less variety than Liberty City.

Beyond that, it just has less life. You can't really access the innards of buildings unless you've got a mission that takes you indoors, and the pedestrians wandering around just don't have any personality. Where Liberty City has character crawling out of its mucky cavities, Wheelman's Barcelona is just a little bland.

While we're on gripes - the car jacking (which, I should say, is insanely like GTA, even in a game as derivative as this) seems a bit easy. I wouldn't expect to do much more than press a button to nick an unsuspecting driver's vehicle, but when they'll actually stop for you just because you hit 'Triangle' as they drove past... well, it takes the piss a bit. The air-jacking feature that enables you to jump out of whatever you're driving at high speed so you can nab another ride is great, implausible fun, however.

Graphically, Wheelman won't be winning any BAFTAs. The colour palette's lacking and Vin looks like he's been hit in the teeth with a concrete bollard. The graphics aren't appalling either, however. They are, like much of Wheelman, competent.

Anyway, I'm done griping now. When all is said and done, Wheelman is good, mindless, easy-to-get-into fun. The missions and races are well set up, with enough variation to stop you falling off your chair with boredom, and the vehicle combat makes for a rollicking good time.


SPOnG Score: 78%
Conclusion
I'd love to sit here and be a clever shit, pointing out the endless ways in which Wheelman apes other driving games, but what's the point? There are loads of unoriginal games out there, it doesn't make them any less fun. I would certainly say that if you've got any of GTA IV left to play, DLC or otherwise, leave Wheelman alone for now. If you didn't play GTA IV then you're not interested in the genre and... well, why the hell have you read this far? (You love Vin Diesel so much it hurts, don't you?) If you're all done with GTA and don't have a DS for Chinatown Wars, however, this will fill the void in your life with reasonable snugness for a while. It's not as good, but... what would you expect, really?