It was only a matter of time before a video game and a movie went into congruent production. This is the case with Vin Diesel’s new IP, Wheelman, from his video game studio, Tigon Studios, Midway, and Ubisoft. The movie version of the game should be released sometime this year, a prequel to the game, but for now all we have is the game, which might be enough. Wheelman is plagued with everything that makes a cheesy action movie bad, and good. It delivers the high octane thrills that driving fans may be looking for, but it fails to offer anything else substantial. Wheelman follows the story of Milo Burik, played by Vin Diesel, as he moves around a digital Barcelona, Spain, working for the government.
The game consists of 31 story missions and 105 side missions that will have the player causing a plethora of destruction behind the wheel, and on foot. The side missions don’t offer anything to the story and merely let Milo power up his vehicle (speed, toughness, power) or offer garages for vehicles, weapon caches, or spray shops so you can lose the police. There are only a handful of different types of so that 105 transforms into about seven additional missions that get progressively harder. You don’t even need to do them to complete the story section of the game, I didn’t, but it makes it easier. However, the side missions merely delay the inevitable (the game is too short and there is NO multiplayer), because the plot, heavily riddled with clichés, is disappointing.
The 31 story missions take the player from cut-scene to cut-scene offering little explanation and forcing the player to continue doing missions for different gangs (that never figure out that Milo is working for all three until its too late) for an unclear goal. Everything seems to come together at the end, but the poor production value of the cut-scenes debilitates the player’s ability to develop any investment. To top this off, the pacing is terrible. I didn’t realize the climax of the game had occurred until I finished two more missions. The pacing and confusing story made the narrative feel like the cliff notes of the script, making it agonizing to press on any further. However, we don’t watch action movies for the story and the action portions of the game reflect that.
It’s obvious that Tigon Studios (and everyone else that worked on the game) spent most of their time building up the action. Controlling the cars is adaptable and dependable (crashing was mostly my fault) and dealing out damage with the new vehicle melee system was a blast. Instead of forcing the player to ram into cars himself they can flick the right joystick right, left, or up, and slam their car into their opponent. This system delivers some spectacular crashes as you maneuver through each mission. After speeding around and causing mayhem you can activate super moves through your focus meter. These special movies (aimed shot, cyclone, and boost) let Milo gain the edge on his adversaries. The aimed shot zooms into the driver seat and gives the gamer control of Milo’s pistol giving them a chance to blow up the fuel tanks of the rival vehicles. The cyclone does the same, except, Milo flips a 180 and shoots at the cars behind him. Trust me, it’s a guilty pleasure. The self-explanatory boost is available, but whenever I activated it, the other cars activated theirs at the same time. It was only useful avoiding the police (I guess they don’t have access to nitrous) and I reserved my focus meter for using the special abilities.
