A stuntman is the man in the shadows that will give a movie the exact amount of adrenaline it needs. If you can control a car at insane speeds and drive through a dangerous and intense action set, you'd better haste to Hollywood and become the Stuntman.
The first Stuntman was released on Playstation 2 in 2002 and it was a big success until a while ago, when THQ purchased the rights for a sequel. THQ said that Stuntman Ignition will be available on Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 2, Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii sometimes during this summer.
But let's talk about the game a little. It features 6 movies, five of them being:
- Aftershock (which is a mixture between Dante's Peek and Vulcano) with lava flowing on the streets and boulders crashing down from the sky.
- Overdrive (the action is set in the '70s and is a cop thriller) where a cop is turning a city upside down in his mission to bust a drug dealer named Varga.
- Strike Force Omega is set in the mountains of Kyrgystan where a special operation force has the mission to eliminate a mercenary group dealing advanced weaponry.
- Whoopin and a Hollerin' II (the sequel to the successful action-comedy movie) where a pair of brothers intend to save their family farm by any means necessary.
- Never kill me again (a James Bond style action movie) set up in the snowy Arctic mountains, tells the story of an agent that must infiltrate a secret Manchurian base.
Each movie is divided into six chapters where the player must complete the objectives set out by the director, objectives like passing near a speeding car or through flames, drifting around corners and avoid obstacles, destroying certain objects and more. All this happens under the director's eye and the scene rolls until you hear “cut”. Then you must start again and again and again until you get the scene right. You are allowed to make five mistakes and un-experienced players can go on easy-mode where eight mistakes can be made before a re-shot.
You can control up to 25 unique vehicles including exotic sport cars, motorcycles and hovercraft. Depending on the rating you get from each scene (you can get up to five stars) move movies and jobs become available so, pump up the action by improvising reckless maneuvers to unlock bigger budget movies and commercial jobs.
The multiplayer is quite fun. It's all about stealing stunts from the rival stuntmen as you battle on the film sets or devise your own stunt runs and challenge online players to beat you on your own game.
Coming to graphics, the game presents itself very well and considering the power of the next-gen console, it really captivates through the special effects like smoke, shadows, fire and light not to mention the environment. The music is action-packed changing from slow to a quick pace depending on the situation. The only thing that's really annoying is the sound “CUTTTTT” but, that's not a minus to the game, it's just my bad driving skills, hehe.
