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I had heard that designer David Jaffe wanted to stick to more casual type games, and after going through the ringer for games like God of War and Twisted Metal: Black it's understandable. But if a casual game is what he was after, then he did not succeed. The game is far to repetitive and beyond that far too frustrating to ever be a "pick up and play" title. After about 10 minutes I found myself getting fed up with the game.
Premise works like this, 4 cars race around a cityscape looking for escaped criminals. When you find one, ram into him and he'll fall into your car... then speed over to the jail and earn some points. Other cars can steal the criminal by ramming into you, and you can do the same to them. It's really just tag, with the criminals signifying who's it and the jail is home base.
First the good. The game is much better multiplayer with other humans than against the computer controlled cars. I'm not sure what it is, I think it's the fact the computer always seems to know the best course to take in any situation and with human opponents they're just as confused as you are. It looks great on my 1080p set, though it's all cartoony and cel shaded so I wouldn't say it's really pushing the limits anywhere. The different levels were very different from each other, and each one was fun (though I suspect they might get old after a while of playing). The pick-up weapons add a small Mario Kart element to everything, but there's only 3 weapons so it's not so many as to get confusing.
Single player is where it gets frustrating. Take this for example: You snag a criminal and race back towards the jail, opponents fast behind. You hit the ramp to drop the guy off at the jail, and the computer car behind you rams into you, stealing the criminal and landing safely inside the jail... earning itself 2 points. The first time this happened to me I thought, "Hmm, that's seems unfair." I lost a tiny amount of speed on the ramp and the computer caught up. After about the 10th time I was ready to turn my PS3 off again and let it collect dust again like it has since I bought it. Maybe it's like that for a reason, but it damn annoying.
Playing in the tournament (which is strange since there's no points at the end of a level, you have to win to move on) I progressed to the final level. At this point, it's almost impossible to tell which car has the criminal in it. All the cars are pretty much stuck together in a big mess most of the time and the car that escapes with the convict in tow does so out of luck, not skill. The criminal is only in any one car a few seconds at a time, and dropping him off in the paddy wagon as it speeds by is, once again, a total matter of luck. And 99% of the times, the luck don't go your way. The game got frustrating enough that I quit the tournament and went back to multiplayer. I doubt I'll play the single player much after that nonsense.
Is it worth the $9.99? It's a toss-up. If you're like me and you've been trying like hell to justify buying the PS3 so many months ago, then yea it's probably worth it. Just don't expect it to entertain you for too long. I'm a big fan of Jaffe's and I really really wanted to love this game (if for no other reason that to actually play the PS3), but I just can't endorse it full-force. Maybe it's a case of high expectations, and someone who wasn't so amped on the game might leave with a better experience. 6/10, but higher if you stick to just multiplayer. But factor in the single player mode and the score drops.
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