So far it’s been quite a
year for the Xbox crowd who has been seeing great PS2 games being ported to
their consoles, but it comes as a bit of a surprise to find that this can also
work vice versa. The game in question is Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions, a
popular Xbox game that has you tearing through Hong Kong on a mission to stop
the Japanese mafia known as the Yakuza–using any means necessary.
There are a number of
changes made specifically for the PS2–and we’ll be diving into that soon–but
the game’s story is still intact. You can choose to play as a pair of bumbling
spies who are sent out to out race and foil the Yakuza or a pair of female cops
known as the Flying Dragons who pretty much do the same thing. Whichever part
you wish to play, there are ten missions plus ten bonus PS2-only missions to go
through.
One of the game’s other
bonuses, besides the extra missions, is that there are many more wild cars to
unlock. The various cars range from police vans; four-by-four sports utility
vehicles, an ambulance and now a city taxi cab. These cars move smoothly as it
did in the Xbox version thanks to the usual driving control scheme of
accelerate, break and reverse. The cars can now shoot missiles, which makes
things a tad easier yet less realistic.
There is no big difference
between the mission of the Dragons or the spies seeing as the missions (that
begin at an easy difficulty setting and then moving on to the hard setting)
pretty much follow the same pattern. In one of the Dragon’s missions you are to
destroy a series of dim sum stands operated by the Yakuza while trying to beat
the timer. This is actually similar to one of the spies’ mission that has you
destroying a series of Yakuza cars. Most of the missions are protecting a
specific vehicle from being destroyed to making all the checkpoints in time.
All of this is pretty fun, but doing the same mission for the third time does
get pretty tiresome. The bonus missions do offer much more bang for the
buck–and, although there isn’t much of a diverse selection of missions, gamers
will be grateful to have them available.
The heart of the game is
the actual recklessness of both the Dragons and the spies as they literally tear
through the massive city with little or no regard for public safety. You can
pretty much tear through sidewalks and cause total destruction to see a mission
through. Following the city map, you can see that sometimes crashing through
areas can result in finding a much-needed shortcut that can save you some time.
You can also slam into oncoming traffic, which can either block your path or
stall the Yakuza cars. The game will also reward you for your destructive
rampage . . . that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense while playing the
Dragon segment.
One of the game’s biggest
disappointments is with its multiplayer option. Two players can participate in
seven missions that range from games like Free Chase, Survivor, Checkpoint Chase
or a nice round of Capture The Flag. The problem is that the action is not seen
in split-screen mode–which would have been the more sensible option seeing as
there is racing involved–but rather they opt for a single screen deal. The
problem with this is that the other player might be much faster than another
player and if they attempt to leave the screen, the game will place them back in
its original position: side-by-side with the other player. This is not good at
all.
It would be silly to
expect this version of the game to compete with the highly accelerated graphics
power of the Xbox, but the PS2 does a somewhat good job of making the attempt.
The city of Hong Kong is jam packed with eye-catching details with sidewalks
filled with newsstands, outdoor cafes, vending machines and pedestrians going
about their business. You can break just about everything you slam into and
hitting pedestrians that are trying to get out of the way results in their
bodies bouncing off the vehicle. Still, even with all this, the game’s visuals
may look just a bit plain in several places. Good thing the cars look great as
well.
The sound effects are
where the game really shines and gamers will hear it the minute they slam into a
busy cafe. Glass shatters, chairs snap loudly and metal posts clink as if metal
was striking metal. Pedestrians cry out when they are hit and shout angrily at
you as you zip right on past them. The voice acting in Wreckless is incredibly
cheesy, even more so than the usual Japanese-to-English translation. Gamers
will be laughing at the unintentional funny dialogue in the cut scenes that move
the weak stories along.
Even with the bonus
goodies, Wreckless is still that extremely fun game that loses it charms way too
quickly. Still, this is chaotic vehicular mayhem at its finest and gamers that
weren’t able to play the Xbox version should definitely check this game
out–this is the perfect weekend rental.
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#Reviewer’s |
Gameplay: 6.9
The cars handle like a dream and
they hardly ever are the cause of a failed mission since they do handle curves
nicely. The cars can really pick up some speed but thanks to the heavy Hong
Kong traffic, speed isn’t really what this game is about (unless its you’re in a
race). It’s also helpful to make full use of the cheats the game quickly
unlocks for you and keeping an eye on the map for some shortcuts wouldn’t hurt
any. There’s also the adrenalin boost that suddenly slows time down, allowing
you to make more precise turns.
Many of the missions have
you escorting and protecting vehicles with health meters as Yakuza cars attempt
to ram it off the road or destroy it. Thanks to the fact that you now have a
limited amount of missiles to use, you can dispatch Yakuza cars much more
quickly. The same can be said with the spies’ mission to destroy and armored
truck.
Graphics: 7.4
Lacking the visual dazzle that made
the Xbox version an example of what it’s capable of doing with its graphics, the
PS2 is still great to look at. The massive city will really amaze gamers with
its abundance of details and moving objects and people–Hong Kong is truly alive
in this game. Even the cars that reflect light amazingly, look spectacular as
they move through a city.
The problem is that even
with excessive details–and upon closer inspection–you can see how really plain
the visuals really are. The pedestrians, for example, might look neat from afar
but once they’re up close (or being hurled over the hood of your car) they look
really bland. That cafe in one sector of town looks amazing, but as you’re
plowing through it you’ll see how the chairs look more like cardboard cutouts.
Sound: 7.6
The amazingly detailed sound effects
are just marvelous and gamers will love how it immerses you as you rush through
the thick traffic or plow head-on into the busy sidewalks and smashing
everything in sight. You can hear the burning rubber of your wheels as you slam
your breaks and smash into a busy cafe. You can hear the meaty thud of a
hapless pedestrian that had managed to dodge the speedy Yakuza car but was not
able to get out of the way of your front fender.
There’s some voice acting
here too but it’s so incredibly awful that it’s not really worth
mentioning–except for the fact that it will inspire unintentional laughs. At
least the music is a lot better, although not by very much.
Difficulty: Medium
The timed missions are some of the
toughest missions you will find in the games and the hardest of these are found
when you complete the easy missions and move on to the hard difficulty setting.
Often times the timer will seem highly unfair since they will give a short
amount of time to reach a destination that is pretty far away. Still, there are
plenty of short cuts in the game; the question is just finding them on your own.
Concept: 6.8
While the stories aren’t what will
draw gamers into the game; it’s the actual chaotic mayhem you can cause that is
the game’s biggest appeal. Not only are you not penalized for causing the
destruction of property–and adding to a long list of pedestrian casualties–but
also you are rewarded for how many things you can destroy while completing a
mission. The cheats you can unlock do add more flavor to the game since they
can change things such as gravity, traffic (you can choose not to have any
traffic at all), unlimited boost or super speed.
Multiplayer: 5.0
Quite possibly one of the worst
multiplayer options available for a game, Wreckless does an awful job of
designing a worthy two-player multiplayer game. For starters, the action is not
even split-screen. Imagine using the same screen in a race and if one of you
just happens to get farther ahead, the race suddenly restarts you in an even
position. And the sad part about this is that there are seven multiplayer games
that would have been fun had this been split-screen instead.
Overall: 7.0
Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions is
rowdy destructive fun and the bonus features do add more bang for your buck, but
it doesn’t take very long to get bored with this game. If you’re looking for a
game with plenty of vehicular pandemonium then this is the game for you.
