ic-games Review - Stuntman: Ignition (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360) - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - Stuntman: Ignition (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360) - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

Stuntman: Ignition (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360)

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: Paradigm Entertainment
Publisher: THQ
Reviewed: Xbox 360/PS3
Genre: Action Adventure
UK Release: 28th Sep 2007
Article Date: 16th Sep 2007
Difficulty: Hard
Retail Price: £49.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 78%

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Pros

Cool concept

Stunt Stringing works well

Cons

Again, repetitive

Annoying voice-acting

Screenshots

3 of 7

Ever since I grazed my chin recreating a dangerous scene from 80’s motorcycle cop show, Chips, on a chopper bicycle no less; I gave up on the dangerous career path of being an action star. THQ’s Stuntman: Ignition reignights this flame and offers up a chance of being a male stunt double in six new fictional movies – this time without a few days off school or a splatter of blood in sight.

The main game mode of Stuntman: Ignition has you performing vehicular stunts for a particular movie, which once passed allows you to move onto the next scene in the film. To do this you need to earn a certain amount of stars, pass the stunt without making too many mistakes (strikes) and do all this within a strict time limit. Each of these movies has six scenes that once started, involve the directors assistant yelling out instructions about what he wants you to do in real time, put simply you do exactly what you are told as best as you can.

On paper this sounds fascinating, and in actual gameplay we must say it’s pretty cool to recreate these scenes in a vehicle. Your first few plays will always have you failing miserably as you learn the course, work out exactly what you need to do and make mental notes as to what and when events crop up. Since each individual scene will always be a carbon copy, it doesn’t take long before you can nail the scene; the real skill comes in racking up the highest possible score.

One problem with a game like this is that you’ll need a lot of patience, especially when the difficulty level racks up during the later movies. This essentially means you’ll find yourself constantly having to replay the scenes over and over again before you eventually find out what to do, to pass. This is sadly Stuntman: Ignition’s biggest problem, as apart from a brief introduction to the stunt you are about to perform, no-one properly explains what is wanted from you until you start the run. The only way around this is to download clips from Xbox-Live and watch exactly how the experts do it. It’s a shame that this feature wasn’t made more prominent as these downloadable replays can be a godsend in the later levels.

To really rack up the points and join the big boys that upload replays you’ll have to learn how to perform chains and boost the score multiplier. Stringing stunts together is achieved by making sure the score multiplier moves up without a break. After every stunt is performed the a clock ticks down and if you manage to perform another stunt in that time the multiplier is increased and the clock resets and counts down again. If you manage to string the whole stunt from start to finish you’ll earn the prestigious 'five star' rating and the maximum score multiplayer possible. Naturally this is quite difficult at first to perform and will take a perfect run to achieve.

The graphics are quite impressive, if not slightly over the top, as cars crash, explode and houses come crashing down in front of your vehicle all as you drive into and around the events. If you imagine a Steven Seagal movie on steroids you’ll probably come close to what you can expect to see in Stuntman: Ignition. The moves you are expected to perform slowly increase as the difficulty level takes a notch up and can range from mounting ramps, overtaking vehicles to rolling vehicles, sliding underneath lorries in a motorcycle and so on. You’ll always know what you need to do as you’ll not only be given a voice prompt by the directors assistant but also due to the on screen yellow icons that show you what to pull off and when. Pull the stunt off correctly and the icon will turn green and you’ll be awarded points but make a mistake or miss the stunt completely and the icon will turn red and you’ll receive a strike. Receive too many strikes and you’ll have to restart the stunt from scratch.

Aside from the campaign mode where you have to perform individual stunts to make a movie you can also jump straight into a previously passed stunt without the background story mode. All the same rules apply from the campaign section, but it’s noticeably quicker and easier to start a stunt of your choosing.

If you come into the game with the right attitude and take it easy instead of hammering the game in one session, Stuntman: Ignition is a pretty cool game to play. It’s was always going to best enjoyed in small spurts as by its very definition, Stuntman can end up being pretty repetitive, pretty quickly. Either way, there are still quite a few 'punch the air' moments waiting for anyone who gives this unique title a chance.

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