Playing an action game as a motion-captured celebrity is often a recipe for disaster; Enter the Matrix and Spyhunter: Nowhere to Run come to mind. We don't get bad vibes with Vin Diesel, however. Say what you will about his movies, but the guy has an excellent track record with video games. Sure, it begins and ends with The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, but that adventure was so enjoyable that we can't help but drool over Midway and Diesel's Wheelman, available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on March 20.
Set in Barcelona, Wheelman is an open world 3-D video game where you complete missions as Milo Burik, an undercover agent looking to take down three gangs. To give this character depth, Diesel recorded dialogue and let Midway mo-cap his face, so you get to romp around Spain as Vin Diesel and run amok. Since he turned in a memorable performance as Riddick in Butcher Bay, there's no doubt that he's just as appealing in Wheelman.
Like most open world games, you're free to explore at your leisure, either on foot or inside one of several vehicles. These range from your average rides to sports cars and 18-wheelers, all of which take damage from gunfire or slamming into the environment.
To drive something, you can either walk up to it and open the door or go for a more dramatic approach with air jacking. Similar to Sony's Pursuit Force PSP games, air jacking allows you to quickly exit a moving vehicle, leap onto another and resume driving, often at the former driver's expense. On the Xbox 360, you simply drive up to another moving vehicle, wait for the red icon to turn green and then tap the B button.
Each vehicle has various strengths and weaknesses that you and your enemies can exploit. Sports cars, for example, travel faster than other automobiles but aren't always durable. That 18-wheeler, on the other hand, can smash through just about anything and come out unscathed. Targeting its exposed fuel tank, however, will eventually send it to a fiery oblivion; important objects - head, fuel tank- turn red when targeted.
In addition, you have vehicular melee. Flicking the analog stick left, right, up or down causes your car/truck to push in that direction. Doing this lets you significantly damage other cars/enemies, making it both highly enjoyable and very effective.
Sightseeing (both on foot and inside of a muscle machine) sounds like a marvelous way to pass the time, but that won't bring those gangs to justice. In order to infiltrate the criminal network, you'll have to step inside and complete missions for unsavory evildoers. This includes ferrying people from point A to point B and assassinating targets, but you'll also blow up targeted cars as well as run from bad guys and the police. Since you can shoot while driving, you can actually slow down time, spin the car around and slaughter your adversaries. It's a sweet looking option that breathes new life into the gimmicky and overused bullet time feature.
It's still too early to tell whether Wheelman has what it takes to dethrone Grand Theft Auto IV, but if the concept of GTA in Europe (plus Vin Diesel) sounds appealing, we suggest renting this high-speed action game when it drops March 20. If you're still unsure, wait for our review to see if Diesel goes two for two.
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