BigBig Studios’ Pursuit Force was part of the second wave of PSP exclusive titles. It arrived at a time in the PSP’s life when people doubted the machine’s ability to deliver more than cut down ports of PlayStation 2 games – its no-nonsense extreme action really struck a chord with players, resulting in critical acclaim and retail success. Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice promises to be bigger, badder and more extreme, like a true Hollywood blockbuster sequel.
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| Bugs on the highway just keep getting bigger |
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Again with the helicopters! |
Taking things at face value, Extreme Justice takes the original Pursuit Force and stuffs so much new content into it that it’s bursting at the seams. Extreme Justice offers up 12 vehicles, 30 weapons, new stunts, a multiplayer mode, five new gangs to bring down, and the promise of more downloadable content to come. As good as it sounds, and as fun as it is, it just feels a little dated – and then there are those horrid on-foot bits.
Extreme Justice spends little time worrying about story – the main character and support character are just about to get married when the ceremony is broken up by one of the city’s gangs, forcing Pursuit Force into action. From here, players spend the next 50 missions taking on the five gangs; The Syndicate, a group of armed bank robbers, Raiders, a gang of professional pirates, Vipers, a corrupt special police unit, and The Warlords and Convicts, who return from the first game.
Each mission in Extreme Justice has players chasing down one boss of each gang. For the most part, these missions play out on the road, in the air or over the water. Typically, players have to reach the criminal before a time limit (some of which can be quite strict) expires, but this is where all of the fun begins. One moment you’re chasing a gang car, exchanging bullets, and then the next moment you could be leaping through the air onto the back of the car, pumping bullets into the driver in order to commandeer the vehicle and continue chasing the main boss.
There are some amazing set pieces in Extreme Justice. At the end of each mission, players will have to take on a boss, who will usually have some sort of special vehicle to throw the balance into their favour. Even in the earliest missions players will be battling fierce opponents, swerving their vehicle left and right to avoid incoming Molotov cocktails before leaping onto the back of the vehicle and fighting the boss while hurtling down a packed freeway. It only gets better as the game goes on – the best moment in the game has players fighting one of the bosses on the wing of a jet at high altitude.
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Shooting guns while riding a motorcycle may affect driver concentration
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Talk about your leaps of faith |
As exciting as the action is in Extreme Justice, the gameplay is surprisingly straightforward, making it quite easy to pick up. No aiming is required – simply mash the right shoulder button to take out any targets. Driving is also quite simple, though the analogue nub does have a habit of forcing turns to be a little sharper than one desires. The severe difficulty spikes that plagued the original game have been considerably toned down, with Extreme Justice following a more linear difficulty curve.
There are a number of major issues that really hold Extreme Justice back. Arguably the most prevalent issue with the game is the on-foot side, which is almost completely devoid of fun – a stark contrast to the vehicular parts of the game. The enemies in these sections are particularly moronic, yet strangely overpowered in some thinly veiled attempt to add challenge. The other major problem is that the game opts for a number of particularly annoying quick time events during the cutscenes. Everybody might be doing the QTE thing in games now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good.
On top of the rather lengthy campaign mode, Extreme Justice dishes up a few extra modes including a single player challenge mode, and multiplayer modes for up to four players (in ad-hoc mode). Challenge mode is a series of one-shot missions which should satisfy players who are looking for that little bit more. Multiplayer mode feels a little tacked on, but can be particularly fun provided players stick to the vehicle-based game types, and avoid the on-foot rampage mode.
Extreme Justice benefits from a reasonably solid graphical base – it doesn’t look particularly pretty in stills, but when one is playing the game, they’re generally too busy to notice a few rough textures and missing shadows. The game runs at a blistering pace, never seeming to drop any frames by the wayside. The soundtrack is made up from fairly intense Hollywood inspired action riffs, though they tend to take a back seat to engine noise, helicopter blades or explosions during gameplay. Sound effects are particularly intense, with something always happening on screen. Voice acting is Extreme Justice’s weak point, though, with some absolutely awful lines delivered by the game’s antagonists.
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| Like shooting fish in a barrel |
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So much for due process and presumption of innocence |
For the PSP owner looking for a new action experience, Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice is a solid choice. It has some of the most intense action you’ll experience in a video game, but it also has a number of deep rooted gameplay issues, particularly when it comes to the on foot side of the proceedings. If you can look past these shortcomings, then there is plenty of high octane action to be had.
Top Game Moment is fighting one of the bosses on the wing of a plane, thousands of feet above the ground.
