Customer Reviews

Wheelman

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wheelman is a bit of an enigma. Usually when games are bad, they're just BAD, not so bad they're good, as films often are. It's hard to enjoy something that one could label as bad, as far as games go.

Yes, Wheelman has bad acting, bad dialog, weird mission structures, ugly faces on every character outside of Vin Diesel, but its also a lot of FUN. And when it comes down to it, the fun factor is the number one reason a game is worth your valuable gaming time or not. Wheelman is a ton of fun.

It's got ramps and destructible objects littered all over a massive cityscape. It's also got a ton of side missions that offer a lot of replay value. It's got your standard street races, but here you have a pistol that targets the 'tyres' of your opponents, and you can physically ram or dodge with your vehicle by moving the right stick. It's got slow-motion shooting events, while you're still driving your vehicle. You can play 'hot potato' and try to grab as many cases as possible and return them 'home' in a limited amount of time. Sounds boring, but when some of the cases are located on the second story of buildings and you have to find a ramp to get to them, you have a great arcade mode that begs for a leaderboard companion.

It's also got a rampage mode (destroy everything before the time runs out), taxi mode, and several others. The story mode is nothing special, but its still fun to progress through. And the better you do on your missions, the more upgrades you can unlock.

The game threw in a ton of great little gameplay elements that street racers have been missing. You're not just a faceless driver a la the Burnout series. You have a character that develops and builds street cred along the way.

That said, the on-foot segments are pretty stale. Just run and gun. Nothing special.

Another point to mention is the 'T' rating. Wheelman doesn't have the aggressive language, gory violence or sexual content that many other crime-based sandbox games (a la GTA and Saints Row) flaunt. That makes it fun for teens or even preteens. If you try to gun down a civilian or police officer, your bullets only push them away or hinder their movement. No bloody deaths. No deaths at all with the exception of other criminals.

It doesn't try to be everything to everyone. No boring dating sims. No complex sniping missions. Just vehicle focused mayhem. Great game, a lot of fun.

Sandbox game where you can do what you want when you want. You steal cars, race cars, smash up cars, upgrade cars, avoid police and kill mobsters....sound familiar? Two unique features are the 'airjack', basically hijacking a car from a car while moving...have been playing for about 3 days now and believe it or not the 'airjack' does not get old. The other being vehicle attacks (melee attacks with an automobile or motorcycle)

All in all this game, albeit a lot like GTA, still seems fresh. The game takes place in Spain, rather than New York. The dialog is VERY cheesy, Vin Diesel just does not really seem like a believable tough guy...maybe its me. The side missions are very fun, the main story almost seems optional, since the side missions in my opinion are way more engaging.

Basically if you liked GTA, you will like this. If you did not buy GTA for little Johnny at home because of the adult content, then get him this one as the cuss words and fine women have not been included (T rating).

Take away Vin Diesel's name and identity from Wheelman, then ask yourself if you could go for another round of a DRIVER game where "You are the Wheelman"? If you're a Driver fan, this is a must rent/must buy. Yes, it's a bit more arcade-like in physics (fast burnouts like Driver: Parallel Lines, over the top), but it's the closest thing to playing a Driver game by another company besides Reflections, and I'm a huge Driver fan.
Here's what this game does right:
-Intense, action packed missions that are a blast to play even after "failed mission". The jumps, ramming, stunts are a thrill to experience.
-Giant Map: As big as The Getaway's map, but not as big as DPL.
-The trucks (Big rig and delivery van) both include Interior Shoulder Dash Views
-The cars and sportbikes handle well, with 3 camera views including a close car view
-Close Vehicle View: On par with a Driver game, so you're close to the action.
-On Foot freedom: Once you earn a gun, 3 camera views including default medium view, earned torso view and close over the shoulder view. Very nice, brings you INTO the game world.
-Fast paced gameplay.
-Once you get used to the lock on and manual aiming, the gunfights are fun.
-Huge city to explore, some large interiors too (office, warehouse, carparks, metro stations, etc).
-The missions are tough, but not excruciatingly frustrating like Driver's, so it won't take 50 attempts, maybe 10 at the most depending on your Driver skills.
-The sportbike Underground Subway mission was epic.
-On foot: sneak, walk, run, aim, shoot, airjack(nice feature).
-Cops are tough to shake and persistent. They will allow you to surrender(walk up to them) instead of just blindly shooting you to death like in Driver. 3 and 4 stars is fun.
-Vehicles control responsively and fast.
-Side missions and main missions on map, just click and start them instead of having to drive to them and waste time.

The only things that concern:
-Trucks have interior dash views(over the shoulder), why not cars and bikes? It's a great view for just cruising, add it in an update Ubisoft.
-You have to unlock 3 sections of the city, initially closed off.
-There's no day/night cycle: Only sunny or dusk, depending on your last mission.
-The enemies flip all over on exploding, but it's very tough to flip your own car onto the roof in this game, which is actually a good thing.
-No jump button. And no climbing/leaping automatically, like Assassin's Creed.
-No home base garage to store your favorite rides (but in this game, not necessary, bikes are plentiful and so are the variety of vehicles).
-Not enough sports cars. No exotic sports cars either.
-On foot Cops are indestructible (bullet proof vests). Bad guys are not.

So if you're a Driver or Getaway fan, you owe it to yourself to play Wheelman. Now.

This game is the most intense game I have ever play. None stop action. None stop fun. Everyone should buy this game.

Really all around good game. The vehicles handle well, the shooting handles well. Large cities with variety. Some unreal-movie-slow motion-action type of stuff, but doesn't seem to spoil the game. Missions can range from too hard to easy. Cannot kill the police or civilians tempers the game and makes it more suitable for children.

The game came in plenty of time and was in great shape! The game is loads of fun. Challenging and with lots of options. It does have cursing and a suggestive dance if you have young children. No nudity or anything too crazy for most kids though. They see and hear worse on cable. Everything else is cool.

This is a fun game which leaves you wanting more. The ability to jump from a moving vehicle to another moving vehicle is a nice twist.

The game is a standard mission oriented game but you have have to outrun enemies, police, etc. all entwined with slo-mo and great special effects of your ability(like in the matrix movie). You can ram into cars and cause damage to them, cause crashes and spin outs.

There is limited shooting but the game is more a test of your driving skills and strategy using the profiles given of the enemies.

ok so Vin Diesel decides to make a game (which is not based on any of his movies) and he decides to make it about cars. Well this is not your typical car racing game, is more like a mix of grand theft and need for speed. You get to engage in chases, you have a lot of weapons you aquire as the game progresses, you get to "air jack" cars (moving vehicles) and run free on the huge map.
Only thing about this game is that it can get very repetitive mission wise and that is ridiculously hard for no reason at all... the shooting or escort missions are not as hard; but the racing missions are just retarded! they are so hard that they knock out the chances of you even trying to beat the game. I played it a couple of days and put it down afterwards and havent touched it ever since; it got repetitive and too hard so i dropped it.

This game is wicked! I'll be the first to admit that the game is completely stupid, but it's stupid in such a good way. The stupidity feels more like something they were going for rather than something that was supposed to be serious and ended up badly. In other words, they use stupidity to create some of the funniest moments in gaming on purpose, and they succeed on this level wonderfully. The action is intense, the plot is pretty darned good and the game itself is simply a blast to play. Seriously ridiculous Hollywood style stunts can be pulled off, and you'll love every last one of them ridiculous or not.

when i first downloaded the demo for this game about 3 weeks before it was released, i was Pleasantly Suprised by a title i would have No Doubt slept on. the controls were tight, the cars were nice, the action was fast paced..and the game in general was just very Entertaining. the demo gave you literally 3/4ths of the entire city to roam around in, a few heart pumping races, Free Roam, as well as the main characters Full Capabilities from the jump.

the part that i find Odd...is that the Demo is better than the actual game =/. or should i say...the Demo gives you SO MUCH...that theres really no REASON to purchase the actual Game at all. the game in and of itself is basically Repetitive: go here, do this, get this person, run from these people, shoot at these guys while you drive, wash rince repeat..until you beat the game. and the Storyline is really not even worth getting into. this is basically an Arcade game that once you beat it, you wont even Think about it ever again...point blank period..

as weird as it sounds...leave this game alone...and download its Demo from xbox Live :) and enjoy a great Arcade Game for Absolutely No Cost At All...

iLL .