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By Alex Wisniewski on July 14th, 2002
Introduction Infogrames has been making great games for many systems over the past years. Over that period of time, Infogrames has become one of the most successful gaming publishers in the world. They have made many great games in the past and are continuing making great games such as the Driver, Destruction Derby, Test Drive series and many, many more. Now, Infogrames proudly presents to us Stuntman, which puts you in the place of a Stuntman doing daring stunts trying to please the stunt director. Let me tell you more.
Presentation When you turn on Stuntman, it will go through a couple of advertisements for the makers of Stuntman and such (nothing special). Then it will show a funny but cool cut-scene that starts out showing people in the early 1900’s doing crazy and dangerous car stunts. Then it will go right into present time also showing people doing crazy and dangerous stunts. I enjoyed watching it and I think you should just take a look at it before you go right to the game.Graphics & Sound The graphics in Stuntman may be one of its weak points, but it isn’t too bad. With the amazing level detail, your eyes will be moving everywhere on the screen observing your amazing, and life-like surroundings. From moving cars, pedestrians, police officers, trains, and many more amazing objects. So to put it simple, Stuntman delivers great graphics, but surely could have done better. Now for the sound, I think is great. The make-believe actors of course sound great considering they were done by real-life people. Also, as you play through the game, you will hear the stunt director shouting out the stunts that you have to perform, but the repeated quotes may get a little annoying such as “Go left/right”, “Crash through those boxes”, “Where were you going?” ext. but other than that, everything is great.The main thing that stands out as far as sound goes is the sound effects. The sound effects are great from the crashing, burnouts, skidding, explosions, and more. My favorite part of doing each mission is watching the replays. You can either watch them for fun, making sure you nailed each stunt the way you wanted, or to compare it with your friends replay. Also, the replays are great because they make each performed stunt look like it was taken out from a movie and for instance there might have been a helicopter above that you didn‘t hear while playing, but saw and heard it in the replay. The graphics and sound are both great and they both fit the game’s gameplay pretty well, but I think it could have been a little better. Gameplay The gameplay in Stuntman is the one of the greater advantages. The different stunts that you perform are nothing similar to each other and keeps you coming back for more. The stunts on the other hand may become very, very frustrating making you want to smash your television against the wall. Although nailing some of the stunts may be hard, even after you complete the stunts, you may want to do them over because you didn’t nail that specific stunt the way you wanted. But you will quickly get the hang of the controls such as acceleration, braking, e-braking, switching camera angles, and knowing how sensitive the steering is. Stuntman is definitely a game that takes skill and a lot of practice. Although you may have breezed through the first couple stunts, you will encounter some stunts later in the game may take even an hour or more to complete. Also, as you play through the game, you will unlock extra bonus items that you can use to play around in the “Stunt Constructor” mode, which places you in a large stadium and allows you to place objects such as ramps, smash-able cars/crates/barrels, car-sensitive explosions, and many other objects. A minus to the “Stunt Constructor” mode is you can only place a certain limit of objects. But a plus side is that if you nail an awesome stunt, you can save the replay so you can look at it later. This is definitely a great option in the game. Also, another thing that will frustrate some people is the load times. Although the load times doesn‘t bother some people, it may bother some of the more impatient gamers out there. One of the few long load times is when you boot the game it loads of course, it goes through advertising, it loads again, it takes you to the “Main Menu”, you select and option, and it loads again and so on. The other two bad load time is in between each stunt and when you fail a stunt. There is a 15 second load time after you beat each stunt and move on to the next. There is a 7 or so second load time comes after you fail a stunt and have to start over. Overall, Stuntman’s load times will get very annoying as your playing the game, also because you will be messing up a whole lot attempting the missions which will acquaint you with the load times a lot. Although the load times aren‘t too great, it doesn‘t really affect the gameplay in a any way. Overall the many modes and options to choose from will keep you busy for a while. Lasting Appeal Stuntman’s lasting appeal is not too bad. Playing through the Career mode a second time around isn’t too bad, but considering you know where to go and all, I guess there is really no point unless you didn‘t nail your stunts the way you wanted or you want to do better than your last game, other than that, Career mode is the best the first time around. Although the Career mode doesn’t have that good of replay value, the Stunt Constructor mode can keep you busy for possibly even hours at a time, giving you all the freedom you want to nail your own stunts until your car gives out. Overall, Stuntman’s lasting appeal isn’t too bad, but after a while, you may find yourself not playing it for a while.Conclusion I have been a fan of most of the games made by Infogrames , so when I heard about Stuntman and how it was going to be unlike all the other games out there, I couldn‘t wait for it to come out. Then when it finally came out, I played it and liked it but decided not to buy it because I didn’t think it would last me too long. Although the stunts you have to complete are great and the Stunt Constructor mode was cool, It just wasn’t enough for me to keep me satisfied for long time. In my opinion if you own a PS2, I’d recommend renting it first, then the rest is all up to you. |
