Reviewed: March 31, 2002
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Midway

Developer
Point of View, Inc.

Released: March 12, 2002
Genre: Racing
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen

8
5
5
8
6.3

Supported Features:

I had the privlege of taking the PS2 version of SpyHunter for a spin back in October and found it to be an excellent game, both visually and with exciting gameplay. When the Xbox version was announced I had no delusions that there would be any major changes or enhancements aside from perhaps some better graphics and a faster framerate than the 30fps the PS2 offered.

Midway joined with Point of View, Inc. for this conversion, and somewhere during the course of the port to the Xbox something went drastically wrong. They've managed to take a perfectly good PS2 game; put it on a system that is definitely more powerful, yet the end result is truly one of the most visually disappointing games I've played on the Xbox to date.

The game remains the same. SpyHunter offers a unique balance of action, combat, and racing with plenty of things to shoot and blow up. The offensive and defensive capabilities of your super spy car is the stuff that Q dreams up for Bond, but Bond never had a car that looked this cool. There's no BMW or Aston Martin here - only a sleek powerful driving machine that resembles some futuristic Lamborghini with machine guns and missile launchers.

Like the original, your vehicle has the ability to transform into other types of transportation, plus there is the added bonus of new vehicle morphs when you sustain over 50% damage. These transformations are quite impressive featuring Matrix 360 camera spins as your car converts to a jet boat. Your car will also shed its outer body and turn into a super spy bike or a super spy Jet Ski if you happen to be in jet boat-mode. The bike and Jet Ski have all the capabilities of the larger vehicles minus the turbo ability.

The 14 missions are laid out in such a fashion that you can only play them after you have earned enough Spy Points. To earn these points you must complete the various primary and secondary objectives on the earlier missions. Primary objectives must be completed to advance, but secondary objectives are optional to the point that you will need to perform most of them to earn enough points to continue later in the game. You can return to previous missions at any time and try to best your previous score and earn more points and bonus upgrades for your car.

The game starts you off with a test track that lets you get a feel for the new car and how it handles. The test track mixes up a little bit of everything you will experience in the main game to a small degree. There is nothing more exhilarating than driving the slalom while dodging incoming artillery fire, and there is nothing more challenging than trying to do some precision target practice amidst heavy traffic. Minimizing civilian damage is almost always a secondary objective, and the game keeps track of "civilian casualties". Hit too many friendly targets you will lose a secondary mission point.

The levels are full of multiple branching paths, shortcuts, and hidden area. While they aren't necessary to completing the missions, you will need to fully explore the levels to complete all secondary objectives, and do so within the allotted time for each mission. You can also look for the weapons truck at various points in the mission. Driving into the back of this truck (ala Knightrider) will repair your car and replenish any spent ammunition.

Your missions will take place on both roads and waterways and your Interceptor is ready for both. The transformation from car to boat is impressive the first few times you see it, but can grow old after awhile. The Interceptor actually seems to handle better on the water than on dry land, but driving becomes second nature soon enough.

The first mission has you speeding out of a parking garage blasting the doors open with your machine guns then dodging semi's as they try to block your escape. While the levels are somewhat linear you do have some freedom in planning your route. You can blast open a hangar door and take a shortcut through a warehouse populated with workers and forklifts, and later you can pick various forks in the road, each leading to their own challenges and rewards.

Other missions range from simply destroying everything in sight to escort missions, and more subtle tasks like tagging enemy vehicles or collecting SAT transmitters. One of the most challenging missions has you trying to recover your own car. Doing so rewards you with a new upgraded model of your Interceptor.

One thing the original SpyHunter had going for it was the cool defensive measures like the smoke screen or oil slick. These are still present in this new version but they are few opportunities to use them. The new design seems to have been heavily influenced by other recent auto-combat titles giving the game a more direct attack feel. An electronic rearview mirror will pop-up when enemies fall in behind you but they almost always pull alongside or overtake you before you can react with any of your defensive countermeasures.

The interface is clean and the HUD presents all pertinent information in a graphical format so you can summarize your situation with a quick glance. The controls are quite good in the earlier levels but get bogged down a bit in later levels when you have multiple weapons and countermeasures and must cycle through them, often in a panicked attempt to find and fire the correct one.

You can play the game from various views including a first-person and a couple variations of the chase view. I found the first-person offered the best sensation of speed but was virtually unplayable due to the very nature of the game. You are almost required to see "the big picture" and the only way to do this is from a chase view. You also get the best camera angles of the action.

The chase view works for the most part. There are a few occasions where the camera can't seem to keep up with the player; mainly when reversing or making sharp handbrake turns. I didn't notice any texture problems or clipping when going from indoor to outdoor parts of the level. The Interceptor looks much smoother in the Xbox version. I'm not sure if the graphics were being anti-aliased this time or if the muddy graphics simply hid the jaggies that were more apparent in the PS2 version.

The levels are well designed and populated with enough "stuff" to keep things interesting and challenging. Highways are populated with civilian traffic that you must avoid hitting and shooting while trying to battle the various incarnations of enemy vehicles that try to stop you from completing your objectives. The horizon is usually a photo realistic backdrop from the many countries the game takes place in. You are sure to recognize popular landmarks from Panama, Key West, England, Germany, France, Venice, and even the Middle East. Foreground scenery is rendered in 3D with ample polygons and colorful textures, and even on screens with lots of things going on everything zips by at a crisp 60fps.

Sound effects are really good, if you could hear them clearly. The weapons fire, crashes, explosions, and high-performance growl of the Interceptor all sound authentic yet are strangely muffled for no apparent reason. I generally keep my volume consistent between games, yet when I turn this game up loud enough to hear then switch to another game I practically blow a speaker.

There is a two-player mode that lets you compete head-to-head against another SpyHunter in three mini-games. There is a pure racing mode that lets you race to the finish line using any weapons at your disposal to hinder your opponents. Then there is the Globe Trotter mode that has you racing around the level collecting the most SATCOM's before the timer runs out. And finally there is ChickenHunter where you race around running over as many chickens as you can.

These mini-games have nothing to do with the theme of the main game but they are great fun and add tremendously to the extended life of this title.