Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions

"Far from its full potential"

This game is nothing like what i expected. I looked at this, and expected something almost similar to Grand Theft Auto, i knew it wouldnt be as good, but i didn't think it would be like this...

Plot 6/10

They really don't start you off with any background information on either Scenario A or B. It throws you into a group, that I assume is another gang, but they never really tell you. You are sent out to do missions against the Yakuzas. It follows somewhat of a storyline to what's happening, but really should have been developed more before, and during the game with more indepth cutscenes.

Graphics: 8/10

The graphics were done well, some of the cars (the buggy or patrol car for instance) are quite childish looking and don't quite fit the real looking scenery. It would have been better to make these cars slightly more realistic to fit better. As for the places you visit, they look quite good and have a very realistic feel to them.

Sound: 9/10

People will scream and the car's engines sound great as ever. There is voice acting in the cutscenes that fit the characters voice well, and the things people scream can actually be understood. You will also get messages or warnings during your mission that are voices instead of just words so this section gets a 9/10.

Gameplay: 6/10

A game's crucial feature; it has to have a good gameplay. Unfortunately, this game is lacking in several aspects.

There are twenty missions, ten for each Scenario. A lot of the missions are alike. ''Defeat all the Yakuza cars'' or ''Beat these guys, get this, and take it somewhere.'' Many missions are based on these. It gets kind of repetitive after a while, but every so often you will get one that sticks out as much different and it will be more interesting.

Something else that still sticks out in my mind is that several of the missions are Insanely difficult. You could try 100 times and still never seem to get closer to reaching your goal and it never fails to make you angry when this happens. I played this with my friend, and we were screaming cuss words after some of these, we finally quit when they just got too hard.

The controls are pretty good, they are quite a bit different from many other games and dont use the typical double control stick controls, it only uses the left one, and that can be hard to get used to (it was for me) but when you get accustomed to it, the controls become simpler. The different cars have different max speeds and turning abilities which varies well in some, but in others not.

Replay Value: 5/10

Once you beat the game (if you beat it) you may want to play around with the cars in different levels that you liked, but this wont last long, it will very soon just get boring and you will want to move on to something else. After the first time through, (as this game is incredibly short) it wont have much life in it for you, and you will just put it away with the other games that you no longer play.

Overall: 6/10

This game had a great potential, but it was never made as good as it could have been. Maybe if they would have gotten out of their cars once or twice, it would have varied more giving the gameplay a better score, and in turn, making this a more enjoyable game to play.

Rent or Buy?

If you like the genre, rent it for sure, and if you like it, buy it. If you have never really been interested in this type, this is not the game to start off in, just wait for a different one.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/16/02, Updated 11/16/02