Stuntman Ignition

"Become Hollywood's Finest."

The world around Stuntman has been shaking recently with the release of Stuntman Ignition. I personally didn't enjoy the original Stuntman, for the Playstation 2. I didn't look up to the follow up for Stuntman, at all. But after watching a handfull of trailers for Stuntman Ignition, and some gameplay videos. They pushed me over the edge, to give Stuntman Ingition a try.

All those worries about Stuntman Ignition being a bad game, waste of time. It suprised me how good it was.

Graphics - 8/10
The graphics in the game aren't exactly top notch. They aren't like Gears of War, or Forza Motorsport 2. However, they're good enough to be called great. The vehicles look very good, and are greatly detailed. The explosions are great, and the damage system of vehicles is neat too.

The level design is incredible, they really make you feel like you're in somekind of mountain town, that's being torn apart by a massive earthquake along with several streams of lava.

You'll be suprised about how many chaos goes on at one place. The game's fully scripted, just like a movie. But the vehicles scattering from left to right, to evade a massive lava flow, burning cars passing by fueled by fear, lava rocks hitting the ground, causing cars to fly away. Those things make the stunts worth doing.

All-in-all, the graphics aren't the best. But they're certainly not bad either.

Gameplay - 9/10
The gameplay of this game is actually more varied than it looks, and alot more fun too. You can do the main movies, or you can take on several side missions. But let's do the mission structure first, there's six movies. All six movies, have six seperate scenes you must complete. Every single one has a different theme.

Point of these "missions" is for you to complete the major so called "director stunts", and make it to the end. While being on a time limit, aswell as a "strike system". Things tend to get extremely frustrating. But if things get too difficult for some, there's an "easy mode", which allows more strikes, thus making it possible for nearly everyone to complete the scene. Every scene is somewhat longer than a minute, some shorter, others longer.

The missions itself are incredibly varied. There's a ton of stunts for you to preform, and you'll rarely find yourself doing a linear job.

There's alot of learning in this game. You'll always want to restart several times, for you to learn the crucial spots. What to miss, and what to hit.

It'll take you atleast 10-15 hours to get the full expirience out of the main missions.

The scoring system of the game is somewhat wacky. The scoring system involves a rating system. Five stars, one is worst, five is perfect. You must collect points throughout scenes, for a score. Seems pretty simple. Thing is, if you want a perfect score, you'll have to "String" things together. Means, you'll have to keep the action going. In this game, the only penalty for mission a Director Stunt is a strike. Too many strikes, and you'll have to reshoot.

Sometimes you'll have to miss a Director Stunt on purpose to keep the string going. The game doesn't give you a penalty for mission one of these, not breaking the chain or something like that. Even tough you're missing several of the most important stunts, weird enough you'll still be able of getting a "Perfect Score".

When you've completed the Main "storyline", you're able of doing Odd-Jobs, Constructor Challenges and Quick Challenges. Odd-Jobs are usually TV-commercials. Negative side of these is that you'll only have one strike. So one failure inmediatly causes you to restart from scratch. The Constructor Challenge has the same penalty system, but allows you to create your own way of getting to the pre-set Directors Stunts. These are incredibly frustrating for some, as the game doesn't explain the Constructor Challenges' objectives at all.

The Quick-Challenges are a bunch of stand-alone stunts. Just a small group of around two to five different stunts. Doesn't take longer than 2 minutes to complete one. But again, involves the 1-strike penalty system. Causing major frustation most of the time.

There's also a feature which allows you to create your own arena, with the "props" you've unlocked on the Main Missions, and other challenges. The arena has no time limits, and sets you free from restrictions. But, the building mode is incredibly limited. The game's memory prevents you from building more than 30-50 "props".

It also has an online multiplayer with a few modes. One is Backlot Battle, a preset stunt course. The game's objective is simple; Get the biggest score. People can steal your score by hitting you, making this the best online mode in the game. Major carnage is simply allowed. There's two more, a mini storymode. Setting you in the single player scenes, with another person. The rules are the same as in the single player counterpart; If your rival goes under a falling tree faster than you, you'll either hit it and fail, or find a way around and carry on.

Shortly said, the game's awesome cause of it's intense gameplay. But it's a big turn off for some with a short temper.

Sound - 7/10
The game's sounds are pretty decent overall. Cars sound like they sound in real life, explosions sound decent, too. Pretty good overall. The only massive ditch in the sound system is the soundtrack. Sure, the music matches the scene. But there's nothing big, unlike other games.

The voice acting is somewhat strange for most, but it's cheesy in the good way.

Replayability/Value - 9/10
The game easily racks up into the 25-28 hours total for you to complete all main scenes/missions, odd-jobs and challenges. The game requires many replays for you to preform a perfect job in a challenge/scene, adding even more hours. That, and the decent multiplayer, it'll go up into somewhat over the 30 hours total.

Conclusion, Rent or Buy? - Depends.
If you're that kind of gamer that's ice cold against frustration, and will go for the perfect scores. Or if you can go up against the heavy trial-and-error of this game. This is that game for you. Period. Buy it.

If you're the kind of gamer than just enjoy's a casual time, or is easily frustrated caused by many restarts. Give it a rent.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/07

Game Release: Stuntman Ignition (US, 08/28/07)