Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice

"Because regular justice is for housewives and little girls!"

Sony and UK-based BigBig Studios had it all figured out: “People love Hollywood movies that involve car chases and shootouts! Let make a game just like that!” So they did and gamers were treated to Pursuit Force for the PSP. Sure, the idea of chasing down criminal stereotypes and doing gravity-defying jumps from car-to-car was a cool idea, but the game suffered from various problems, two of the biggest in my opinion included some pretty bad game slowdown and a very unfair difficulty level. However, it seems that Sony and BigBig have listened to these complaints, as Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice is not only a huge improvement over it's predecessor, but it's a very fun and action-packed game in it's own right they may just have the biggest replay value of any non-online PSP game to date.

EXTREME STORY

The first PF really didn't have a story, as it was basically you as a member of Pursuit Force taking out the various gangs of Capitol City while taking orders from your stereotypical hard-ass chief. For Extreme Justice, BigBig has added an actual story to get you through the game's five acts and many stages. Once again you take control of the same character, only this time he's been promoted to the commander of Pursuit Force for bringing the peace to Capitol City (but he still answers to the same hard-ass chief). In addition, Pursuit Force signed-up additional recruits to help out the commander. Not a moment too soon as well, as the convicts and warlord gangs from the previous game have escaped from jail and are once again terrorizing the city. Not only that, but two new gangs have also made the scene, and it becomes pretty apparent that something big is about to happen in Capitol City. Did I mention the “friendly” competition from Viper Squad, a rival police force who does nothing but hamper PF's efforts? Yep, a lot of overtime is going to have to be signed-off on…

So the story is already pretty generic, but throw in characters that are nothing but bad stereotypes and overall bad writing, and you've got yourself b-movie grade stuff here. Perhaps, given the action-movie feel of the game, that's what BigBig was going for. In that case it may be a “love it or hate it” thing. As for me, I didn't really feel anything for it. Thankfully, the games pretty much got it where it counts…

EXTREME GAMEPLAY

PF: EJ offers up many different gameplay varieties across it's many stages, but at it's core is still the same driving and shooting mechanic that made the first game pretty unique. Basically, you chase down criminals on pretty linear stretches of road while taking them out, capturing their vehicles, ramming them off the road, etc. The basic way to take out the criminals is to get close enough to their cars so you can lock-on to them and unload your weapon them with the R trigger until the car's health is depleted and the vehicle explodes. However, the cool, awesome, and gravity-defying way to take out the scum is to pull up close enough to them to see the jump icon appear on-screen. You then press the circle button to have the commander leap from his car to theirs, landing on it so he can shoot its occupants directly in the face and claim the vehicle for himself. Doing this instead of simply shooting at the car in beneficial in three ways: 1) you get to also use the former car owner's more powerful weaponry, 2) you get yourself a new ride, and 3) it's just damn cool to perform! Everything here can also be preformed much easier thanks to much improved and tighter vehicle controls. Those who got frustrated always crashing into walls and guardrails in the first game may breath a lot easier playing this one. Also, the first one also had the tendency to not display the jump icon sometimes, even when you were right next to an enemy vehicle. Thankfully for EJ, that too has been fixed. Don't think you'll only be doing this with cars, as you'll be finding yourself jumping back and forth between boats, motorcycles, and hovercrafts as well. Most of PF: EJ's gameplay is made up of these chases, and it all rocks hard!

Still, EJ's more than just car chases. Many times, you'll find yourself manning the mini-gun on the Pursuit Force helicopter or the heavy guns on a off-road vehicle dishing out the pain to enemy pursuers. You'll also find yourself behind the scope of a sniper rifle providing cover for Pursuit Force recruits by taking out enemies from afar. I will say that while the sniper missions are fine, sniper missions that take place while you're on a moving helicopter are NOT! Seriously, the PSP analogue nub is not really designed for constant scope repositioning, and I found myself getting serious thumb cramps. Not a smart move, BigBig. Another not so smart move was keeping in the game the worst part of the previous one: the on-foot segments. These are just flat-out terrible, with shoddy design, crap controls and even crappier enemy AI. Do you enjoy it when your enemies just flail about doing nothing as you shoot at them? Didn't think so. The only thing that was really added to the on-foot parts is the ability to manually aim by holding the L trigger, but while the game allows you to strafe left and right while aiming, it doesn't allow you to move forward or backward. Wha-WHY? You'll be aiming a lot too, as the default auto-aiming is, at best, a pile of ****. Thankfully, none of these really last too long, but EJ does have more of them then the first one did. Ugh!

Still, BigBig did improve on one area that I hoped they would improve on: the amply named Justice Meter. See, as you capture vehicles and take out enemies, a gauge in the top left-hand corner fills up, likewise it gets depleted a little if you ram into civilians. If your able to fill the gauge all the way, the commander will enter what I like to call “killing machine mode”, in which all his shots do more damage and he'll enter the Matrix when jumping to other vehicles, allowing him to target the occupants in mid air and take them out quickly. You can also hold the triangle button when you have some Justice goo in the meter to give yourself and your vehicle a health boost. The reason I say it's an improvement over the first PF is because in the first one the justice meter had to be full in order to give yourself more health and when you did use it, you had to use all of it. Here, you can use as much or as little of the Justice Meter as you need to just by holding triangle. A welcome improvement, indeed.

Another cool addition to EJ is the awesome boss encounters that come in the middle and at the end of every act in story mode. These have the Commander jumping (and hanging) onto huge fortress-like vehicles, fire trucks, trains, and even airplanes while traversing them with a combination of the analogue stick and timed circle button presses. While moving along these huge transportation devices, you'll be shooting at enemies and ducking their fire with the square button, until you finally reach your destination: a face-off against a gang big-wig in an entertaining boss match. I won't spoil any of the boss fights for anyone, but I found them to be pretty original and entertaining. Some of them end in pretty funny ways, as well. Finally, unlike the first PF where you got a score and a letter grade depending on how well you did, when you beat a stage you simply get “stars”, which can then be used at the Pursuit Force laboratory to upgrade the Commander in five different ways, including increasing the damage he dishes out, decreasing the damage he takes, and increasing the distance in which he can jump to other vehicles. There's probably no way anyone will upgrade everything on a first playthrough, so players can easily personalize the way they want to play the game, which also adds to EJ's huge replayability.

If there's anything else I could take issue with in EJ, it would be with the Pursuit Force recruits that sometimes help out the Commander in certain missions. While they do take out some criminals every once in a while, I do wish there was some way to give them orders so that some missions could have been ended faster and easier. I mean, you are the Commander after all. This is especially apparent in on-foot missions where their terrible AI just doesn't help you at all. A “stay put” order would have helped out greatly here. Also, there is an abundance of those “press the buttons on the screen” action moments in the game. Whether it is hanging off the hood of a car, arresting a criminal on foot, or during a boss battle, be prepared to be pressing a ton of random buttons. I list this as a problem since this isn't really that much of an original game mechanic anymore, and some people may just be sick and tired of them. Still, overall Extreme Justice improves on it's predecessor in almost every way, and YES, the overall difficulty of the game is much more easier and tolerable. Just don't be surprised if you still find yourself retrying some of the later stages.


EXTREME GRAPHICS

Another area where there is much improvement over the predecessor. EJ features an all-new cleaned-up HUD and much nicer-looking and smoother locations, backgrounds, and vehicles. There are more spruced up special effects like explosions, bullet shots, and car damage that all look great. Best of all, the entire game runs smoothly throughout, unlike the first PF which slowed down pretty much everytime you would jump to a car. The story is advanced through portraits of the characters talking in the “meeting room”, but you get the occasional FMV cut-scene that is pretty impressive. The only problem would probably be that some areas end up being recycled for two or three stages. Also, Pursuit Force never seems to ever take off their uniforms, do they? Not at weddings, funerals, nothing. That's dedication, people. Very impressive for a PSP title overall.

EXTREME SOUND

Sound effects and such are OK and the orchestrated music score is excellent and fits the action movie feel of the game quite well. The voice actors do what they can with what they're given, but ultimately bad writing and one too many stupid stereotypes are all one man can take. Are the Jamaican dudes going to cast voodoo on me? Really, do the British goons want to finish the robbery before the pub closes? Do the southern inbred hicks really want to “take me to the Bayou and feed me to the gators”? Seriously, I could go on, but I think I'll stop. I don't want to roll my eyes into the back of my head…

FOR YOU AND YOUR PSP, JUSTICE PREVAILS!

Replay value? Lets just say that after beating the 7-8 hour story mode on the normal difficulty, I was only 17% done. As you beat stages in story mode, you can go back to the main menu and replay them in bounty mode, where you'll be scored based on how well you do in each stage and receive extra “stars” that you can use to purchase new cheats, skins, and vehicles from the game's shop option. Both story and bounty modes have three different difficulties to tackle, but wait, there's more! Beating story mode stages will also unlock various challenges for you to accomplish in them. These include taking out enemy vehicles by just ramming them, beating a boss within a time limit, and so on. There is also an Ad-Hoc multiplayer mode for two players, but alas I do not know anyone else who owns this game. Still, even without multiplayer, EJ will give you plenty of bang for your buck!

I urge those of you who might have been turned off by the first Pursuit Force to definitely give Extreme Justice a shot, as it pretty much improves upon its predecessor in every way. It's a no-brainer action-adventure game with a dull story and bad dialogue, but with highly entertaining and sometimes innovative gameplay. Basically, it's like a Michael Bay movie you can actually play, and who hasn't wanted something like that? Quick note though BigBig: when you do Pursuit Force 3, axe the on-foot missions…quickly. kthxbai!

KEWL
+Improves upon its predecessor in almost every way
+Highly entertaining and fun arcade-like gameplay
+Death-defying jumps between cars is always a blast!
+Lots of gameplay variety
+Awesome and innovative boss fights
+Sweet graphics
+Excellent music
+Huge amount of replay value

LAME
-On-foot missions are PS1-$5-bargin-bin-game BAD!
-Dull story with bad writing
-Stereotypes that take race relations back 6 billion years
-Some recycled environments
-Would have liked to give orders to recruits in some missions

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/12/08

Game Release: Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice (US, 01/29/08)