Pursuit Force

"Badass Cops and Bad One Liners"

Most people have seen those "cool cop" movies. The ones where the audience oohs and ahhs at the crazy stunts and the horrible one liners of the lead hero or heroine. Most of those same people have also wondered what it would be like to be one of those people. Pursuit Force for the Playstation Portable lets you live the experience of an action movie cop. Pursuit Force's main selling point is that it allows the player to engage in crazy car chases, perform crazy stunts and perform a large number of cool maneuvers other games have not offered before.

The premise of Pursuit Force is that the player is a member of the new elite police division in the fictional Capital City, known as " The Pursuit Force." The Pursuit Force was put together to put an end to gang related crimes in the city, as the city is mostly controlled by five primary gangs, the Warlords, the Capelli Family, the Escaped Convicts, The Vixens, and the Killer 66. Each of these gangs is based on a combination of cliches of real life criminal organizations, such as paramilitary groups, the Cosa Nostra, the Yakuza, and bank robbers. The story follows the adventures of the nameless player character, who isn't referred to by name, or speaks at all. This is probably done in accordance to the classic gaming ways of trying to put the player into the gaming experience. The player is under the command of the nameless police captain, who is a cliche of movie police captains; balding, cigar smoking, tie wearing, cynical, and initially does not trust the player. The player is immediately plunged into the action, trying to stop the Warlords gang from deploying nerve agent.

Pursuit Force is first and foremost, a driving game. Most of the game takes place while driving a car or motorcycle. The player controls the vehicle with the left analog stick. The square button is used to control the application of the brake. The R button is used to fire weapons from the vehicle, and the L button is used to switch targets while firing a gun. The start button pauses the game, and the select button honks the horn or toggles the police siren on or off when using a police vehicle. The circle button is the jump button, probably the most important button in the game. It used by the player to switch from one vehicle to another, using a variety of death defying stunt jumps and leaps. An icon flashes on screen indicating that the circle button should be pressed when the player is close enough to another vehicle that can be jumped to. The player can take over vehicles being used on the road by civilians, or hijack enemy vehicles after killing the occupants inside. The button is used to activate the Justice abilities. These abilities are sensitive according to the context they are used in. If the player uses it while they are jumping from one vehicle to another, they will be able to jump in slow motion, allowing the player to put down a hail of gunfire onto the enemies, or possibly kill them before landing on the vehicle. In other situations, the justice is used to restore health to the vehicle or player. Justice relies on a bar at the bottom of the screen known as the justice meter. A full justice meter allows the player to do more damage and receive less damage from enemies. This meter fills up when the player kills or damage an enemy, or rams a vehicle an enemy is riding in. The bar decreases when the player hits or damages a civilian vehicle or object/person they are supposed to protect. The amount of justice inside the meter also effects what ability is used when the triangle button is pressed. The D Pad also controls steering, with the exception of the back button, which allows the player to look behind the vehicle they are currently in.

As stated earlier, Pursuit Force is primarily driving based. Players generally start each level in a police car, and they are to achieve an objective inside the stage, such as pursuing and stopping a certain amount of enemies, or killing all the enemies before they reach a certain point on the map. Other objectives include protecting a target or stealing a particular marked vehicle in context with the mission. Most of the game is played this with, occasionally switching to short, foot based or helicopter based missions. When on foot, the player must arrest (get in close and press the R button), or shoot all of the enemies within the mission area, sometimes within a time limit. The player can obtain additional weapons from enemies if they choose to arrest rather then kill the criminals. When all of the enemies in a certain area are dead, the game generally plays a cutscene, and it's back to some vehicle action. The helicopter based mission segments are "rail shooting" segments. This means that the player is not in control of movement at all, and all the player can do is fire a minigun out of the back of the helicopter. The player's goal is to destroy all of the enemy vehicles, while avoiding hitting civilians and occasionally protecting sensitive targets. The player is also responsible for keeping the helicopter safe by shooting down the missiles that enemies will occasionally launch at the helicopter. An important focus of these segments is the heat of the minigun. If the minigun overheats, it will not fire and must cool down for a short period of time. Heat is indicated at the bottom of the screen with a bar. The story of Pursuit Force is told in chapters divided according to the gangs they are about. That means that there are five story chapters, though the player cannot immediately finish one gang and move onto another at their own leisure. Pursuit Force is based on a police rank system, with certain cases in a chapter being locked until the player reaches a certain rank. This forces players to generally spread their attention between the gangs evenly before moving onto the next set of cases for each gang. The story is mainly told to the player in small, in game cutscenes that happen during the missions, and during more detailed cutscenes that happen between missions. A fair amount of information is also communicated to the player from the police captain.

Pursuit Force isn't a game designed to impress the eye like so many other new titles on the market. Most of the stuff in the game is animated in a very colourful, but believable style. The game definitely makes sure you know exactly what everything you see is, but it will not impress you in any way. However, the animations are very smooth. The sounds in game are quite good. The main Pursuit Force theme will have you humming along quick. The sound effects are quite satisfying in the game, making you want to ram cars and fire guns. The voice acting is meant to remind players of their favorite cop movies, so they are mostly cliche, though the voices that are in the game are quite enjoyable to listen to, especially the police captain.

Pursuit Forces features a variety of unlockable features, including the cutscenes, a game artwork and concept work. The player can unlock a variety of race missions, as well as trying for higher scores on levels previous played. While Pursuit Force, isn't so thrilling the second time around. Unless the player is really motivated to unlock every single bit of artwork, the game won't last very long after the first play through. The lack of replayability, as well as the extreme difficulty that some players complain about makes this game not so popular with the casual gaming ground. Racing and action fans might enjoy this title a lot. While it will never be a major hit, Pursuit Force is definitely a game PSP gamers should check out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/08

Game Release: Pursuit Force (US, 03/07/06)