Kombo’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game’s About
Racing games are a dime a dozen in the world of video games. You have simulation games and racing games fill out the release calendar in any given year. Very few racing games break from existing stereotypes and attempt to explore a different side of internal combustion engines. Wheelman from Ubisoft/Midway certainly explores new territory by being an open world, action racing game where you drive aggressively and “airjack” cars by jumping through the air.
What’s Hot
Movies starring Vin Diesel are filled with more testosterone and explosions than a bodybuilder competition on the Fourth of July. If you have watched the recent Fast and Furious movie, you’ll catch my drift. Wheelman starts you out with similar daring maneuvers and you’ll only learn more outrageous tricks to hijack cars and become a world-class wheelman. This is where you better make some popcorn and start to enjoy the improbable action that appears in the streets of Barcelona, Spain.
Milo Burik, Vin Diesel’s character, makes John Rambo look like Socrates. That is A-OK because it feeds into the mindless direction the game steers you. Once you start using your car as a football linebacker to ram enemies off the road and jumping from car to car, you’ll be laughing with glee as you feel like you are the main star in an action movie. The insanity that ensues at every corner is a mix of Grand Theft Auto, Burnout, Spy Hunter and Crazy Taxi all packed in the same trunk. Over-the-top just begins to describe the action you encounter.
Mindlessly driving through the streets of Barcelona is a guilty pleasure and boost the fun factor of Wheelman considerably. Airjacking is reminiscent of the PSP game Pursuit Force, but even though Wheelman barrows that mechanic, it is just as fun as ever. The constant feeling of forward motion helps Wheelman when you are faced with the rusty spots.
What’s Not
As you recklessly drive about the city, you’ll smash things to bits. That is all good and fine until you run into things that aren’t breakable. With the inconsistency in how environments crumble, you’ll have to take mental note on what things you can smash through and what things are stronger than brick walls. When you do come to a screeching halt, it breaks the frantic flow of the game. What is arguably the best part of the game feels limited because of the finicky nature of how you’ll interact with the environment.
The way the Wheelman’s missions are structured undercut the open world theme of the game. You can snap from mission to mission with the menu, never fully getting the experience of Barcelona. Since the missions are so easy to get to, you’ll get stuck in a rut of going right for the main storyline and only touching on the side missions when you want to increase your bankroll or are looking for a diversion and different game modes. An arcadey game like this would have benefited greatly from a multiplayer mode, since it barrows from so many other games. The absences of any such multiplayer modes are felt deeply.
The visuals of the cars look decent but the people and other items that populate the world are fairly disappointing. There could have been more improvement over the facial expressions because the characters come across looking plastic and uninteresting.
Final Word
Wheelman is the game that will have you shaking your head at how nutty it is and how far they ask you to suspend your disbelief. In addition, it has an adrenaline and testosterone filled gameplay experience to keep you playing. For those reasons alone, it is worth a rental. You’ll quickly discover the game runs out of tricks and you’ll grow tired of the drudgery of plowing through missions. Just like any good adrenaline rush, you’ll come crashing back down.
