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Vin Diesel is no stranger when it comes to being the face of a video game. We’ve seen him star in the video game version of The Chronicles of Riddick and now he’s starring in Midway’s high-speed action thriller, The Wheelman. A while ago it was announced that a film would accompany the game, as of right now the film is nowhere to be found but the game is said to deliver a “adrenaline-fueled, cinematic thrill ride.” So does Vin Diesel pick his video game roles better than he does his movie roles? (xXx anyone.)

The Wheelman stars Vin Diesel who plays the role of Milo Burik, an undercover agent whose in Barcelona to infiltrate the underworld crime organization. And this is where our first flaw begins, you really would never know who Milo is really working for if it wasn’t for the game manual. The game has this big empty whole in its story which is never filled throughout the game and its highly confusing just to put the pieces together. But the fact remains you never know whose side your on. At times you work for this gang and then for a different gang and in one instance the top dog in the Romanians gang calls you out on it and he does nothing after the fact that you just got done slaying a good chunk of his crew. The dialogue and the not so great voice acting doesn’t help the game out either. Vin Diesel is portrayed as a man of few words, and arrogant when it comes to his driving skills. You never feel anything when Milo speaks considering its an actor voicing him, at least the cheesy dialogue and voice acting leaves for some hilarious moments.

Now as you can tell, most of the game takes place behind the wheel. One of the stand out features in this game are the different offensive moves you can do within your vehicle. Apart from the basic left and right ram attacks you can do a 360° Cyclone Spin, which is a 180° spin that gives you a chance to shoot at an enemy behind your car, once your opportunity is over the car will make another 180° spin returning your car to normal. Another vehicular attack is the Aimed Shot which slows everything down giving you a better chance to precisely shoot at your target. The Wheelman is full of Hollywood type action and stunts like the Air Jack, that allows you to jump from car to car. Most of the missions have you driving to and back with rival gangs blasting your ride with semi-automatics. Most missions are as I described, a few will have you actually getting out the car to kill a couple of people, which only leads to a need for a cover system. That’s correct, The Wheelman does NOT feature a cover system, so you’ll be crouching behind boxes, locking on to your target with the left trigger, and firing with the right trigger. Luckily, Milo does have some sense to crouch up and down as you fire so no need to actually push B to crouch up and down. Unfortunately, we can’t control the AI, they can really use some sense. The AI is terrible when it comes to on foot combat, they’ll take cover behind explosive barrels sometimes no cover at all.

Cars are you toys and Barcelona is the playground, a very dull one at that. The city is just not alive in this game, pedestrians add so much in GTAIV but in The Wheelman you hardly notice that they actually exist. The structure of the city has a couple of impressive locations but nearly every street is the same, giving Barcelona no type of vibe or atmosphere. Oh and what’s with the weather? The city never turns to night, no rain, no fog, no nothing, just sunny skies. It’s really not a gift to have this city open to roam around with, but at least you get a chance to try several types of side missions scattered through the city. Side missions vary from street racing, hot-potato, taxi, etc. All of which are bland except for my personal favorite Rampage, which has you destroying everything in your path trying to achieve a high cost in damage. Although your not rewarded with cash, you are reward with upgrades for you car if you achieve a rank ‘A’ or higher in the side missions.

Graphically, The Wheelman is nothing spectacular but it gets by. Vin Diesel looks like Vin Diesel and the rest of the characters look decent. The city doesn’t really look pleasing to look at, its more of the lack of atmosphere than graphically in this case. When it comes to sound, everything sounds great. The spanish guitar during the loading screen is soothing and the intense music as your speeding away from the cops is what you would expect from a motion picture. The different sounds that the cars provide are also great, you can really hear the sound of your rims screeching the pavement when your rolling on flats. When your cruising through Barcelona you do have a couple of in-game radio stations, nothing as robust as GTA IV’s radio stations but a solid attempt although none of the tracks are licensed songs.

The Wheelman set out to deliver a motion picture in video game form and it does. The Hollywood car chase, gun play and action is all there but it lacks overall with its confusing plot. The lack of any type of multiplayer and the 8 hour campaign won’t keep this game running although some type of DLC is expected. The Wheelman will probably be a guilty pleasure of mine, I enjoyed playing it but its so hard not to get frustrated with all of flaws this fun game comes with.

Written By Edward V

What is the difference between a man and a parasite? A man builds. A parasite asks 'Where is my share?' A man creates. A parasite says, 'What will the neighbors think? - Andrew Ryan