Spy Hunter Review

Good Spy Hunting.

Remember when spies looked like this?

Ah, the good old days of counter-intelligence, when turtlenecks, smart suits and

copious amounts of hair goop were the signs of a stylish spy. Old school spies

looked like jazz musicians who remembered to shave, and there’s not one among

us who didn’t spend many a night dreaming of living the upscale bachelor life

of a Sean Connery-era James Bond.

But have you seen what spies look like now? Sheesh. Gimme a break. Either

they look like this dork or this

dork, who clearly looks as though he’d be more comfortable in N’Sync than

an Aston Martin.

So when Midway’s updated Spy Hunter was announced, none of us were sure

whether it would be a consummate cool cat or

a pretty boy with no style. Thankfully, Spy Hunter stays true to its

roots with classic gameplay mechanics while sprucing up the looks to meet the

potential of the PS2.

If you’ve played the old Spy Hunter, then I’m sure you have a trillion

questions about his new one. I’ll try to answer the big ones here. Yes, you

still get to drive a cool spy car blasting enemies with machine guns and screwing

up the chases with oil slicks. Yes, you still get to drive into that little

van to reload. Yes, those nasty cars with the whirling blades on the sides still

try to scratch up your paint and ram you off the road.

The plot involves world domination by a demented, powerful mastermind who

heads up some creepy organization of other masterminds. In this case, the evil

honcho is named Daemon Curry and his evil organization is called Nostra International

(like a guy named “Daemon” is going to be all warm and fuzzy). The only ones

who can stop the nefarious ploy are the do-gooders at IES (International Espionage

Services). You’re one such good guy, and it’s your job to stop the burgeoning

threat by any means necessary.

So the plot sucks. Big deal – the plot in the original sucked, too. I defy

any of you to actually tell me what said plot was. I pumped probably 50 bucks

worth of quarters into that thing and never once even pretended there was a

plot at all. I recommend doing the same here. Suffice it to say that the gameplay

takes center stage.

And that gameplay is, for all intents and purposes, the same as it ever was.

You drive your fancy spy car through 14 increasingly difficult missions. Along

the way, you use your machine guns, missiles, oil slicks and smoke screens to

blow up as many enemies as you feel necessary while attempting to complete a

few mission objectives.

By far the biggest difference between this version and yesteryear’s is the

graphical upgrade. Spy Hunter looks good. The car is modeled nicely,

the framerate is very steady and the overall look is bright and fun. The explosions

are great, nearly photorealistic, and there are plenty of ’em. While it’s not

as flashy as SSX or creative as Twisted

Metal Black, this is a solid effort.

The control was a big concern of mine, since the original had that kick ass

wheel. Well, it turns out that my fears were ungrounded, as the car in Spy

Hunter handles like a dream. The forgiving physics lead to a game steeped

heavy in action and light in simulation. The car can morph into a hovercraft

(it does so automatically) when you find water, and there’s no change in the

control scheme. It’s very responsive and very simple.

When most people think about Spy Hunter, they think about the cool

weapons. Unfortunately, there’s not really much new in the way of munitions.

You still have machine guns and missiles up front and oil slicks and smokescreens

to blur the rear. You do get one new back weapon, a flame-thrower, and the missiles

and guns upgrade as you complete missions. After 18 years, all they could come

up with is a flame-thrower? Man, where’s Q when

you need him!

However,

you can’t ever customize your payload – it does it automatically, so that every

time you attempt mission number 5, you’ll have the exact same level machine

guns and missiles. In other words, there’s no going back to really lay the smack

down once you’ve gotten cooler weapons.

All the old baddies are here, including that nasty guy with the whirling razors. There are a few new choppers and fighters to take down, but none of the enemies are much of a match one on one. It’s all about numbers, and when you get caught in some hairy crossfire, it can get mean. And, I should add, very cool.

Each mission has several objectives, which usually include blowing up a few

trucks, locating a few “Satcom” markers, and disabling a bomb or two. But the

nature of the level design is closer to that of a race than an arena. You have

a certain amount of time to complete at least the Main Objective, which means

you can’t spend too much time dallying around.

This leads to a sort of trial-and-error gameplay redundancy. You’ll try the mission once, and since you don’t know where anything is, you’ll miss most of the important bits. So you try it again, and again, and again, and by the fifth time or so you’ve got the right path laid out in your mind and you just go to it.

But the levels are pretty much scripted entirely, so after the first few runs you’ll always know how many enemies are around each bend. In conjunction with the ‘downhill racing’ style design, this makes it hard to want to play a level again after you’ve nailed it correctly.

Fans will be happy to welcome back the Peter Gunn

theme, which is right up there in the spy tunes pantheon alongside this,

this, and of course this.

Apparently, someone at Midway REALLY likes the band Saliva, because there’s

more Saliva on this DVD than you’d find in Pavlov’s shoe closet. You can unlock

new videos and stuff by completing the missions in record time, but unless you

like Saliva, your glands won’t be thrilled.

There are also a few multiplayer modes, but they’re pretty lame. Each is some sort of race, and while you can blow each other up, there’s no reward for doing so. It’s not much fun.

But on the whole, Spy Hunter is. It brings a legendary game into the

next-generation with good graphics, tight control and solid if redundant gameplay.

It might not be Goldfinger, but it’s a far cry from Moonraker.