Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: SpyHunter

Written by Adam Woolcott on November 06, 2001

Full Review: Dear Santa: I'd like an Interceptor for Christmas. Thank you.

If you ask me, the original Spy Hunter was way ahead of its time. The overhead shooter/driving game was a huge hit, even with a lack of story, or the graphical punch to really make a game like this involving and engaging. Just imagine if you could have thrown in lots of detailed missions, a cool, sleek, sexy design for the Interceptor, and a bazillion objectives put into that classic; just as long as the game plays just as well, it's a hit.

Well guess what? That happened. Thanks to the developers Paradigm and publishers Midway, Spy Hunter has been brought to the 21st century in style. And it all worked out the way it should; the game retains the same playing style that made the original such a hit, but with much more depth and challenge, as well as the excellent graphics and great presentation. There are a few minor flaws and annoyances that stick out, but on the whole, Spy Hunter is a very good game that does the original justice.

The story of Spy Hunter is of the NOSTRA Corporation, the same guys behind the original's Уstory.Ф NOSTRA has been hiding under the guise as a do-gooding corporation; however their true intention is to take over the world. Enter IES (International Espionage Sector) and the Spy Hunter, whose job is to shut down NOSTRA and foil all their evil plans. Clichщ, yes, but the way its all sewn together in terms of gameplay, you can almost forgive it. Actually, the story isn't really told much in boring cutscenes; instead it's followed through the stopping of their various missions.

Spy Hunter features 14 missions, each containing at the least 4 objectives per mission. Most are similar to be honest; each one has a main objective you must complete before getting credit for beating the level. Others are level specific; blowing up certain things, or placing GPS trackers on others. 2 objectives are always the same; collecting 4 Satcom's, and making sure not to kill any innocent civilians. Most of the time the Satcom collecting is the most difficult with odd placement that makes you use the most of your abilities driving the Interceptor.

Speaking of the Interceptor; it's a monster on wheels. Besides not only looking cool, it's fast and loaded with heavy artillery. After finishing each mission's primary objective, the Interceptor is equipped with more high-powered weaponry, all of which is essential to complete the game. The Interceptor even takes on multiple forms based on certain parameters; falling into water turns the car into a hoverboat. Also, once the Interceptor reaches 75% damage (yes, the car can take damage), it transforms into a motorcycle-type thing for better evasiveness. When in water, the motorcycle turns into a quasi-jetski, or something. There's actually a pair of Interceptors; halfway through the game you get to change to a more powerful, sleeker, and just plain cooler version with some new goodies.

As usual, semi-trucks litter the roads you race on giving your Interceptor a boost. However instead of giving new weapons like the original, the trucks give you full energy and reload your weapons completely. Actually, there is only one per mission, and in one particular mission, none at all. I won't spoil why, however. Most of the time, the weapons vans appear just before a hard spot hits to reload yourself, which means you cannot rely on them to get you past a level later on. I think this is a good element, forcing the player to learn the missions and understand the levels better, instead of just healing when necessary and not learning the skills required.

The first thing about Spy Hunter that makes it a great game is the ingenious level design and parameters. All the levels have one or two unique objectives that are quite creative. This keeps the game fresh, and offsets the repetitive task of Satcom's and Civilian causalities. Actually, halfway through the game, you don't have to collect Satcom's anymore, and instead of minimizing the casualties; you are forced into making sure there are NO casualties. And that is not easy at all, due to the smart AI.

See, the enemy cars are very smart. When you're shooting at them, they cunningly will get in the way of civilians trying to force some cheap deaths by you. It gets especially annoying when there are no allowed casualties instead of minimizing them, and really makes you try to avoid instead of destroying them.

Also, when it comes to level design, the way everything is laid out, you never get the impression that there's too much going on. With each level having 4 objectives, it was possible to force too much on and make mistakes; instead everything is in the right places minimizing frustration. For instance the 2nd level, you have to destroy a Helicopter (it was on the OPM demo for those that remember); blow up five NOSTRA trucks, collect Satcom's, and minimize casualties. Right off the bat you destroy the chopper, and soon after you've got one truck down. Then the 2nd truck gets destroyed. Once you get done with that, you'll eventually have to find a shortcut to the left, which will lead you to the 1st Satcom. Then on the Autobahn you collect the 2nd Satcom, and right after landing from the ramp, truck #3 is there. See what I mean? It's not like some games where you cannot complete everything in one try due to poor design; the missions are so well crafted that the only problem is how difficult it can get if you're not paying attention. Most missions will require multiple playthroughs to find the hidden paths to the Satcom's.

That leads to the big flaw with Spy Hunter; the bizarre forcing of the player to accomplish every objective in one sitting to fully complete it. Unlike some games like Tony Hawk or Dave Mirra BMX, where you can play a level multiple times to get everything, SH makes you learn how to get everything accomplished in one shot. That's fine and dandy, but if you don't get an objective accomplished the 2nd time that you did in the 1st try, you lose credit for it. That doesn't make sense. Why not just set it so you can get everything on multiple plays, as long as you get the main goal each time? Use the Уall in oneФ to unlock the cheats like it is now, but for a while it gets frustrating, and honestly it's almost there to increase replay cheaply.

Controlling the Interceptor is responsive and fun; once you get used to where everything is, it's a breeze. The racing part of the controls is a cross between arcade and simulation; the car turns on a dime and slides around like Ridge Racer, but it feels like you're driving a real set of wheels. Since this car is so advanced according to the story, the arcade tendencies are credited to technology. Nice cover, eh?

Firing weapons is easy enough with the trigger buttons, once you learn what does what it's second nature. Firing GPS trackers or turning on the special radar is a simple press of the circle button, and triangle quickly puts up an infared-ish rearview mirror.

My only problem is with the turbo and missile lock button choices. With the guided missles, pressing the L3 button (also known as the left analog stick) will pick the closest target to fire. Unfortunately it doesn't respond as well as the other buttons and can get frustrating. And since it's the same button as the one you steer with, it gets complicated. Then there's turbo..which is a process where you double tap the accelerator button. Sadly, it takes multiple tries to get it to kick in sometimes and that cuts down on your time for completing the level and unlocking the Уcheats.Ф

There's only one problem with those complaints Ц there's nothing anyone can do about it. Spy Hunter uses every button on the controller and there simply isn't enough buttons. They could have had the turbo boost on the R3 button instead, but who knows how that would work out. It's just one of those things that hurts the game, but it's nobody's fault at all.

No matter what the flaws are, the game is still really fun and addictive. You'll spend a while trying to knock off every mission and unlock ever secret (even if they're just DVD features like music videos from Saliva or УMaking OfФ featurettes...cool stuff for a video game actually). With just 14 missions the game may be short for some, but what's there is more than worth it and you'll want to replay it to get everything accomplished, even if they kinda cheap out with the objectives.

There is a small 2-player mode which is really just straight out racing; some levels are about finding the most Satcom's, but the best one is where you have to run over the most chickens. Yeah, I said chickens. Methinks someone at Paradigm has a sick sense of humor..

Visually, Spy Hunter isn't the best looking game on PS2, but it's not the worst either. There are many various landscapes that all are really nicely detailed and unique. The Interceptor is cleverly designed and looks really sleek and cool. And at times there is a LOT of stuff going on at one time, but the game never wavers from the 60 FPS engine whatsoever. Water effects are nice and the draw distance is pretty long with little to no pop-up.

And when it comes to figuring out what to do, the engine smartly points out exactly what is to be attacked, or traced by the color of the target. If it's red, blow it up. If it's yellow, track it. The green Satcom's stick out and are easy to spot. This makes the frustration go down a little and more enjoyable. The HUD is cool to see what is behind you perfectly, and the explosions are well done. What's there is very good, even if it's not spectacular.

When it comes to sound, Spy Hunter has the James Bond feeling down pat. The famous Peter Gunn theme is here in 2 forms, recreated for the 21st century. Saliva even does a version of the theme with some lyrics as well to add to the punch. Besides that, each level's theme has a definite spy-like feeling and almost gets you thinking you're in the Bondmobile playing with Q's new toys. A couple of the themes repeat, but you won't mind at all because they're so well done.

For the rest of the sounds, it's pretty nicely done. The female voice accompanying you telling you what you've done is okay, if not a bit grating after a while. There is not much voice acting besides that can hurt it. The other effects like gun sounds and missile blasts are cool, but not anything memorable. Which is no surprise because hardly any game can claim to have memorable sound effects.