Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice (PSP)

Just your average car-hopping, face-shooting action romp.
2/6/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Even the look and feel of the game hasn't changed much since the original Pursuit Force. Granted, the first game was one of the very best-looking games on the PSP, and Extreme Justice is every bit as pretty-looking as its predecessor. It's even a bit cleaner in spots --and uglier in others, such as when the UMD fails to load up a chunk of the level, leaving you driving in empty space for at least a few seconds as it struggles to catch up.

BigBig did at least make a couple of changes to the original game's formula -- some good, some bad. On paper, the addition of new characters to the mix isn't an awful idea, but it's not used to any great effect here. New recruits to the Pursuit Force will accompany you on most missions, but save for the girl who is very good at leaping on enemy cars and killing off the scumbags inside, most of them are pathetically useless. The on-foot cohorts aren't very good at shooting dudes standing three feet away, and any time you're getting helicopter accompaniment, it's impossible to tell whether they're helping or just floating around aimlessly.

More useful than any of those dead-weight cadets is the addition of a justice meter. Players of the first game will recall how angering the game's difficulty could be at times, and the justice meter does a good job of fixing that. Basically, any time you bust a bad guy, blow something evil up, or generally do a good deed, your meter fills up a bit. If you're in the middle of a firefight and either your car or your personal health meter are quickly depleting, you can just hold down the triangle button for a couple of seconds and use whatever justice you've stored up to replenish yourself. If you let the meter build up all the way, you can pull off a nifty little slow-motion leap to an enemy car, which allows you to shoot any baddies occupying the vehicle in midair. If years of modern action games have taught us anything, it's that shooting people in slow motion in midair is awesome. It's scientific fact.

It won't take you more than a handful of hours to best Extreme Justice's story mode (perhaps a bit longer if you opt for the hard difficulty setting), but thankfully, there is more to do. BigBig included a number of standalone challenges through which to play. Bounty mode has you replaying missions from the story for cash to spend on unlockables, and challenge mode does roughly the same thing, but with unique objectives like finishing off missions under specific time limits and avoiding collisions, etc.

Multiplayer comes with a few different modes, including a standard four-player deathmatch and some competitive and cooperative driving modes. The deathmatch isn't much fun, since it's based on the same lame shooting action as the third-person shooter sequences in the story. The driving stuff tends to be more enjoyable, especially survivor mode, which has you and a friend teaming up to drive and man a turret to take down incoming enemies. Too bad it's only for ad-hoc play, as some Internet support probably would have helped the mode's appeal a great deal.

As much as Extreme Justice might seem like a no-brainer to those who loved Pursuit Force, it's not quite such a simple recommendation to make. Yes, the action is still largely exciting, and the visual presentation is terrific, but so much of what makes Extreme Justice fun was precisely what made the original game fun. The newer elements, such as the multiplayer, the added out-of-the-car sequences, and the cheeseball storyline don't really add much to the overall experience, and in some cases actually detract from it. Extreme Justice is certainly worth a look, but don't expect the same level of whiz-bang excitement that you got the first time around.