Pump My Ride (full of lead)
Now it sounds like we’ve got enough for a full game just with the vehicle based fighting, but Bigbig were obviously in a generous mood as they’ve thrown in several sections of near mindless mini-gun havoc from a helicopter that flies alongside the road or river allowing you to rain 6000 round per minute lead death onto the bad guys below. This add s a nice break to the driving gameplay, which to be honest is varied enough already with the variety it has in there but it’s welcome all the same.
But there’s even more to come too with the third person shooter sections seeing you legging it around on foot to complete an objective. Rather than have a load of disparate missions with little linking them together, Bigbig have built an unfolding story into the mission structure, so as you play you slowly learn what is going on and the different sections and styles make sense.
For example, the top politician’s daughter has been nabbed so you set off in hot pursuit, guns blasting as you chase after her and the kidnappers. You end up in a warehouse area and so it’s into the third person shooter mode as you deal with the bad guys and rescue the girl before slipping neatly back into race mode for the trip home, but this time being chased by the bad guys.
These sections play slightly differently from the other racing levels as you can’t now leap from your car as you have a passenger who can’t follow you. To be honest, frantic and tense as they are, these sections are probably the weakest and most annoying of all the various mission types as you become so used to switching cars when yours gets too banged up that you just wish for someway to heave the girl out of the car and into a new one… but you can’t so you just have to sit back and take the damage and hope you build up enough on you Justice bar to heal the car before it blows.
Ooh yeah, the Justice Bar… This is a sort of ‘power up’ meter that gradually fills up as you take out the bad guys. Crash into a civilian, accidentally hit one in a gunfight and the bar goes down… take out lots of baddies and the bar goes up. When it’s full you’ll do more damage with your weapons and when the cars go up in flames, especially in the helicopter levels, they REALLY go with a bang. But the other use for the Justice Bar is as a quick heal option which repairs your car and you, essential for those later escort missions where you can’t leap to a new car.
