Chase Hollywood Stunt Driver – Review

The name’s Corrado, Chase Corrado, movie stuntwoman extraordinaire and daughter of the famous stuntman Griffin Corrado. Oh, and I deliver Chinese food on the side. You play Chase Corrado, a stuntwoman hired for numerous films such as ‘The Unchaseables’ and ‘Chase of the Triad’. In these films, it is your job to pull off the stunts and make it to the end of the scene, very much like Infograme’s PS2 title, Stuntman. During each scene there are multiple objectives, however these can all be done at your own pace. Finishing these objectives gives Chase ‘reputation’ points and as these go up she gains new scenes. Once all scenes in a particular film are filmed, she then gains new films to perform in. There is a background story which at its core explains that Chase’s father was one of the best stunt drivers around until his “accident” involving work colleague Rick Baen, who is now Chase’s rival in the movie business. All of this doesn’t appear to affect the gameplay, but it makes for an interesting plot and explains Rick’s sarcastic comments should you fail a scene.

Chase has at her disposal numerous vehicles, ranging from what appears to be a Chinese delivery van to a souped-up motorcycle and sports car. Obtaining new vehicles is fun, however you don’t get to choose what vehicles you use in a scene in career mode, although you can in challenge mode. Each vehicle handles differently and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. All vehicles do roughly the same tricks such as flips, spins and rolls although at times, you are required to powerslide, wheelie or drive on two wheels for a certain amount of time to complete different objectives. All of these are great fun to carry out and one of the best objectives in the game is when you have to ram another car to damage it, Chase H.Q. style, whilst your passenger fires off numerous rounds at it, aiding you in your quest.

Graphically speaking, Chase can at times resemble a Dreamcast title and although this does nothing to show off the Xbox’s technical capabilities, it also doesn’t appear to detract from the game overall, in some levels actually adding to the fun factor as it’s not all too serious. In saying that however, the graphics could be better. Another slight gripe is the fact that I was unsure as to the collision detection, as you seem to drive through trees constantly. On the flipside, I thought ‘if all these trees were solid, this would be pure hell’, so the fact you can pass through them actually removes an element of frustration.

Sound-wise, the music in Chase is extremely repetitive, but this is counteracted by the fact that you can make use of the Xbox’s ’soundtrack’ option, thus enabling you to play the game to your own CD’s, which have been ripped to the Xbox hard drive. The sound effects do their job, but again they’re nothing stupendous. Though the surround sound was working, there’s no “5.1″ label on the box and this could explain the lack of overall depth of sound in the game. The Director of the film that you’re shooting goes from sounding like he’s Chinese, to sounding like he’s Irish, whilst all pedestrians…sorry, ‘extras’ – in the film sound the same, something akin to the squealy sidewalk dwellers in the Crazy Taxi series.

Presentation, as previously mentioned, could have been so much better on the big green box. This is presented as though it is a PS2 or Dreamcast title, and isn’t as polished as you would expect an Xbox title to be. As it should be though, the game isn’t ALL just about the graphics, it’s also about the way it plays, which is handy as Chase provides addictive, fun gameplay throughout, even with the lack of perfect reflections, explosions and breaking glass.

The game is easy to pick up from the offset, the usual “trigger buttons = brake and accelerator” affair. Tricks are pulled off with the [X] button, so there’s no annoying multi-button combos and it’s all in the timing. Of course, if you’re a gamer who’s into using every button imaginable in combination because you think this adds to the game, you’re going to be highly disappointed with Chase. In saying that however, many of the tasks in later films would be nigh on impossible if it weren’t so easy to pull off that 90 miles-an-hour barrel roll. Along with career mode and challenge mode, you also have the option of playing multi-player. One of the problems with this however, is that to start with, you only have one choice of game and must unlock the others. This can be difficult as it relies on you finding secret “Bam! Trophies” hidden throughout the game.

Overall, Chase is an addictive little number that’s simple to pick up and play. The game is fast and frantic and although not graphically perfect, it’s still great fun. The objective-based points system works a treat and like other games that use this method – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, for example – it does make you want to come back and keep playing to try and finish all objectives in each scene. The objectives are also obtainable and not completely impossible, so the game isn’t too frustrating and you can advance quite far even without a great deal of practice. There is a fair and even learning curve and any objectives you fail to do first time, will have you returning to eventually complete. Chase: HSD kept me glued to the screen for numerous hours and I wanted to keep playing to find out what the next movie would be. It’s just a shame it’s marred by frustration and some control issues. Still this is definitely recommended for some pick up and play fun, especially if you’re not a player who is ‘all about the graphics’.

Review by Angela

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