Official Website

Platform: PSP

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

They say crime doesn’t pay, but fighting crime can sure be a heck of a lot of fun. There have been a lot of innovative and entertaining games released on the PSP since its release, and every designer is trying to take gaming into a more exiting direction. Pursuit Force puts you on the right side of the law, but you can almost be assured that even though you might be trying to put a stop to ruthless thugs and convicts that have found their way onto the streets, there is still someone who is going to be upset about the amount of violence. That’s all part of the fun though.

Capital City has become a virtual lawless zone. Escaped convicts, ruthless Mafioso, and deadly vixens are terrorizing the general population and making crime a dreaded every day occurrence, but the law is stepping in. In an effort to put these criminals behind bars (or six feet under) the Pursuit Force has been established. This elite force has taken the idea of cease and desist to a new level filled with danger at every turn but by land, sea, or air, the Pursuit Force has only one goal and that is to put the guilty behind bars.

If you’ve been looking for a game that packs a single UMD with action, you really needn’t look any further than Pursuit Force. This is without a doubt one of the most addictive titles to hit the PSP yet and the adrenaline rush is complete out of control. The combination of action with racing offers for a fantastic game experience that quickly becomes addictive.

The city has been under the assault of five major gangs and now it up to you to stop them. Career mode will let you face off against them and each of your adversaries has a collection of missions for you to undertake, though not all of these will be available at first. You’ll need to improve your ranks into order for this to happen. There are four basic types of missions that you will take on, and at times you may even find yourself involved in a number of these rolled into one.

During driving and boating missions, you will be hitting the gas (and using some nice power slides) to stop criminals in their tracks. You can target and fire at will, but there are a lot of things to worry about. Out on the busy highways of Capital City, you need to concern yourself with civilians getting into the line of fire, and hitting or shooting them will cost you some points. There’s also your health and that of your vehicle that needs to be kept in mind, but there are ways to survive a little longer. When you’re within range of a criminal, you’ll be given the option to jump onto their mode of transportation, shot them down and take it over (you can also procure civilian wheels if necessary.) Taking cars from criminals might seem like an easy way out, but not always. You’ll have to avoid enemy fire and avoid being thrown off and hitting the pavement or being tossed into the water at these high speeds really isn’t good for anyone’s health.

Killing criminals will increase your Justice Meter and should you raise this to the maximum level, you’ll find some other very cool features that will come into play. This will give you the ability to fire off shots in the air before landing on a convicts car, making it a little easier to eliminate the whole group, and for the most part, you will find at least two thugs to deal with. The Justice Meter will also allow you to heal yourself (and your transportation) and this is an essential thing to keep an eye on. Through all of this gunplay, you can also switch targets, and keep on eye on what is coming up behind you, and this makes the action even more intense. Your HUD will show you your location, that of enemies, and civilians in cases where protecting them is essential.

If you’re not in a car or a boat, you might find yourself on foot. These missions generally tend to be short and sweet with you emptying clip after clip of ammo into low life scum before starting your next mission portion and if that’s not enough, you’ll have helicopter battles to participate in as well. Let’s not forget about boss battles, and Pursuit Force has some that will leave your thumbs tired and your palms sweaty. At the end of each mission, you will be scored based on how well you did and passing will also unlock other features in the game.

Can your fight against crime get more difficult? It certainly can, and the missions involve other aspects as well. If too many vital citizens are killed, you’re fired. There are some missions where you are on a time limit; others where, should your targets reach their destination, the mission will end. Being cautious is a good state of mind, but it’s not always going to be the right thing to move you to the next stage. Plus, you’ve got an overbearing boss who will chime in constantly, usually to tell you how badly your doing, and this is a good sign that you need to pick up the pace.

Pursuit Force isn’t just about career mode, and there are other modes of play to be found here as well. There is a race mode as well as a time trial option that can be played through, and this is where unlocking things becomes an essential part of playing the game. There is also a gallery with concept artwork as well as the videos that appear throughout the game, so you have a number of things to unlock as you play through this one. One really nice feature though is the merge high score option. Pursuit Force allows for multiple player profiles to be used and, just as the option would sound, you can bring all of their scores together in one, nice package.

This isn’t just a game that plays well though, it looks fantastic. Although there are times when some of the backgrounds are flying by far too quickly to really take them in, the graphics that you do see are great and you’ll even find a Matrix style slow motion sequence when you jump while your Justice Meter is maxed. The explosions are well executed and things like smoke and gun fire are all part of what makes Pursuit Force addictive to play.

There isn’t anything that this game lacks and overall, it’s near perfection. Think of this game like an ideal combination between Spy Hunter and Twisted Metal with a bit of the Mad Max movies thrown in for good measure and you still wouldn’t even come close to how cool Pursuit Force is. If you love action, if you’re a sucker for racing games, this is the title that’s going to keep you drooling and wearing the batteries down on your PSP. Being so bad on the right side of the law has never been such a rush.

-mike-