Cars, guns and agressive driving...It's Chase HQ for the modern age!
The first thing that leaps out of the small PSP screen (if i can use that pun) is the excellent graphics. Next comes the sound, then comes the frenetic game play - there, that's the game summed up in just two sentences.
Of course, to do that would do a great injustice to this title! Thinking back to my mis-spent youth (hanging around the local kebab shop) playing the latest arcade game that had landed, I always remember (with fond memories) when Chase HQ 2 turned up. Ok, so it was outrun with some bloke that shot at the cars, but wow! It took driving to another level.
Ramming cars and generally having great fun (even though there wasn't a story to mention) was all we lived for!
Well, Pursuit Force is just as much fun - all over again! The ability to jump from car to car to jeep to bike to truck and back to a car just adds bucket-loads to what could have been a run of the mill cop driving game. There's nothing more satisfying than jumping onto the bonnet of a perps car and letting loose with 20 rounds of machine gun fire!
What's more the rag dolls are great! blast a guy in the car and he'll either fall out or (my favorite) he'll stay slumped next to you, swinging in his seat as you spin the car around the many streets in this game.
One thing that might have added a bucket load of extra fun would have been a GTA style approach (free roaming cities), but you'd really be asking for the sky to expect that! And after all, it's not meant to be GTA, it's supposed to be a fast and fun shooter/driving game that give some instant gratification.
The missions do get harder the more you progress and the later levels will test both the skill and patience of any veteran gamer, but persevere and it'll be worth it.
You'd better keep the PSP plugged into the mains as i totally burned through a full charge without even realising that i'd been playing so long. Time really does fly when you're having fun!
The boat sequences are a light relief to the cars, but i found the controls a real dog when it came to doing the missions on foot.
Unlocking cars and race courses adds instant replayablity to the game. I think that i'd have marked it down if it wasn't there, but the developers have though this through and come up with an excellent combination that tests your aptitude for speed and skill.
This game does have a story (although somewhat lost in amongst the action), but you can't fault the game and for me it simply takes me back to the early 80's in a small and greasy kebab shop where a new arcade machine had emerged!
Ahhh, memories!
My verdict is - GO BUY IT NOW! YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR COLLECTION!