Fans of The Simpsons finally have a video game that does the show justice.
User Rating: 8.6 | The Simpsons: Hit & Run PC
Despite their enormous cultural influence, The Simpsons have really only produced three computer/video games of any note - The most-vaunted Arcade game, Bart vs The Space Mutants for the NES and Road Rage, the Simpson's passable answer to Crazy Taxi. It's with some delight then that after such a long wait and having to sit through the deplorable Wrestling and Skateboarding games that the true epic Simpsons game is finally here. And it's very, very good. The underlining plot involves a bunch of alien wasps and their infiltration of Springfield, and it's up to the Simpsons and Apu to work out what's behind all of this. The game takes place in a GTA-like 3D environment across three different stages over seven levels, with each of the stages taking place at different parts of the day. You can traverse these levels by foot or by car, and there are a bucketload of cars available to you, either by completing side missions, winning races, or buying them. The game does the mix well - on one hand it's a solid driving game and on the other it's a competant action game. There's surprisingly little hand-to-hand combat in the game, and none of it particulally necessary. You're free to kick anything and everything, though, but if you want things that actually fight back, you'll find opponents lacking. Sonic-wise, the game is really, really .... good. All the sound effects are spot on and sound suitably cartoony. The game also benefits from the actuall cast providing their voice talents. The dialogue is extremely well recorded and delivered, which is just as well because the characters delivering them don't seem to be awake most of the time. While from a distance the 3D characters are well realised and animated, during a lot of the in-game cut scenes they show very little emotion or change in expression. Homer will raise his fist and Lisa will stroke her chin, but otherwise most characters will look the same if they're happy, sad, angry or even asleep. It removes a lot of the emotional impact of the dialogue and ultimately looks a little unprofessional. The CGI cutscenes on the other hand are really well animated, and not too dissimilar from the Halloween special "Homer3". The opening movie is especially good, and the ending is also very good, if a little short. The dialogue is genuinely funny in a lot of places and downright drab in others. Luckily the drab stuff only happens during the cutscenes. Other than that, you'll delight in the whole family's outbursts as they run into people, objects and other cars. Even the non-descript bypassers have some really good lines, and you'll find it hard not to bump into them just to hear them. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the entire package is the incredible score. A lot of effort has gone into its production and it really shows. Each character and level has its own set of tracks and really suits the environments and the character's personality, such as Bart getting rock tracks, Lisa getting Jazz and Apu running around to Indian music. The tracks are uniformally great and are so much better than a bunch of generic Simpsons-like brass tracks, it must be said. Unfortunately, the mission structure isn't terribly good. A lot of the missions don't actually have anything to do with the story and are just there as filler. There seems to be no reason why I have to find Hans Moleman so he can tell me to talk to Granpa Simpson, who sends me off to find Nelson who's taken his pills who doesn't have them anyway. It's only really the 6th and 7th levels that really have any proper semblance of structure, and as such it is those levels that stand out from the rest. That's not to say that the other levels aren't fun and exciting - it's just that it would have been better if they'd stuck to the story a bit tighter, rather than just be there for the sake of it. Speaking of which, the story itself could have used a bit of a tune up. While it's functional it that it provides a reason for everyone to run around town, it probably could have used a couple more levels and gone a bit deeper, too. After it's all over, you may get the impression you just sat through a very long Treehouse of Horror special. Even so - under all that is an incredibly solid game that incredibly fun to play. While the game certainly give you a completely free hand to steal cars and cause mass destruction, it gives you enough freedom to play the game at your own pace and engage in a spot of exploring. There's certainly enough bonus and unlockable items to warrant you running about and straying from the plot a bit more. Dismiss it as a poor man's GTA if you will, but Hit & Run deserves much more than that. It has a humour and a flavour all of its own and there's a pretty solid game under all that Simpsons packaging. And besides - what other game gives you the oppotunity to run Hans Moleman over with a school bus? 
