Review #181: Pursuit Force - Extreme Justice

 Doling out high speed Justice on the street!

 Pursuit Force was nothing short of amazing, which is why I needed to try the sequel. To be honest, there's little I would've changed about Pursuit Force, and I would've been content with the same game over a new coat of paint. bigBIG studios didn't try to reinvent the wheel, but they added and tweaked stuff, but was it for the best?

 The first game's story was a joke, and that was alright, and I praised how the story was never the driving force behind the game, not so this time around. The moment you press X on that "Story" button, you are presented with a cutscene in which the Commander, you, is getting married to Sarah(The first game's sole heroine), but things go awry and the Commander must take flight and capture the escapees. Yes, the story is now a major focus in the game, Story Mode progresses in a very linear manner, you can't replay missions in this mode, and if you get to choose between missions, you only get two choices at most. It certainly is a rather different approach, the story is as cliched as ever, which works on its favor, letting you take part in the most generic of action movies, and I say that in a good way. The story takes pretty predictable and rather dark turns, but they fit so well into the kind of flick it's trying to ape that it's hard to hold it against it.

  Story Mode also saw some changes of which I'm rather fond of. The first game could get rather challenging, enough to make some people complain on the net, so this game lets you pick from three different difficulty settings, which you can change any time you want. I had not major trouble with the first game, and I had an easier time on this one on the default setting, but allowing people lower or increase the difficulty according to their wants or needs is very neat. Story Mode also changed how you earn your upgrades, instead of getting them as you completed sets of missions, you now earn coins after each stage which you can then spend on various upgrades, so you can actually get enhancements that suit how you play, or want to play, over whatever the game wanted to throw your way.

 As for the gameplay itself, there's been a lot of changes, some bad, most good. Firstly, now you keep subweapons you take from captured cards and can switch between weapons with the directional pad, what's more, different weapons have different strengths, some are good against vehicles, some are good against people. The Car segments feel much tighter than before, jumping from car to car is as seamless as before, as is engaging in firefights. Speedboats now handle a bit differently, much looser than before, I'm not sure if it's necessarily worse, but it's different and it took me a little while to get used to it. The on-foot sections saw the most changes, the first game made the most of the PSP limitations, it knew that it shouldn't ask for precision, so it didn't, this game now retooled the aiming system so that by holding the Shooting button you'll deal little damage, but holding the L button allows you to aim with the analog stick, while you strafe with the Square and Circle buttons. I appreciate the idea, now you can even perform headshots, but... aiming with the PSP's analog isn't very precise, I spent more time than I would've wanted trying to aim at a head while taking damage. Melee attacks have also been changed, so that now it tapping R near an enemy will produce a QTE, which I didn't like.

 They also added a new Segment, Sniping, which I felt was pretty OK, the same aiming issues from the on-foot stages are present, but it's in a more... controlled environment, so even if you miss 3-4 shots, it isn't as punishing. Getting back to the good changes, the Pursuit Force is now, actually, a Force, you get 4 different team mates who will aid you in some missions, each having a different specialty, it's a small touch, but it really adds to the game, it's really cool having an ally jumping from car to car alongside you. The Justice Bar also saw some changes, it behaves pretty much as it did on the first game, giving you fire power bonuses while maxed, but you can now spend it to heal yourself at any time, and any amount, it probably helps make the game easier, but just as before, it's in your best interest to fill it and keep it filled for the extra damage. The game boasts a total of 30 missions, and they get longer, tougher and more exciting later in the game, there's some new boss scenarios in which you infiltrate giant vehicles, like planes, trains and a moving fortress, which are really cool.

 Races and Time Trials are gone, in its place are Bounty Mode and Challenge Mode. Bounty Mode allows you to pick any missions and replay it on any of the three(or four...) difficulties to earn stars and spend them in the shop, for things like cheats or Multiplayer characters. Why they don't net you stars on the story mode, when it's the exact same level is beyond me. Challenge Mode has you playing specific segments of each mission while you attempt to complete a challenge, truthfully, these could've very well been implemented on the main game as well. Honestly, these modes felt very throwaway, little thought was put into them, but at least they'll get more mileage from me than the Races and Time Trials. There's also a Multiplayer component, but since you can't play it with CPUS, I couldn't try them, bummer.

 The game looks just as good as the first game, but there's less variety on the environments, for example, no more Snow levels. However, levels now boast a higher level of detail, and more distinctive structures, which I think is a fair trade off. Just as with the first game, it has a very steady frame rate, which I feel is worth praising, particularly on the PSP. The Soundtrack is as good as the first game's, sure, they are not complex beats, not even memorable, but they fit the game and they get you hyped for high-octane action you are about to partake in.

 Pursuit Force 2 made a ton of great enhancements, but it also took some steps back. Luckily, the core gameplay remains more or less the same, hijacking cars while on highspeed vehicle fire fights is as exhilarating as ever, although I really could've done without the QTEs when engaging in melee. I still think the first game is a smidge better, but both games are must haves.
 9.0 out of 10