Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run [PS2]

When we first heard about Midway's plans to re-imagine Spy Hunter with The Rock behind the wheel of the world famous Interceptor, we were jazzed. When Midway announced that we'd actually be able to get out of the car and engage in some stealthy spy action, it was good news all around. The franchise was sound, the promised gameplay seemed to combine the best of the racing and stealth action genres and when it comes to celebrities, The Rock simply oozes personality. So when we finally got the game in hand, the first words out of our mouths were, "What the hell went wrong?"

The main draw behind the Spy Hunter series has always been that incredibly cool car, the Interceptor. An even mix of sexy sports car, thundering tank and thrilling transformer, the Interceptor can go anywhere and destroy anything...well, that's the theory at least. Sadly, the Interceptor in this game doesn't handle anything like a finely tuned driving machine. It's more like driving a Buick down an icy road with rubber bumpers on either side. "Touchy" is an understatement. Transforming into a bike makes things even worse.

The game starts to look up the first time you hit the water. While in boat form the Interceptor handles surprisingly well, feeling a lot like the speed boats in Midway's arcade classic Hydro Thunder. It's relatively easy to get air and the hang time would make Air Jordan proud -- long enough to allow you to get your bearings, but short enough to not feel unnatural.

Sadly the flash of brilliance is all too short, as once you end up on foot the annoying control schemes return in full force. Here the issues swing in the opposite direction. Instead of being overly-sensitive, aiming and shooting a hand-held weapon feels overly sluggish. Instead of implementing an analog sensitive system to allow for quick turns and precision shots, our hero must always move through the full arc of a turn at a steady pace. This is a control quirk that hasn't been seen since the first and third person shooter genres debuted on consoles.

Hand-to-hand combat plays out reasonably well, so long as you don't require a great deal of depth in your fighting. Decker has two basic attacks, a grab, a "power" move that stuns his opponent and a finishing move. Get in the general area of your prey and mash away for some pugilistic pleasure. Activating items, such as planting a bomb or opening a first aid kid, is frustrating in its own regard. Most games allow you to be close to an item to use it. Here, you have to be perfectly lined up in order to use anything. There's nothing more fun then getting shot up and unable to grab a gun from the locker simply because you're not dead center in front of the door. It's a little less than we'd expect from a game that proudly boasts about taking "control of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's physical prowess." Physical prowess, indeed.