The Fast and The Furious: Fugitive Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

Could this be the driving game to beat?

Fast and Furious games have always been like a game of footie. What I mean is they are a game of two halves with the 2D versions being fairly average driving games with nothing much to shout home about. The 3D versions on the other hand have been slick, great to look at and even better fun to play. We were lucky enough to play the 3D version of Fugitive and it doesn't disappoint.

Like The Fast and the Furious Tokyo 3D the graphics will really impress. Admittedly the polygon shading wasn't quite as crisp on my phone but I think on the high end handsets this will look absolutely gorgeous. The cars look like proper racing cars and you can do the usual customising of the cars colour, bodykit and spoiler. There wasn't loads of options, but enough to get your car looking the way you want. Then there's the backgrounds which are really detailed. For a minute I thought I was playing Ridge Racer back in the early days of Playstation.

Far and away the best feature of the game is the speed of the driving. You can have 3 different viewpoints which is excellent and when you play on the in car view (has to be done on all driving games), you really get a feel for the speed. Coupled to the fact that you have NOS boosts to use, the feeling of tearing down the roads, avoiding the cops and trying not to smash into anything is exhilarating. I-Play have followed the trend that seems to be sweeping all mobile driving games at the moment, slow motion jumps. When you hit some speed and take off, the camera angle shifts to behind your car as you sail through the air. This looks beautiful on my phone and will look even better if yours is newer than my old 6680. One slight drawback is that on some of the courses, the jumps are positioned just before some tight turns, so once the jump is over and the view switches back, you have to be quick with the wheel.

Which brings me onto another plus point about this game. It's not that the controls are simple, it's that they are really smooth. The car autoaccelerates and so all you have to worry about is left and right. Pressing 5 or the main button gives you a NOS boost and pressing down or back will allow you to reverse (and you will have to reverse at some point). Zero switches between the 3 camera angles. The responsiveness of the controls and the way the car glided about the road on the in car view really reminded me of Gran Turismo. The way you can angle in on the corners, or set them up with a few opposite turns to get you a nice racing line is really well designed and your inputs are instantaneous. So you get the feel of controlling a really smooth racing car that follows your every command.

Of course, this isn't always the case as you will have to contend with other drivers. Not only that, but you have a "heat" bar which gets filled through collisions (eh??) and once full you'll have the cops chasing down your tail. This can occur during your races and missions so it can get a bit frantic as you try to head to the finish line and try not to hit the police cars trying to run you off the road. They're quick to, so it's hard to get away, and obviously with the in car view you can't see where they are until they hit you. Still, this makes for an exciting game as the element of control required increases the skill level and enhances the gameplay.

The game does have a plot and you can play a quick race or the story mode. All the options are in one of the best menus I've seen in a while, a beautifully rendered 3D garage which changes camera position depending on what you want to do. The story mode is denoted by a large map of the US and you make it from town to town evading the fuzz. The story follows the hero of the first two films, Brian O'Conner who's now on the run from the law, as he makes it across the country. On story mode there are races you compete in to build up money, and there are chapters which follow the plot. You'll get a percentage completion for each. It's best to race first and then customise your car as you will use it in the chapters. Once done, leave town and avoid the cops to get to the next city.

The objectives in the story mode are somewhat varied but all involve driving. You'll either have to race, get to a certain point within the time (sometimes it's quicker to turn around and go the other way), evade someone for a certain amount of time, or run someone off the road. The evasion and ramming missions are quite cool, I completely lost my tail on one and just drove around until the time ran out. Your health is denoted by 3 dashboard lights, when they all turn red then you've crashed the car. There's a mini map on the screen which is really useful as well.

I really enjoyed playing this game and if I had to give any criticism, I would say that there really wasn't scope to tune up your car (the cars stats stay the same, you can really just change the way it looks) and also towards the end it got a little repetitive. Sound could be worked on, there's a tune but I would have loved to have heard the sound of screeching tyres and police sirens wailing.

These are all minor gripes, as it was a really enjoyable playing experience. Basically, the smoothness of the controls, the stunning graphics and the real sense of speed that you get make this the driving game to beat in 2007. The console driving experience has finally come to mobiles.