Stuntman: Ignition

Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, & PSP
released August 2007

Ah Stuntman. I still have the videos I recorded of my misadventures with the original PS2 game. The original game was a brutal, unforgiving game that had you racing along set paths in a variety of vehicles in an attempt to hit a series of stunts for a feature film. It required precise timing and course memorization, and resulted in more restarts than any game I've ever played. The main portion of the game was torture, but looked pretty for it's time. The most compelling thing in the game was the stunt construction arena. It allowed you to place different ramps and destructible objects in a large arena and just go to town. I spent hours sending cars off ramps into school-buses and exploding barrels. The car damage was so extensive and realistic that I'd record them on my VCR and watch them in slow motion. Pieces and parts flying everywhere. Beautiful. Stuntman: Ignition is the next-gen follow-up, and I had high hopes for it. You see this look on my face? It's disappointment.

Where does Stuntman: Ignition go right? Well, actually, just about everywhere. The new career mode is far more forgiving than the original, allowing you to miss up to 5 stunts per run, and still have the chance of getting a perfect 5-star score. This is done by allowing players to string stunts together with various style moves such as power-slides, wheelies, jumps, and driving on 2-wheels. For you Tony Hawk Pro Skater players out there, think of this as the equivalent of adding the manual and revert moves to your trick line. They aren't very flashy, but they keep your combo going until you can find something else to grind or trick off of. This works on the same concept.

The game inspires perfection. I should stress that it inspires, but does not require perfection. If a course is just too difficult to string together, I had no problem just accepting a 3-star rating and moving onto something more fun.

However you will have those runs where you find yourself saying "I know I can string this whole thing. I know I can." Another great fix is the lack of load times between restarts. You will end up restarting it a dozen times before you actually pull it off. But thankfully, you will see no loading screens whatsoever. It's an immediate reset at the start with a 3 second countdown. It seems trivial, but the lack of load-screen between restarts was a major plus for me.

Controls are also much tighter in Ignition than it's predecessor. The new motorcycle stunts are a welcome addition, and finishing a perfect run on a bike gave me a great deal of satisfaction. The stunt-runs themselves benefit from better design as well. The previous game required pinpoint accuracy on passing through gaps, scraping other vehicles, or overtaking other drivers. Sometimes you had to learn not only where the stunt spot was, but at what angle you needed to drive through it for it to count. Ignition is far more forgiving in this area, and lead to far fewer thrown controllers.

The original game's strength mainly relied on it's visual department. This is, surprisingly, where the new game fails. In career mode, it's hardly noticeable since you're speeding through a level at breakneck speeds. But when I fired up the stunt construction arena, all the excitement the game had built up within me quickly evaporated. Each time I finished a stunt in career mode, I'd unlock a new part for the arena. Stacks of cars, ramps, billboards, etc. I spent 10 minutes preparing my elaborate death course and prepared to see the glorious power of the Xbox 360 in action as I sent my exotic car soaring into the air towards stacks of cars, semis, and gasoline barrels. I expected some evolution of the fantastic physics engine from the first game. Sadly, the car you drive is nearly indestructible, as well as the other cars you can place in the field. Boxes and gas cans break nicely, but that's about it. I was driving what I could only describe as a cardboard box with wheels. Some of the sides my get crinkled up if you hit something hard enough, but gone were the days when your car came apart at the seams.

Watch this clip of the original Stuntman constructor set, and remember this was on PS2 five years ago:


And now the only clip I could find showcasing the modern version of the constructor:


I didn't cherry-pick these either. The original Stuntman had a remarkable physics engine that made for some amazing crashes. The new one does not. This disappointed me. It seems the game itself was designed on the weakest platform it was being developed for (the Playstation Portable) and then ported up to the higher-end systems. The 360 version does have higher-resolution textures and fantastic lighting effects, but it's physics engine actually feels like it was built for the PSP.

My issues with the game don't actually take away from the fact that it is actually an excellent follow-up to the original. They've introduced an interesting stunt competition multi-player mode that might entertain some for a few hours, and I have to stress how much of an improvement the career mode has seen. The game can be finished in a few days of casual play, but for those who quest for perfection, it could last weeks. For me, the game was a rental, but I can definitely see the appeal and plan to rent it again in a few months. I just wish more time had been spent developing the stunt constructor mode.