Driving with Diesel in 'Wheelman'

ByABC News
April 4, 2009, 5:21 PM

— -- It sounds like a winning combination for a successful video game: over-the-top driving action in an open-ended city, Hollywood-style special effects and film star Vin Diesel as the lead character.

Wheelman, a joint effort between publishers Midway and Ubisoft, doesn't live up to its potential, but still proves to be a fun and wild ride.

You play as Milo Burik, a beefy undercover agent and skilled driver-for-hire who arrives in Barcelona, Spain, to infiltrate three crime syndicates the Los Lantos Cartel, Chulos Canallas and the Romanian Underground and stop a major deal from going down involving a mysterious briefcase. The story is truly awful, as is the dialogue and delivery. Even Vin Diesel's cheesy lines are read without any feeling, as if the actor was handed the script minutes before the microphone was turned on. But most gamers aren't buying Wheelman for the deep plot.

In Wheelman, Burik begins taking on missions for seedy characters to win their trust, like similar characters do in Grand Theft Auto. Most of these will take place behind the wheel of vehicles such as retrieving stolen cars, ramming a rival gang leader, evading a group or driving someone to safety in a cab but many will also take place on foot, where Burik must use cover, and weapons, to take down thugs.

While racing through the digitally recreated city of Barcelona at top-speed, you will master a handful of tricks, such as hand-braking, 360-degree spins, drifting, motorcycle wheelies, racing over ramps, nitro boosts and earning "focus power" to slow down time for more precise gunshots. Two of the more fun driving moves, however, are "melee" attacks, where the right analog stick on the controller can be pushed right or left to ram those chasing you, such as police cars (which could result in a cinematic explosion, not unlike the Burnout racing games) and "air jacking" where Burik can hop from one vehicle to another, if timed correctly, to steal the car he's pursuing. Great fun.