E3 hands-on: Pursuit Force

With PSP not yet launched in Europe, the games so far have come from Japan or the US, but that doesn’t mean UK developers aren’t working their socks off to come up with some goodies for the September launch. And most exciting is Pursuit Force.

The concept is simple: it’s vehicle-based combat in which you’ll be racing to catch up with the bad guys, getting close to them and jumping onto their cars to take them out, up close and personal. The key element in this is the ‘leap onto moving vehicle’ jump. It’s pretty easy to pull off though. Just get close to the target vehicle, either in front or behind, and press triangle to do a cool slo-mo jump. Then it’s a case of letting the auto-aiming target the perps within the car. Of course, they’re not going to take it without a fight, so they will be popping out the windows to shoot you. But with the dodge button you can hide on the bumper or wheel arch until they’re out of ammo and reloading. And once the bad guys are gone, it’s your car and so onto the next target.

There are other options too. Instead of jumping on the car, you could keep your wheels and try and take out them out at distance. Or in one of the E3 levels, you could call in a police helicopter, jump onto the skids and then control the road thanks to your friend, the mini-gun. But whatever style you choose, be quick. The racing elements of the game mean that everything’s on a timer, so too slow and it’s time to start the level again. Partly this is to encourage replayability. Developer BigBig Studios says there will be plenty of level secrets to unlock as well, plus you’ll get a rating per mission, so you’ll want to go back and improve.

So for a bit more background. In terms of plot, you play a cop out to take down five gangs - including The Vixens, a foxy group of ex-stunt girls who chose a life of crime to pay for their Hollywood lifestyles and outfits - terrorising the 400km of city streets, freeways and off-road tracks of Capital City. There will be 30 missions, which you can play in any order. Inspirations for the game include GTA (but of course), R-Type - finishing some missions will involve taking out huge boss vehicles - as well as the TOCA racing game, which some of the development team used to work on.

There you have it - great racing engine, polished graphics, plays like a dream and brilliant gameplay - Pursuit Force is already one of our most wanted...