Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice
| Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice | |
|---|---|
 PAL game cover | |
| Developer(s) | Bigbig Studios |
| Publisher(s) | SCEE, SCEA |
| Composer(s) |
Richard Jacques Jeff Tymoschuk |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation Portable |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Vehicular combat |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice is a vehicular combat video game, developed by Bigbig Studios for the PlayStation Portable, released in 2007. It is the sequel to Pursuit Force. A PlayStation 2 version was announced, but never released.
Plot
The player controls the Pursuit Force Commander, assigned with the task of taking down the biggest gangs at large in Capital State: The Syndicate: British bank robbers, The Raiders: professional pirates with a focus on stealing cargo, and the returning gangs of The Warlords and The Convicts,[2] from the original Pursuit Force game. The objective is to eliminate the 'boss' of each gang, using any means necessary.
The game takes place 2 years after the events in the original. The wedding of the Commander and his teammate Sarah Hunter is interrupted by the Convicts, who have escaped from prison once again to take revenge on the Pursuit Force. Shortly afterwards, a police chase commences.
Shortly after stopping the Convicts, Pursuit Force is about to apprehend Billy Wilde. Suddenly, a new police task force called Viper Squad appears to handle the situation themselves. Realizing they are unable to do much with Viper Squad, they return to handling cases which results in the arrival of the Syndicate as well as the Raiders. During a fight against the Raiders and Warlords, the Warlords' lieutenant kills Sarah, leaving the Commander in much grief.
Pursuit Force goes back to piecing together parts of the puzzle as they rescue nuclear physicist Dr. Pertwee to find out why the criminals are cooperating. During a mission of ambush on the Syndicate, they find out the Syndicate Lieutenant is in fact an MI:5 spy named Lucy, adding more to the complication of affairs as she is attempting to find who is carrying a majority of the nuclear weapons. It seems that the Convicts, Syndicate, and Raiders are merely the deliverers of the nuclear cargo, as it is the Warlords who intend with their own reasons to launch nukes at Capital City. The weaker gangs' leaders are summarily defeated and just as it seems like most of the cases are closed, a mole damages the Pursuit Force headquarters and injures the Chief.
As they try to figure out who is the mole of the Pursuit Force, it seems all fingers are pointed at the Recruits; Ashley, Preach and Gage. To add to the matters, a new unnamed masked gang begins terrorizing the city. Adding more to the issue, it is only after battling the Warlord General that it is revealed that Viper Squad Commander Decker is the one behind the entire plot. While the Warlords have gone rogue already, Viper Squad intend to start a fascist police state in Capital City and have begun a campaign of terror on the innocents. During the President's visit to the city, his Viper convoy begins to attack him and the masked gang is revealed to have actually been members of Viper.
To add to the matters, it is revealed that Ashley is the mole of the team. A battle on the Viper copter leads to the death of the mole, but Preach is still questionably missing from the squad. However, worse fears are put aside as it is revealed Preach is fighting Viper with the cops until the team reunites. A fight at the hospital forces the Vipers to withdraw in their mobile headquarters, and a final battle against Decker in a powered armor and his Electrical Field System protected car ends Viper Squad once and for all.
The ending results in a ceremony where the Pursuit Force is congratulated for their effort, however the Chief and the Commander are nowhere to be found. They are shown paying their last respects to Sarah at her grave, as they killed the man responsible for it all. The commander quits Pursuit Force, leaving without his badge and gun, but the Chief says that he will be back.
Gameplay
The player controls the Commander of a special section of the police known as the Pursuit Force, to combat the city's gangs. Gameplay is action-packed, fast-paced and "arcadey", played from a 3rd person perspective. The player pursues adversaries in cars, motorbikes, helicopters and boats, usually engaging in gun combat with them. The intensity of the fast sections are broken up with on-foot and on-rails gunning sequences. As in the original Pursuit Force, in many driving sections the player can jump from their vehicle onto enemy vehicles, have a firefight with the occupants, and if successful take control of the vehicle. Missions typically last around ten minutes and are split into distinctly different gameplay segments; for example a mission could involve a driving protect section, followed by a helicopter turret sequence and finished with an on-foot combat area. Enemies are from five distinctive gangs across a vast fictional state (Capital State, featuring Capital City) in America. Other members of the Pursuit Force often join the player as allies (controlled by the computer AI). A number of boss fights appear throughout the game, typically in control of vast signature vehicles (for example a huge hovercraft for the Raiders). The game features a "Justice" meter which fills as the player damages enemies and performs other feats. The Justice meter can be used for several things depending on whether it is partially filled or completely filled. When partially full the player can partially regain vehicle and character health. When the Justice meter is full the player can increase their damage and use a special attack, depending on the context. The player character's statistics can also be upgraded in a limited fashion as they progress through the game. Other features include Ad hoc multiplayer (with driving and on-foot modes), a challenge mode and a Pursuit Force shop where you can buy items such as game art, videos and cheats.
Reception
PlayStation the Official Magazine called it to be "one of our top PSP games" and rated it 4.5 out of 5 stars in their February '08 issue. The game received generally positive reviews, noting its mild improvement over its predecessor and featuring a more forgiving difficulty level. It averages 74.42% on GameRankings[3] and a 73/100 on Metacritic.[4]
References
- ↑ http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/data/937890.html
- ↑ Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice - Official PlayStation Site (Australia)
- ↑ "GameRankings.com Ranking - retrieved 15-07-12
- ↑ "Metacritic.com Ranking - retrieved 15-07-12
External links
- Official US website at the Wayback Machine (archived March 9, 2009)