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When first laying eyes on The Wheelman, many will no doubt take a look for an accompanying movie to compliment the game, however a movie will no be found. The reason for this is that The Wheelman features well known actor Vin Diesel as the lead character with his face placed onto the front cover. It is indeed interesting that some studio games are moving more towards movies, banking on big names to sell games. With a face like Vin Diesel at the helm, its instantly guaranteed to appeal to fans knowing that this game will definitely be an over-the-top action experience, and this is before even viewing the back cover to find out that its all about. This experiment is more hit than miss, however The Wheelman is not the greatest action hit ever due to a few technical issues that can sometimes bring gameplay to a grinding halt, literally.

For the most part The Wheelman provides an entertaining and attractive experience. It also introduces an outlandish and unrealistic, but fun move called Air-jacking. To Air-jack another vehicle, its as simple as holding the B button in vicinity of another vehicle which allows you to make a leap of faith assuming control of the targeted vehicle. The story is based on Vin Diesels character Milo who is an undercover agent working with various shady groups around the city of Barcelona to attain information for his masters. Its pretty clear from the intro sequence that The Wheelmans strength is not in its story, but in the actual gameplay. The Wheelman will have you completing various in car and on foot missions which will assist you in gaining Intel critical to your case. These missions typically consist of driving from A to B, stealing a certain vehicle, saving a target or even rescuing a ally from enemy clutches. Whilst the missions themselves can get repetitive its how they are delivered that ensures The Wheelman is entertaining from beginning to end. The Wheelman also has multiple types of side missions that can be completed as a distraction to the main story with various upgrades at stake. These upgrades can be more weapon locations, extra power to your vehicular melee attack and some garages that allow you to hide from the police when things get a bit too hot. The majority of the side missions although plot-less are quite fun whether it be Taxi Driver which is your typical deliver the passenger type race to Contracts which gives you a limited time to takedown a targeted vehicle. Side missions will give you a rank based on how well you perform time wise from S,A, B or C with S being the best, anything below a C is failure.

Most main missions feature a high action sequence that is delivered seemlessly between cut scene and player control. Take this example, shooting an enemy vehicle blocking the road at the precise moment will trigger an explosion, that causes the camera to cut to a slow motion scene showing you the rather excellent, over the top explosions. After a few moments the action will then resume under player control with little loss of pace. See the key here is that many of the in game cut scenes are dynamic, meaning that with the flick of a control your vehicle can be manipulated to a degree. This can come in handy and be used to the players advantage. Should the world generate car in front of your vehicle, a flick of the right thumbstick will cause the car to move and dodge it all within the cut scene. This however can also have an adverse effect until mastered, causing collisions with buildings and other cars due to the camera angle in these scenes. The angle also limits what you can see ahead adding to the possibility of a further collision.

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