Smuggler's Run Producer: Rockstar Games Developer: Angel Studios ESRB: Teen Players: 1 to 2 Memory Card: 324 KB Digital Control Analog Control Vibration Function Da Introduction: "Every year over 5 billion dollars of illegal contraband is brought in to the United States. Huge profits are being made by ruthless smuggling gangs. That's where you come in." This is essentially the idea behind Smuggler's Run. You are a ruthless smuggler who is smuggling contraband into and out of the US. It seems that almost all current driving games that don't involve racing, do involve the player being on the side of evil. Such is true in games like Driver, Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal. I imagine this is to give the player an idea of what something they would never do feels like. Of course to do that effectively you need realism. Luckily for those people, and for that matter anyone who owns a PS2, Smuggler's Run is not only realistic but it is also a lot of fun. Da Graphics: The graphics are where this game shines. The cars are very highly detailed, with nice textures and an exorbitant amount of detail. The engine is completely modeled, the tires have that weird ‘backwards motion' when they turn, your car's parts fly off when you run into things, and the shocks even react and move realistically when you are running over bumpy terrain, which you almost always are. Speaking of the terrain, Wow! The environments in this game are truly incredible. With the release of this game, we are witnessing the beginning of the next generation of driving games. At first I felt let down, as there are only three levels in the game. Three. Most driving games have at least 10, sometimes up as high as 30; three seemed really lax. Well, as it turns out I ended up playing the first 9 missions before I realized that I was still on the first level because I didn't recognize it. The levels are truly huge, apparently 5 square miles in fact. You can literally drive in one direction for about 4 minutes before you reach the other side of an environment. You can however see the other side long before that. This game has the longest sight distance of any game I have ever seen. There is absolutely no fog to obscure the land in the distance; you can, quite literally, see for miles. Another great thing is that if you can see it, you can drive to it. There is no pre-rendered background; those really are mountains in the distance, yes that lake exists. Angel Studios used an ingenious combination of blurring and ‘mip-mapping' (textures decreasing in detail the further away from them you move) to garner a very nice and extremely realistic appearance to the landscape in the distance. And it gets better. The detail put into the ‘foreground' of the environments is incredible as well. There are small towns and villages, there are other vehicles meandering along the roads, wildlife such as deer grazing away, people hiking in the mountains, even a train going about its route in one level. The people even look good with textures on their faces. Then there is even more realism in that when you, for instance, knock over a cactus causing it to break into a few pieces, not only do those pieces move realistically in terms of what terrain they're on, but they stay there. You can knock something over, go break the law somewhere, then come back and the pieces will still be there. The game actually keeps track of your destructive wake instead of waiting for a minute or two and then deleting the object. The only problem with the graphics is that the textures for the ground seem to repeat a little too often. Now, of course you won't be staying still for very long but it still makes a difference. However, even with that minor fault, words cannot convey how incredible this game looks. This is the beginning of something amazing. Da Sound While not as revolutionary as the graphics, the sound is nothing to scoff at. The sound effects are very nice and add more to the realism of the game. The sounds of your tires crunching against the dirt change depending on your car type and what surface you are driving on. The voices however, while sounding very nice, are the most obnoxious ever. Throughout your missions you are accompanied by the radio with, conveniently, Radio Girl. She is there, in theory, to assist you by giving you advice on the mission at hand. All she ends up saying is one of three things: info you already know, insults regarding your driving and more sexual innuendo than a Bond film. Thankfully you have the option to ‘turn her off' if you so choose. The same does not go for the border patrol that pursues you throughout the level. The will yell things like "You are driving dangerously!" when you have been on the road the whole time and they just ran over three bystanders on their way to tell you this. Still, the annoyance of the voices is made up for by the music. The soundtrack, which is an exclusive from Guidance Recordings, is obviously professionally done and sounds remarkably good. It is a quasi-mix of hip-hop, techno and country that isn't irritating and while it might not appeal to everybody, it also suits the game well. All systems are go in terms of sound. Da Gameplay: I'm going to lay it out simply. The gameplay is nothing special, it's not particularly original or varied, but it's exceptionally fun. There are three main modes, which you can play to drive your car to a wreck. The first, Smuggler's Mission, is the standard adventure mode. In Smuggler's Mission mode, you go through upwards of thirty missions over the three different courses. There is little variety in the types of missions, but there is enough to keep it interesting. For the majority of the missions you are trafficking goods from point A to point B and repeating this three or four times per mission. There are also cartel wars, where you and two teammates (who are CPU controlled) go up against another smuggling cartel to be the first team that retrieves five pickups of contraband. Another mission type is the checkpoint race, in which you are up against an entire cartel in a race for victory. There is a very loose story to keep things rooted but it isn't that enthralling. Smuggler's Missions are fun, but they can get monotonous. The second mode of play is Turf War, which can be played by one or two players. There are three sub-modes of Turf War: Crooks and Smugglers, Loot Grab and Checkpoint Race. Crook's and Smuggler's is a vehicular free for all where you, or you and a friend (on separate teams), go up against seven (or six) CPU controlled cars and try to be the first car out of all eight cartels to grab five shipments of contraband. Loot Grab is basically the same as the cartel war missions (see above). You go up against an opposing cartel (or player) and try to be the first teams of three (you and two CPUs) to make 18 pickups and deliveries. Checkpoint Race is, again, just like the mission in the game. You race against eight CPUs (or seven and a human) and try to win the race. They may not sound like much, but the multiplayer modes are a lot of fun. In fact, this is some of the best multiplayer action I have seen in a long while. Pity it's not Multi-Tap compatible. The last mode of play is Joyridin'. This is the self-explanatory mode where you pick any car and level and go nuts. Joyridin' is great because you just lose yourself in this game. There is no time limit and no cops, you can just explore and have fun— a brilliant way to showcase the stunning amount of detail in the landscapes. The control is another good aspect of the game. You can choose between manual and Automatic Control for your car, whether it is a Buggy, SUV, Rally Car, Trophy Truck, Massive Truck or Military Vehicle. Each car also reacts differently to its environment. Some cars are better for desert sands (hint: Buggy) while some glean more traction on snow (hint: Massive Truck). In fact, all the physics in the game are executed brilliantly. If you knock down some fencing, then run over it again, it actually reacts to the second pass as well. Things don't just get interacted with and then disappear like in some games; they are kept track of. If you knock something down, or lose a chuck of you car, then drive around and go back to where it was, it will be right where you left it. All the physics in the game work very well. There are however some downsides to the game. As mentioned above, the missions do not have much variety and can get really annoying after multiple times of trying. The second major problem is that the AI of the police can be really cheap. One of their stand-by calls is "You are driving dangerously!" when they are driving worse than you are. They will chase you around and act in no way like real cops would. When was the last time you saw an SUV throwing itself off a 30-foot drop? That and the way the damage is calculated help them be cheap. Damage you receive is taken off your health bar and slowly builds back as you go. It is really damage to the engine as when it gets to 0, your engine stalls and you must sit still until it restarts. Damage from other vehicles is interpreted on the basis of ‘if they're touching you, they're hurting you.' If a cop is just driving along beside you and you are touching them, you will take damage but they won't. Just touching, nothing that would really cause damage. If they connect with you in any way while your engine is stalled then you are under arrest and the mission ends. Being damaged also subtracts from the value of whatever contraband you are carrying, which is another annoyance. Still, despite these problems, the overall play of Smuggler's Run is great and for the most part, a lot of fun. Da Conclusion: This is the future of driving games, folks. The environments go on forever, they are rich with detail and they are realistic. The sound effects are great and the music is good too. The gameplay, despite some irritating faults, is well thought out and a lot of fun. A solid bet for any PS2 owner. Turn the joystick up high; this is one for the ages. Da Graphics: 9.5/10 Da Sound: 8.5/10 Da Gameplay: 7/10 Da Tilt: 9/10 Da Score: 8.5/10