- Publisher: Ubisoft
- Release Date: Mar 24, 2009
- Also On: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
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The collaboration between Vin Diesel’s software house and Midway has given birth to something original and exciting, with fast paced action and Hollywood blockbuster’s style as the best elements in the game. Longevity, around 15 hours, is another strong point in the production, making of this game a must have for all the free roaming action game lovers, who will find in Wheelman the right dose of adrenaline and cinematic action.
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Packed with high-speed chases, car combat (you can bump rivals into walls) and ridiculous explosions, the game's still far from perfect. Sloppy looking characters, excessive loading and average on-foot shooting keep it several steps behind the competition. As a rental, however, Wheelman offers some decent thrills.
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Wheelman is a relatively successful movie based game without a movie. It translates spectacular over-the-top cinematic racing action to an accessible game, set in the pleasant surroundings of Barcelona. Unfortunately its gameplay is so dumbed down that it lacks any challenge whatsoever, making Wheelman a decent – but flawed – snack that lies somewhere in-between GTA IV, Driver, and Burnout.
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Play (Poland)It's fast, spectacular and full of action - three attributes I require from every good racer are there, and in double helping. I can get new vehicles without stopping even for a moment. But the missions on foot are much worse and as a consequence the overall experience is rather unidimensional. [May 2009]
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LEVEL (Czech Republic)Terrible story, excellent missions. Car chases and street shootouts in this arcade game will surprise you with their fast pace. Don’t forget to switch off your brain to enjoy Wheelman completely. [Apr 2009]
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It’s simple, direct, linear, sometimes spectacular, so Wheelman can actually inject a rainy weekend with a dose of fun, but it’s not grand enough to bring the sun to a week spent in London.
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Though it’s fun at first due to the arcade steering, Wheelman quickly decelerates to a halt, because of the dull story and the imbalanced difficulty.
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PC GamerWheelman executes its core mechanics well, but not much else. [June 2009, p.76]
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Midway Studios Newcastle and Tigon Studios have created one of the most frantic games of the market, which unfortunately fails in its lack of depth and repetitiveness.
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If you want a nice, plain action game with Vin Diesel, you couldn’t make anything wrong. It’s fun to drive with the car and destroy the others.
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Unfortunately, while on paper it might have sounded like a Fast and Furious calibre idea, in reality Wheelman is barely a Pacifier.
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Wheelman is best described as a B-movie. Bad production values and a lousy script. However, the funny one-liners, bad dialog and over-the-top action make up for lost ground. Wheelman is by far a good game, but still a very enjoyable one.
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Carjacking is quick and fun, at least the first few times. After the first few missions, things feel awfully repetitive.
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It's certainly mechanically sound, but you should probably attempt to find it at a slight discount.
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Diesel-powered, but it’s lacking the turbo injection that we want.
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“Never get out of the car”, the heroes of Interstate ’76 used to say. If the developers of Wheelman decided to follow this credo, they could have focused their efforts on turning lifeless Barcelona into a real city, instead of churning out boring TPS sequences. Or they could have made a menu for editing keyboard shortcuts. Or re-do boring side missions and build them into the story.
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I can't recommend it at its current price point. The car combat is fun for a couple of hours, but everything else is riddled with so many problems.
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There's a line drawn between uncomplicated action and stupid nonsense and that's exactly where Wheelman is lurching about. In large parts it's like GTA with the exception that nothing really works. The game feels artificial, unfinished, has no soul and takes itself too seriously. At least that's unintentionally funny.
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PC Gamer UKIn a further bizarre twist, The Wheelman has no interest in how wheels behave. [June 2009, p.89]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 42 out of 83
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Mixed: 27 out of 83
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Negative: 14 out of 83
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Sep 18, 2013
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RaymondFApr 17, 2009
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KarolinaMApr 9, 2009