There
are plenty of cars in North American culture that have reached iconic
status over the decades, like the General Lee, KITT, and Herby the Love
Bug.As far as the world of
videogames is concerned one of the closing things the medium has to
offer would have to be the Interceptor from Spy Hunter.Over the last few years Midway has slowly been resurrecting the
franchise.They came out of
the gates pretty strong with their first effort, but faltered with its
sequel as they began to drift away from the core features that have made
Spy Hunter a classic.Now
they have a third game in the works, and it looks like the publisher is
going to move even further away from what defined Spy Hunter by adding
several on-foot missions to this latest installment, Spy Hunter:
Nowhere to Run.
A
lot of long time fans of the series are likely scratching their heads
furiously over this decision to not make Nowhere to Run one-hundred
percent driving.It sounds
like a decision made
by a bunch of suits who were told by their market analysts that action
driving hybrids were hot, so they had better hop on board while the
gettin’s good.
There
isn’t a whole lot of information available about what these on-foot
levels will entail, but the Midway spin-doctors are quick to emphasize
that the company has recruited Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to play the
game’s hero, Alec Decker, as he investigates the disappearance of a
renowned scientist, eventually leading to an encounter with the
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evildoing organization NOSTRA.That being said it looks like these on-foot levels will
involve plenty of
fisticuffs with liberal amounts of gunplay thrown in.Conversely, even less is known about what the driving sequences
will be like in Nowhere to Run.
Outside
of this sketchy information, all we really have from Midway about the
game is a promise that it exists, and a handful of screenshots to prove
it.But
is it really Spy Hunter, or just a case of the name being used to sell a
product?Well, that remains
to be seen.Game writers
are supposed to stay cautiously optimistic about titles until they are
completed, so I guess I’ll just go that route.If it turns out well, then that’s great.If not, don’t expect me to be gentle come review time.