
<MAP NAME="boxmap-p6"><AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="1, 140, 83, 150" HREF="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm/privacy-policy.html?o=1" ><AREA COORDS="0,0,10000,10000" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/thearmchairem-20" ></MAP><img src="http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/G/01/rcm/120x150.gif" width="120" height="150" border="0" usemap="#boxmap-p6" alt="Shop at Amazon.com">	Platform Playstation 2 Genre Action Publisher Activision Developer Bunkasha ESRB T (Teen) Released Q4 2002

- 40 levels - Large amount of multiplayer modes - Large selection of cars

- No split-screen support in multiplayer - Bland environmental textures - Horrible multiplayer - Poor multiplayer camera angles - Poorly detailed pedestrians

Review: Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions (XBox) Review: Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions (Gamecube) Review: Twisted Metal Black Online (Playstation 2)
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Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions

Score: 6.8 / 10

Wreckless was a so-so game on the Xbox and Activision wanted to make a better version on the Playstation 2 by doubling the number of levels and adding multiplayer; but is Wreckless a better game on the Playstation 2 than on the Xbox?

To begin with, there are forty missions split between two story lines. One puts you in control of a couple of female cops, the other as a couple of bumbling undercover types. Both have the same ultimate objective: take down the famous Yakuza gang.

The first ten or fifteen minutes of Wreckless truly catch your attention, as they might be the most fun you will have in any game just for the visceral feel of smashing through different environments and crunching into cars and pedestrians. Shortly after, the gameplay becomes dull and less impressive.

Even with the different objective-based missions the excitement wears off fairly fast. Almost all the missions require you to destroy something. One of the biggest problems that plagues Wreckless is the level of frustration found on some levels. Perhaps the hardest level (for me at any rate), is where you must deliver blood packs to the foreign Prime Minister’s daughter and avoid being hit by oncoming traffic. Which brings me to the root of most of the frustration: AI traffic.

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The cars in traffic will sometimes purposely slam into you -- making a difficult mission even more complicated. You have a limited number of missiles to use on enemy and friendly cars but not as many as I would have liked.

The two-player multiplayer mode may entice many fans of the old Wreckless game, but sadly the multiplayer mode is terrible.

Multiplayer modes include Bomb Tag, Capture the Flag, and Speedy Bus. To begin

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with there is no split screen, which makes it very difficult to see where you're going if you're the lead car. Sometimes the single camera view will switch to a terrible bumper car view where the entire front end of your car is exposed and you are not able to see the direction of where your vehicle is traveling.

The graphics are no where near as good as the Xbox’s version which included better car models, traffic, lighting and car reflections. The PS2 version’s graphics are not bad but could have been better. The car models are average and the pedestrians look like cardboard while car reflections are weak. The cities are fairly large but more detail could have been added to the buildings and the cut scenes are grainy.

The controls are almost identical to that of Gran Turismo 3. Typically X is accelerate and square is brake. The controls are where Wreckless really shines, as it’s easy to pick up and play especially for any amateurs who are first being introduced to racing on the PS2.

The sound is quite good for the most part, especially the car collision sound effects, which creates the feeling that you are in the vehicle. The voice acting is done well overall.

Overall Wreckless is an average game that should appeal to a reasonably-sized audience but I am not part of this audience. There are many secrets to unlock and a ton of drivable vehicles but many may find the game too boring and dull quite quickly. The multiplayer mode is a waste of disc space thanks to the decision to forgo split-screen and could have easily been improved with a few minor changes. A weekend rental might be a good choice.

- Siddharth Masand

(December 29, 2002)