Stuntman: Ignition

Added September 10th, 2007 by Justin McBride

I’m sure you’ve all seen your share of big budget action movies involving huge stunt scenes where all manner of wheeled vehicles tear through the streets, often accompanied by explosions, gunfire, and copious amounts of damage to public property. I’m going to keep the ball rolling here and assume that some of you have thought to yourselves at one point or another “Man, I wish I could do that!” Well, for those of you willing to risk life and limb, there’s always room for more stunt drivers. As for the rest of us, we may want to look for a much safer alternative.

Enter Stuntman Ignition, the sequel to the 2002 original, Stuntman. The premise is the same. You assume the role of the stunt driver who tears through various stunt scenes for several fictional movies, performing high-risk maneuvers no one in their right mind would attempt in real life. Whether this was intentional or not, Stuntman Ignition stresses, much like its predecessor, constant repetition that will undoubtedly turn off some people. However, if you’re into that sort of thing, then this is the right game for you.

The career mode contains six different movies that have drawn obvious inspiration from several film archetypes such as disaster films in the form of the Dante’s peak-esque Aftershock, the Dukes of Hazzard style hillbilly film Whoopin and a Hollerin’ II, Superhero flick Night Avenger and so on, each with six individual stunt sequences. Your objectives are simple. The director has laid out a line of stunt opportunities throughout the set, which you’ll then have to complete as you barrel through it. Simple right? Well, that’s where you’d be wrong. As you approach each stunt, your stunt coordinator will belt out the type of stunt you’ll have to do. After that, it’s up to you to complete the appropriate action. This game is all about precision driving and, in some cases, timing. These stunts are easy enough to complete without too much trouble, but a great deal of the stunts are performed in tight quarters and thus, require total precision. On occasion, the yellow stunt markers fail to pop up quickly enough for you to react to, resulting in a missed stunt, and a strike.

In the original Stuntman if you screwed up once, the scene was over and you’d have to completely re-do the scene. Consequently, this led to a multitude of controllers angrily flung across the room. Thankfully, Pandemic has implemented a five-strike system, making Stuntman Ignition much more forgiving this time around. That’s not to say the game is completely devoid of frustrating moments, but it surely means your controllers will likely remain in your hands instead of a broken heap on the other side of the room.

The key to performing well in each scene is stringing everything together to keep your combo multiplier going. Actions such as driving close to objects in the scene, drifting stylishly around corners and catching air will all keep your score and combo multiplier going. Part of the fun in driving through the stunt scenes is mastering your line, preventing your combo multiplier from running out. You have to get creative to score big. Motorcycles are easier to string combos together with than other vehicles due to the ease of popping wheelies, which garners additional points. Mastering the line and keeping one continuous string of stunts going is the only way to earn the elusive five star ranking at the end of the scene, so there is plenty of incentive to perfect your driving line.

What keeps things interesting are the movie backdrops you’ll be driving through. One of the six films, Aftershock takes place in a mountain community in which a large volcano has erupted, scattering rivers of lava all around. Volcanic rocks smash into the ground in front of you and ash rains from the skies as you fight your way through the chaos. In another film, a play on the James Bond series named Never Kill Me Again has you drifting around ice-covered terrain, often blowing things sky high as you pass by. The ice sometimes has a dramatic effect on your vehicles handling and makes things more challenging and fun.

Of course, no exciting locales in the world would save the game if vehicle handling was sub par. In a game that requires such a high level of precision, both the controls and driving mechanics have to be tight and responsive and for the most part, they are. There are a number of different vehicles such as exotic supercars, motorcycles, muscle cars and less traditional vehicles such as Monster Trucks and even a SCUD missile carrying Semi. They all handle well, but the motorcycles can be a bit more problematic due to the tendency of the rider being thrown from the seat upon impact with an object.

The scenes are generally short, usually over in less than two minutes but you’ll probably spend hours attempting to better your score or, as was the case when I played, replaying the same scene because you screwed up. Screwing up once can completely throw off your momentum and force you to replay the scene. On occasion, there are some stunts that are crucial to completing the scene and missing them will result in an instant failure, such as falling out of the shot because of a missed jump or misreading a turn. Failing instantly like this is (surprise!) very frustrating.

Outside of the movie scenes, six additional odd jobs are unlocked as you progress through the career mode. These jobs are single stunt events in the form of commercials and stunt shows. These events are much shorter than the average movie scene and as a throwback to the original Stuntman, you get one strike and you’re out. These short stunt sequences are much more unforgiving but arguably more fun than the average movie scene. Even though you can’t mess up without having to start over; the sting isn’t nearly as bad as screwing up at the end of a three-minute long movie scene.

Visually, Stuntman Ignition is a mixed bag, Oftentimes, there is a lot going on in the environments. After all, what’s a big budget action film without pyrotechnics going off everywhere, buildings collapsing, cars flying through the air and the like? In other cases, the graphics look a bit bland and unimpressive. Everything generally looks good in motion, but during the stunt scenes, having so many things thrown at you at once can be very disorienting when searching for your next stunt opportunity. Sometimes, the game throws a bit too many things at you and the framerate nosedives for a few seconds but doesn’t detract from the overall experience.

The auditory experience is a bit harder to judge, since most of the time, all you’ll be hearing is the stunt coordinator belting out instructions for your next stunt such as “do a 180” “pass close to the car” or “drift turn left”. The music playing in the background is usually appropriate to the different settings and aside from that, you’ll often hear the sounds of things exploding, tires screeching and the like. This is good, but nothing special.

The multiplayer component is decent, supporting up to eight players in a couple multiplayer modes. The more entertaining of the two, “Backlot Battle” which pits you against your rivals as you race through the movie backlots in a battle to trigger more stunt sequences than your opponents. Offensive driving is very much encouraged, as you’ll be able to crash into your opponents to steal their current stunt string. The second multiplayer mode, dubbed “Backlot Racing” is a straightforward race around the backlots in which Nitro boosts are gained by completing stunts. The eight-player limit can make things very chaotic in both multiplayer modes but as a whole, the multiplayer modes are nothing that will hold your attention for very long.

In addition, a simple constructor mode allows you to customize the Stunt City Arena any way you like using props unlocked in the career mode. Within the constructor mode, there is another mode called constructor challenge, which places stunt opportunities around the arena and gives you a few props to place with which to complete those stunts. These custom arenas can be used in multiplayer modes and uploaded for others to download and play around with.

In my time with the game, I grew to hate some stunt scenes due to immense frustration that awaited me every time I played through them, yet, I found myself oddly compelled to persevere and see them through to the end. Every time I took one wrong turn too many or drove off the set and forced to restart, despite being annoyed, I was driven to try again. Was it some sort of masochistic thrill that pushed me forward? No. No matter how many times I went back to try again in search of just one more star, there is an immense sense of accomplishment that accompanies each successful run. Sitting back, watching the instant replay of your run is extremely satisfying and compelled me to keep going back for more.

In the end, Stuntman Ignition may be frustrating, difficult, and require a large amount of patience, but it’s undeniably fun. Stunt scenes usually boil down to the principle of perfection through constant repetition. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some will be turned off by the constant repetition, but if repeating something until you have it down to a science is something you enjoy or you enjoyed the first Stuntman, you’ll find a lot to like here.