Miami Vice: The Game Review

Pastels suits, sleeves rolled up, glamour and conspicuous wealth; ok, so Michael Mann's forthcoming gritty, dark, take may not share too many similarities to his iconic 1980's TV series, which is where Vivendi Games and Rebellion are taking us with their exclusive adaptation on the PSP.

Presenting a largely routine third-person shooter, Miami Vice doesn't exactly get off to a great start, with a generic premise and a largely routine offering. Taking control of James 'Sonny' Crockett or Ricardo 'Rico' Tubbs, Miami Vice challenges you with retrieving narcotics and defeating dozens of drug-dealing henchmen across differently themed levels throughout Miami. Compared to most third-person action titles on the PSP (largely ports from the PS2), Miami Vice benefits from a control setup that has been designed specifically around the limitations of the handheld format, and as such provides a strong and robust system that removes many of the frustrations seen in other such titles.

The central action revolves around a solid, if unremarkable, cover system, which allows you to take cover behind objects easily, peering out from the side or above to take out the dozens of enemy characters that populate each level. Although functional, the game does feel as though it puts a little too much emphasis on this feature, which is especially evident in the enemy's motions. Sticking too rigidly to the cover concept, the enemy's AI solely involves running around the stage, erratically looking for cover and jutting out every now and then to take a shot. The problem is highlighted whenever Crockett or Tubbs strays too close to an enemy character, who will run past like a headless chicken desperately looking for cover without taking a shot. It's just an unrealistic obsession, which makes enemy behaviour look extremely unbelievable; they will never come out and find you, which leaves the overall gameplay mechanic as simple as waiting for the enemy to pop out from cover - as you can probably imagine, it's not the most entertaining of the many action titles we've sampled this year!

Using an over-the-shoulder zoomed in view when targeting, the lack of thumbsticks means that you cant actually move whilst targeting, which isn't necessarily an overly negative thing, although it's a shame you can't change hands like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory to have a little more freedom and flexibility when you're aiming.

Fortunately Miami Vice begins to get a little better in the sections between actual gameplay, revealing a creative structure that encompasses the largely generic action based gameplay. Your performance in a particular mission is tallied up based upon a number of criteria, such as the type of weapon used, accuracy, completion ratios and whether you risk the trademark white suit or the safety of body armour, which in turn translates to "Rep Bonus". This bonus is turned into days, which effectively serve as turns on the Miami based map that appears between the missions. On the map are numerous locations to visit with the most predominant being Drug Dealers; yes, in true Miami Vice tradition, you can use the drugs you "confiscate" during missions, to buy and sell to dealers in a rather entertaining but seedy take on Tycoon games, which is bound to ruffle the feathers of one or two of the conservative media outlets out there. Each visit to one of the drug dealers on the map (more appear as you progress through the game) takes up a day; so a good performance in a mission rewards you with more days to earn profits from trading in narcotics. With prices randomly fluctuating and making it easy to see how much you bought for and plan to sell at, this feature provides a compelling take on the classic freeware title "Dope Wars", and more importantly provides a much needed sense of depth and structure to the somewhat dull nature of the main game.

Several other locations are also scattered across the map, which do not take up turns/days. Using drugs as a form of currency players can visit an informant named Freddie Luiz to buy intel on the next mission, such as the location of enemy characters, first-aid kits and drugs, along with the code to disable CCTV on the maps. Elsewhere the Tailor provides the place to purchase and upgrade Body Armour or the characteristic suits; the former naturally providing defensive benefits, whilst the latter provides a bonus to the reputation tallied up at the end of every level. Similarly the Arms Dealer allows you to purchase and upgrade the handful of weapons featured in the game, with lower spec and higher-risk arms such as the Pistol and Shotgun providing a higher Rep Bonus then the likes of the safer Sniper Rifle and Carbine assault rifle. Finally the Police Station provides a needed sense of variation, with a strange mini-game reminiscent of Bizarre Creations superb 'Geometry Wars' serving as a Hacking mini-game to access weapon upgrades and discover the location of Barons linked to each of the six narcotics featured in the game. With an appropriate level of reputation, the player can visit these barons to make a sizeable profit on drugs; again these provides variation to the core gameplay, with players having to choose between passive and aggressive tones in a three-round conversation mini-game.

Sadly it's a shame the actual main action stages just don't provide that much fun between it all, in fact at times they're left feeling largely unfinished and buggy in places. Vaulting over an object and pressing the cover button quickly will find Crockett or Tubbs trying to shield against an imaginary object, whilst we also uncovered a section where if you cover against barrels in a certain level you'll get stuck in the floor every time - seems as though Vivendi rushed this one to coincide with the movie release. On the plus side the game does feature unusually quick loading sections for a PSP title, and the ability to play co-op over Wi-Fi works well and is an ideal match for the nature of the game.

I could carry on with the complaints about the main game, such as the repetitive batches of "Gonna f*ck you up bitch" and other choice phrases that spew from the brain-dead opponents you'll come across on every stage. With the all-important first impression coming from the first action stage in the game, I was preparing myself to absolutely savage Miami Vice; however, ultimately I was left impressed by the sense of structure Rebellion have created, and disappointed that the main game couldn't provide the finger-trigger relief in between. Basing Rep Bonus upon the choice of weapon you decide to use and whether it's the suit or body armour, there's a great sense of 'risk & reward' to the game; it's just a shame the actual action doesn't require you to put that much on the line, with its entirely predictable nature.