Spy Hunter: Nowhere To Run

by: The Ryan September 09 2006

In Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run, you play as Alex Decker. An agent who drives around a modified vehicle called The Interceptor. In the beginning of the game you are robbed of this magnificent car. The real story starts 1 year later, as Alex goes undercover to take back his ride.

The first thing I think should be mentioned is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is the main character, Alex Decker. Up until now there has been no human character in Spy Hunter. No voice, no pictures, no nothing. The Rock was a pretty decent choice for the role, seeing as how he was chosen for the movie (which was supposed to come out around the same time as the game, but has almost dropped off the radar completely) it was only right that he be in the game. There’s a good amount of voice acting in the game, not necessarily great acting, but it gets the job done and doesn’t require us to read.

If you have been a fan of The Rock since his wrestling days, you’ll definitely notice some of his trademark looks. For example, the eyebrow. In fact raising one eyebrow and looking into the camera is one of the first things that you’re presented with by him. The hand to hand combat is comprised of punching and wrestling moves. You have the ability to lift up your enemy and smash him down on your knee or throw him across the room. When you see all of these moves in action, you would think your watching The Rock wrestle again. The gun play in the game is very blocky in the controls. It’s relatively difficult to aim perfectly at the enemies that are running around but it’s not impossible. The game does a good job at easing you into all of the different types of gameplay in the game, by the first real mission you should have most of the controls and handling down.

Most of the missions will have you leaving and coming back to the Interceptor. In one of the early levels, there is a closed dam. You have to park the Interceptor and run into a building gunning down enemies to flip a switch that opens the dam. The by running back to the Interceptor, you continue on your original path. This level design keeps the action varied, but feels repetitive after the first few times. You will definitely come to expect it to happen a little too much.

The Interceptor, the coolest car ever thought of aside from the Batmobile. This car comes standard with machine gun turrets and spiked wheels. As you will hear from Alex Decker himself, missiles are always an option. The handling of the Interceptor is… ok. The weapons are easy to fire but the handling is a little stiff.

If you hate to drive those cars that are only able to stay on the road, don’t worry. If there is an opportunity to drive into the water, and there usually is, the Interceptor will automatically transform into a jet boat so you can take out enemies on the water. The handling as the boat is much better than the car version. If offers a much better range of movement and easier handling. The motorcycle version of the Interceptor (that’s right, there’s more) is like trying to steer a missile. While very fast, you bump into walls an awful lot because you just can’t turn or see all of the obstructions in your way all the time. Seeing the car switch from car to boat to motorcycle is pretty cool to watch. A lot of graphical detail is given to the transforming process. It makes me kind of jealous that I don’t have one of those.

For an Xbox game, the graphics are average. Nothing that will keep you from playing the game, but nothing that you’ll be talking about either. The game is Xbox 360 compatible, but it doesn’t look like the 360 does much for the HD quality. The sound effects were nothing that you haven’t heard before. The only sounds that’s relatively entertaining is The Rock’s voice over’s.

Do you like past Spy Hunter games? If you do, play this game, it’s worth a rental. If you haven’t played a Spy Hunter game before, don’t make this your first experience with the franchise because it’ll ruin you for all other Spy Hunter’s.