Miami Vice

Ever since the beginning of television, cop shows have been something of a highlight; indeed CSI is the most watched program in the world at the time of writing. Obviously this is slightly different as it deals with the more scientific part of law enforcement but what the public really enjoy are the less polished dealings of those brave men and women that keep us safe in our beds at night. Kojak, Starsky and Hutch and this, the 80's favorite, Miami Vice all had that 'on the edge of the law' type of appeal. One other thing they have in common is that they've been remade (Kojak as a TV series) and the reason is, if you watch them now they're all a little... well, rubbish really. Don't get me wrong, the concept is still valid, it's just the occasional hammy acting and unspectacular special effects really date the whole thing. What makes this reworking of Miami Vice so exciting is the involvement of Michael Mann who not only produced the original series but also penned a few episodes. It's paid off too with most critics giving the movie the thumbs up, but can the same be true of the game?

You can approach the exploits of Crockett and Tubbs in two very different ways so while there's a reasonably complex scenario here, you can opt to just plough through levels shooting everything that moves. Your first task is to select which character to play although given that both have the same storyline and outcome it's a bit of a no-brainer really. After this, it’s all about how quickly you can aim and pull the trigger. Gaining the element of surprise means you could clear up a room in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately this is one of the more unfair elements of the game because if you are spotted by one of the many cameras an alarm will sound and reinforcements will arrive. You can avoid these, or disable them with a single shot, but you will occasionally enter a new room and be spotted straight away. Fortunately you can get the upper hand by buying information from your trusty police informant, Freddie Luiz. For the right amount of cash he will give you details on how to shut down the surveillance cameras and locations of the drugs and flashRAMs. It's still usually a case of getting from A to B though and while there’s the odd sub-mission it's generally sufficient to get to the exit with enough health so you can still walk.

If you want a slightly deeper experience you can choose to deal with the underworld in order to gain a reputation. The better your 'Rep' the more powerful you'll be seen on the streets and, just as importantly, the more respect you'll get from the Drug Lords. You can also increase your monetary worth by trading in drugs. You know the stuff: sell high and buy low, and to help you you'll constantly be informed via a kind of ticker tape what’s currently 'hot' on the street. To round the game off there are also some speedboat chases that allow you to collect extra drugs and while these represent little challenge they are reasonably enjoyable. Finally the developers have seen fit to include a Multiplayer option, which allows you to play co-operatively. This is well implemented and gives the whole thing some much need replay value but two copies of the game are required to enjoy it.

As usual with any title now the developers have thrown in some mini-games to break up the action. There are two of these, the best being the FlashRAM hacking exercise. Here you must extract information from a FlashRAM (providing you've collected one) in a kind of Asteroids type interface by destroying the outer shell of the information packets and collecting the data. Amass enough of these and you'll be rewarded. Less interesting is the 'cool' test. This is given by the Drug Lord's bodyguards and is a simple hand-eye coordination affair.

Visually the game is very pleasing indeed with the main characters of Crockett and Tubbs (Farrell and Foxx) well designed and bearing a striking resemblance to their on-screen counterparts. The environments are nicely designed too with the only real problem being that some of the areas are too dark making it difficult to see the enemies until you are in significant danger.

Obviously it's the slick controls in a game of this nature that let you succeed instead of simply ending up in a virtual body bag. For the most part this is all pretty standard: select your firearm (you can carry two at any one time) and shoot. The biggest problem is that you can’t aim and fire while you are moving, meaning every time you engage in a gun battle you have to stop and find cover. This becomes slightly tedious very quickly and occasionally slows the game down when it least needs it. On the enemy side the Drug Lords have clearly recruited the dumbest gunmen to guard their goods and some of the worst AI makes even groups of enemies pretty easy to dispose of. Even if you do get hit there's generally more than enough first aid kits around to rectify the situation.

As you'd expect the 'real' actors didn't license their voices to the game so we have to make do with sound-alikes instead and while the two leads are entirely believable some of the other actors sound like it's their first (and probably last) acting job. The soundtrack is much better with the music fitting the locations perfectly.

Overall Miami Vice has a great deal to recommend it. It's visually impressive, has a great soundtrack and blowing away henchmen with your shotgun is surprisingly satisfying. Unfortunately it seems to have an equal amount going against it, the biggest problem being the enemy AI that does rather defeat the game’s main object. In addition there are problems with the shooting mechanism making the whole experience a great deal simpler than I'm certain the developers would have wished. The trading elements do go some way to rectify this but given that you can completely ignore this aspect of the game it does feel like a bit of an afterthought. If you did enjoy the movie this is a definite 'try before you buy' although given its length you'll probably finish the whole thing in a single nights rental.

By Andrew Blanchard