Wheelman (Xbox 360)

You can avoid enemy attacks by countering, pushing the right stick in the opposite direction of the attack. You can also use the melee to dodge traffic as you blast down the highways at serious speeds. The faster you drive the more you gain your Focus, hitting pedestrians or slowing down loses you Focus so you've got to balance aggressive driving with risk/benefit as you navigate the various streets, alleys and so on.

Focus powers the Aimed Shot, Cyclone and Boost.

Aimed Shot

Time slows down for the duration of this ability, Milo can use his gun to target weak points on the enemy vehicles and take them down to the front and sides of his vehicle.

Cyclone

Time slows down for the duration of this ability; Milo spins the vehicle 180 and can take down enemies that are behind and to the sides of his vehicle. The same weak spots appear on enemy vehicles as Aimed Shot.

Boost

The vehicle gains a serious boost in speed; this drains the Focus Gauge rapidly.

As you might expect, the ride you're in isn't going to take an unlimited amount of punishment. It takes damage from impacts, ramming other cars and objects, gunfire and smashing into heavy obstacles. At some point you're going to need a new one and that's where the Airjack (and comparisons to Pursuit Force) comes in. Airjack allows Milo to leap from one vehicle to the next and continue on with a fresh set of wheels. It's a dramatic and cinematic leap that flows from one car to the next without breaking the sense of speed or immersion.

You can also shoot enemy vehicles, drives and especially blow out tyres with Milo's gun from the driver's side (passengers may some times shoot from their window as well) of the vehicle.

Later on you're introduced to on foot combat, this uses a simple system that concentrates on fast and furious (no pun intended) fun combined with intuitive controls that allow you to lock onto various targets and make them dead in a stream of bullets. Your pistol has unlimited ammunition and you can rifle other weapons from the dead. You unlock various weapon caches around the city as you play the various side missions, which we shall come to in a short while.

You can aim at specific body parts with a slight adjustment of the right stick, just like in GTA IV and there's a free aim mode to take down environmental objects such as gas cans. There's no cover mode per-se but Milo can crouch behind low walls, he automatically pops up to fire.

Once Wheelman opens up you can treat it like an open-world driving/action game. If you need to deal with some vehicle based pursuers and you can't be bothered to take them down car to car, you can always skew your vehicle into an alley and jump out taking pot shots at the enemy as they will usually get out and follow suit. Not always though, some of them will use their heads and remain in the vehicle opening fire from inside.

There are various side missions in Wheelman, escaping from cops or gangs, collecting packages in a game of 'hot potato' and even races. Wheelman puts a spin on these side missions by allowing you the freedom to use all the tricks you've earned so far such as Cyclones, Aimed Shots and Airjacking in races for instance. Do well, get the best rankings and you'll unlock various bonuses in the game and upgrades to your vehicles health and so on.