iPhone App Reviews

High Speed Chase 2.0

T.J. Brumfield | Jul 15, 2009 Games

User rating: (2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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I kept playing this game all day long. I didn’t keep playing it because it was addictive. I kept playing it because I was convinced there was more here to see. I really wanted to like this game. I assumed perhaps that under various layers of onion there was something else besides another layer of onion. What I discovered is that I was playing a 99 cent app. This game isn’t terrible. Far from it. I just felt like somewhere there was a five dollar app hiding in here. I see massive potential. Instead there is a very simple, very repetitive game.

The first time I fired it up, I selected a mission and began to play. Or I attempted to play. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to do because the game made no effort to tell me. As I ran over orange power-ups, they said to swipe cars. So I did. I ran into cars, quickly died and started over. I did this a few times until I realized that swipe didn’t not mean swipe with my car. I can swipe the other car with my finger and move it out of the way when I get one of those power-ups. They are the only power-up in the game.

There are a few health tokens laying about. Eventually I discovered that my goal is not to take out any car on the road, but select highlighted cars that you can’t see initially. You have to speed up and progress to find them. As you’re driving, cops immediately shoot at you and attempt to run you off the road, even if you haven’t done anything criminal yet. They must be LAPD.

There is a very small selection of cars on the road. The road itself is a plain, endless highway with 4 lanes on either side. Upon successful completion of a mission (with every mission being the same, destroy an increasing number of select cars) you are awarded credits that can be redeemed for upgrades. You can upgrade speed, armor or weapon. But even after upgrading my car and playing the game for a few hours, I found driving to be difficult. The controls weren’t very responsive.

The virtual thumbstick is in the bottom left. I kept pressing down with my left pointer finger, which was uncomfortable. I found tilting the game and playing in landscape mode was much nicer. In landscape, I can operate the thumbstick with my right thumb and shoot by tapping with my left hand. The menu and interface is designed for portrait mode however.

Quickly I discovered that while you need to accelerate to reach your target, for the most part, the most rewarding tactic is to go slow most of the time, stay behind cops and shoot them. They don’t really attempt to dodge your gunfire, nor fire back. Upon realizing this, I was able to coast through missions without taking damage.

I really wanted to see a greater variety of cars on the road. I wanted to occasionally drive at night. I wanted more power-ups. I wanted to upgrade my handling as well as speed, or perhaps unlock other drivable cars. I wanted to see smarter AI. I wanted sound. Frankly, I just couldn’t get into the would-be excitement of a chase in a silent game.

What I wanted was more than a 99 cent app.

The developer has a video on YouTube of a game in development that looks far more promising that builds upon what they’ve started here. You could contend that buying this game is buying an alpha build on another game you’ll be asked to purchase later. I can’t imagine myself playing this much more, if ever again. However, I can also see however where others might enjoy the simplicity of the game. And in the end, it is only 99 cents.

If you think this is something you might enjoy, Johnny Two Shoes did provide a free promo code. Check the comments section.

Tags: $0.99, Games, racing, T. J. Brumfield