187 Ride Or Die

The thug lifestyle is being well represented nowadays in the gaming world; in fact there doesn‘t seem to be an end to all the games featuring urban gangsters and rap stars. Now Ubisoft is tossing in their own brand of hip-hop styled action with 187 Ride or Die, a driving-and-shooting action game that has you and a partner attempt to win races by blasting busters and pushing the pedal until you leave these playas in the dust.

The story, while paper thin as it is, revolves around a young man named Buck who is called upon by his street father, O.G. Dupree, to defend his territory against rival street gangs. You see, the Los Angeles kingpin was shot nine times by his chief rival, a Mexican gangster named Cortez, and Dupree is out for revenge and the only one able to carry out the task is Buck who knows a thing or two about driving and shooting. How do they defend Dupree’s territory from Cortez’s gang as well as other gangs out to grab said territory? Well, they race through the streets of Los Angeles in sharp-looking cars while the passenger shoots at opponents with various different guns and explosives devices. Think of it as Burnout meets Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Ok, so the main story won’t hook you, considering that the game doesn’t push any plot twists or is interested in giving gamers a peek at just who Buck is or why we should care if Dupree regains his territory and respect. It’s all about the arcade-styled driving and shooting, and 187 Ride or Die immediately places you behind the wheel.  With the aide of a beautiful girl behind the wheel and Buck is the shooter you won’t only be driving but you’ll also be doing the shooting. The racetrack itself is the streets of Los Angeles so you’ll be zipping through streets resembling South Central or East LA and it comes off well enough despite the fact that there are no side streets and very few shortcuts.

Scattered throughout the short race courses are weapons as well as power-ups for each weapon. You start each race armed with a pistol that hardly does much damage but you’ll come across weapons like AK-47s, sub-machine guns, shotguns and rocket launchers. The power-up items give your weapons that extra punch for more damage or more ammo. The opponents also fire back so you’ll be doing a lot of defensive driving. Ah, welcome to Los Angeles, home of the defensive driver with a gun.

Unfortunately driving your “pimped out” ride isn’t as smooth as it should be thanks to the clumsy controls. Forget the fact that you have a race to win, even the blasting away at enemies can be an awkward act but with a little practice you’ll get the hang of the driving and shooting. When you do get the hang of the poor controls the game can actually be fun at times since you’ll get to blow up rivals (the game treats you to a quick animated sequence of your enemy’s vehicle blowing up with the shattered remains falling apart in slow motion just like in Burnout 3).

While the majority of the races are straightforward events, there are different variations that, thankfully, keep the game from being way too dull.  There’s the Po-Po Chase that has you racing against the police that are hot on your trail and there’s the Minefield where all the weapons are replaced by mines. You’ll even participate in an arena Deathmatch while going up against multiple opponents and there’s a game mode that has you protecting a certain vehicle in the game’s Escort mode. The Hit has you attempting to destroy a targeted vehicle being escorted while Bomb has you driving at a certain speed or the bomb in your vehicle explodes. Finally there’s Survival mode that’s similar to the Deathmatch mode only all vehicles must be eliminated and The Lot has you attempting to escape the world’s most brutal parking lot.

While the various game modes have a lot to offer you’ll be disappointed by the opponent AI that hardly poses much of a threat. Occasionally they do a good job of fighting back but oftentimes you’ll be driving up besides them and blasting away at them without even a hint of wanting to move out of the way. It seems that the computer-controlled opponents are more interested in winning the race than getting out of the way of your line of fire. The lack of intelligent AI is remedied by going up against real opponents (up to four) online or using a System Link connection. You can also play with (one does the driving and the other does the shooting) or against a friend (playing through any of the various game modes).

Graphically speaking, 187 Ride or Die is a good-looking Xbox game that shows off some sharp textures, good lighting and so-so visual effects. The cutscenes are nicely detailed and although there’s not much of a story the expressions do a great job of conveying emotion. There are cars aplenty and watching your shooter lean out or sit up on a convertible to start shooting looks cool. The environments are ripe with LA flavor so you’ll get a taste of what South Central is like as well as its surrounding neighborhoods. What the game does wrong visually, though, is speed but the brief animation of your opponent eating it Burnout-style more than makes up for it.

It wouldn’t be a hip-hop driving game without the hip-hop and there are a nice number of Guerilla Black tunes here that do justice to the game’s gangster theme. Even the sound effects are filled to the brim with great explosions, gunfire and the twisting or scraping of metal when you crash against something. What doesn’t work despite a decent cast of voice actors is the dialogue that is trying too hard to sound “street.” In fact the dialogue is entirely composed of hip-hop slang and while other games use it sparingly it comes off as annoying here. It’s too bad too since the game features the voice acting of talented actor Larenz Tate (of “Dead Presidents” fame) and rapper Guerilla Black

In the end, 187 Ride or Die had all the makings of a pretty good driving-and-shooting action game but the overall result is an action game with very little to offer. Sure there are plenty of cars, weapons and race modes but with wheels like this you’ll feel frustrated by the awkward driving and the uneven shooting. Sorry Ubisoft, but this one just doesn’t cut it.

Gameplay: 5.5
The driving and the shooting aren’t as smooth as it should be considering this is a driving-and-shooting game. The poorly designed racetracks and uneven opponent AI adds to the uninteresting single-player mode. What fun there is in this game comes from the Minefield and Escort missions.

Graphics: 7.5
The visuals are actually quite decent with some sharp-looking cars; good animated cutscenes and solid effects that make explosions and gunfire flashy. Buck certainly resembles actor Larenz Tate and Dupree looks just like Guerilla Black. The environments look great as well, although the sense of speed is missing.

Sound: 7.5
The dialogue is badly riddled with hip-hop slang that you’ll laugh at how hard it's trying to sound gangster. Even with the top acting talent of Larenz Tate doesn’t make the dialogue seem as good as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. At least the soundtrack is thumping with good hip-hop from Guerilla Black.

Difficulty: Medium
There are times when your opponent puts up a good fight and manages to squeeze past you in a race but then again there are times when your enemy won’t make an attempt to get out of the way of your line of fire. The only real challenge comes from the Po-Po Chase and The Lot where you try to escape from a parking lot.  

Concept: 6.0
Driving and shooting go together like peanut butter and jelly when it’s done right but that’s not the case here. There are some pretty fun race types but with an uninteresting story and very little in terms of unlockable bonuses, we’re left with very little to like. At least there’s Xbox Live and System Link support.

Multiplayer: 6.9
This is certainly the case of a so-so single-player experience and a somewhat better multiplayer one. For one thing, the poor opponent AI is replaced by gamers that can respond 10 times better to somebody shooting directly at them and can make better defensive decisions. There’s two-player action on a single Xbox and up to four gangstas using System Link and Xbox Live.

Overall: 5.9
187 Ride or Die lacks a number of things that could have made this a worthwhile action game so all we’re left with is a disappointing racing game with a gangster flavor. Aside from the poor controls and the limited choices in racetracks, gamers will quickly get tired of the game’s repetitiveness and lack of an interesting story. Rent this one for its online and offline multiplayer otherwise steer clear of this one.