Pursuit Force (2005)

Sony PlayStation Portable

Pursuit Force is a 2005 vehicular combat shooter game developed by Bigbig Studios for the PlayStation Portable.

The city is filled with criminals of all kinds, and the police force has created a special division to finally bring an end to this reign of terror! Pursuit Force is basically a racing game, but you're a psychopathic cop who also jumps onto peoples cars unloading bullets through the windshields of various criminals. Justice? I guess. Excessive use of force? Completely.

Chasing The Past

Pursuit Force was one of the first games I ever played on my PSP way back when. I remember selling my DS Lite on eBay (R.I.P. that beautiful machine) for the PSP, and I was completely blown away by the fact that I could play full 3D games on-the-go. I remember loving this game. I collected most the cars, and spending hours driving them in time trials. I never beat it, but I had a lot of fun with it.

That was all when I was, like, 13. Fast forward to now, where I decide to go back and play this game that I have such fond memories of. Wow, what a ride. I mean that in the best, and worst sense possible.

Pursuit force feels like a bad action movie, as I'm sure was intended. It's over-the-top and fast paced. It's complete with an angry/asshole police chief, a sexy chopper pilot co-worker, and a slew of un-relatable bad guy bosses. The dialogue is nothing but forced line reads, poorly veiled innuendo, and emotional abuse from your boss. But, like a bad action movie, it's fun to watch (or in this case, play.)

All that said though, it's really fun to hop around different cars during a high-speed pursuit. You're steadily introduced to new vehicles which handle a little different, mixing up the standard drive from A to B. Throw some guns and bad guys in there, and it's really enjoyable to play through most of the game. There's a weird sense of strategy that you feel when deciding which bad guys to blow up, and which ones to car-jack. It's split up into very digestible levels as well, so it's a great game to pick up if you only have 15-20 minutes, but want something with a thrill.

4% On Rotten Tomatoes

Now, while I think it's fun, I don't think it's great. The driving is passable at best. You get used to it, but it always finds a way to make you frustrated with it. Motorcycles in particular seem to have a mind of their own, along with some of the cars from the Yakuza-themed gang. Oh yeah, all the gangs have themes which is fun. More on that later. There are levels where the chief sends you a helicopter with a side mounted mini-gun. Your sexy pilot friend flies you along side the road while you mow down the baddies. The aiming controls really suck here, but they didn't make these parts very difficult anyway. It's quite literally "Spray-&-Pray" during these segments.

While we're here, why wouldn't the chief always use the helicopter? It's complete criminal obliteration every time they bring this thing out. The world (in this game) seems totally okay with the overkill their tax dollars fund, so why not start every mission with the machine-gun helicopter? It wouldn't be a fun game, but damn you'd get those car-jackings down. Anyway...

Police Lineup

Let's talk about the characters. Like I mentioned before, all the gangs have different themes. These include Italian mobsters, army dudes, yakuza, prison inmates (so... criminals?) and, of course, sexy bank robbers. It's fun, but it gets weird. Guess which gang is exclusively women? In fact, every woman in this game is sexualized. I know that's not new, especially for a game from 05'. It's still pretty jarring though. Any criminal that's a woman? They wear mini-skirts and cat suits. Your sexy helicopter pilot? Busty and always flirting with you any time she talks. It's a constant reminder of who this game was really targeted towards: 13-year-old boys.

Aside from my personal nostalgia with this game, nothing here is very memorable. It's a fun play overall, fun enough to keep me playing through the entire career mode and races. Although honestly, I'm happy to be done with Pursuit Force for now. I'm definitely looking forward to trying the sequel out, but I'm in no rush. By the way, my personal head cannon for this game's lackluster story: The whole thing is the fever-dream of a dying, sexist, pig of a cop.

Total horny CGI gallery images collected: 4

There are more gallery images, but I only counted the horny ones.