Interstate '82

The stylish Interstate '76 was brought kicking and screaming into the eighties by Zack Norman, updating characters Taurus (Gregg Eagles) and Groove Champion (Andrew Heckler) with new cars, new wardrobe and some rather colourful new villains. However the transition from the funky seventies to the clean, sharp and materialistic driven eighties was not necessarily a change for the better.

The story is a straight forward yet at times forgettable one, with Taurus seeking Groove who has mysteriously disappeared after stumbling upon a politcal conspiracy involving the Contras. It is here Interstate '82 perhaps falters the most with some fairly weak supporting characters and voice acting and a script that seems to fade in enthusiasm the further you play, including a pretty awful Star Wars parody, and a disappointing climax. Despite these factors Taurus still manages to lift spirits with his cooler than a swimmin' pool lines and comebacks.

Graphics in the game do the job without earning any gold stars, but the new engine has some smart lighting effects and shifts along at a fair pace. Also the environments have changed with more urbanised routes rather than the sweeping landscapes of '76. However these urban environments are evidently harder to pull off, and there are a heap of other games out there with more convincing looking city levels than this one, the Las Vegas level looks particularly lacking in detail giving the impression the artists working on the project didn't even use reference material in the construction of the city.

Cinematic sequences are also of an average quality, apart from the evocative intro which captures the atmosphere of the eighties, or rather eighties TV action shows, more than anything else contained in the game. The remaining film sequences in an awfully dark and blotchy resolution, caused in part by blowing up a smaller picture to fill the screen, produced by the aptly named Blur Studio Inc. Are a bit of a let down, with overly chatty scenes and the aforementioned cloudy picture quality making it all the harder to make out what's going on. The transition of these scenes to the in-game graphics is an unsettling one and it becomes more apparent by players of the previous game how well it blended the two and injected a whole lot of personality into the retro styled low polygon characters.

As for cars there's a few new models available to drive, but not as many as you'd expect for a new decade of motoring, if the 70's choice of ride came mainly in the shape of big engined American muscle cars, Interstate '82's come in the form of smaller sports cars mostly from Europe. Despite keeping a lot of cars available from Interstate '76, one car is surprisingly absent; Vixen's Pickard Piranha, which players of the previous game (and Nitro Riders) would have been attached to or at least accustomed with.

Despite some shortcomings with the story and characters, '82 as a game is still is a lot of fun to play. Activision added some more weapons, including some over the top variants, as well as updating Multiplayer options, and a clever car customisation facility where anyone with access to a PC paint package can produce their own personal paint scheme. The one player game remains very similar to the original, blending driving and combat with salvaging equipment from beaten foes, linked by an enveloping story. Auto salvage has also become more of a factor, with your choice of car at times more important than how you use it. And while players being able to leave their vehicle and hijack others at gunpoint adds some variation to the game, it also tends to slow down the action and does a complete U-turn around the adage in Interstate '76 of 'Don't get out of the car.' In general it seems Interstate '82 has taken a step backward a little from the success of it's predecessor and like Groove Champion, time hasn't been so kind to either of them.

I never really had the chance to complete it's predecessor but I did play the demo version of Intestate 76 which gave me an idea on what the damage was like in that as opposed to '82. This game lacked the detailed weapon and armour management in the original and the health of the vehicle was a health bar instead of the 76's armour/chassis strength system which meant damage wasn't as interesting and it was more like Twisted metal which is a shame as this game would've been better if they hadn't simplified it but it was still fun nonetheless. The storyline was very good and the cut scenes were great too and it was nice that it felt like the 80's with the music style. It's a shame that there will be no more Interstate games :( I would've loved another one of these games to come out with the classic style of gameplay in '76. Now to get the full version of Interstate'76 and complete it :) I can't really say which storyline is better out of this and '76 as I've never completed '76 before but I know '76 had better gameplay.

Overall: Good storyline but the game shouldn't have been simplified.