Although all action in Fast & Furious Crossroads, the star-studded video game site story to the long-running movie franchise, includes driving a car, there are no speedometers. The only speed is fast. Unless you’re making a delivery bus owned by Barcelona’s mobile. Then it’s slow, though probably furious. Crossroads is not a great game, but it is not without its charm of the ash film.
Fast & Furious Crossroads starts with husband and wife team Dom and Letty, voiced by Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, behind a man in a tank with flamethrower, because sometimes a tank is just not enough. Letty uses her car’s special ability to harpoon the three flamethrowers from the back of the tank. Then it’s Dom’s turn. Letty says she wishes she had guns. Stupid grumbles, “I have something better.” We change control to his car as leaves appear from the rims of his tires.
Better than guns. Dom uses the thick, metal spinny stuff to run the tank out of the way. The driver is a member of the Tadakhul Syndicate, an old gang of offending car tires, who is taking revenge.
Cut to Barcelona, where we will meet the new crew. This is in Fast & Furious side story so we get a new cast of characters. Vienna Cole and Cam Stone are best friends who fled the racing nightlife of Miami for a quieter life in Spain. Unfortunately, Vienna’s friend Sebastian Miro owes the Tadakhul syndicate a large sum of money, so the new crew has to cough it up or bring down Tadakhul, with a little help from some old Fast & Furious favorites. The trio figure they have an advantage because the old syndicate is used to defend them against rival alliances and three amateurs will not show up. Really.
G / O Media can get a commission
It’s really on-market. The game feels like a Fast & Furious film. There are streets late at night. Large, awkward action pieces with driving cars in ridiculous conditions. The police only act as a pursuit to do this, otherwise the road will drive downhill and ignore the action with the rest of the traffic.
The dialogue of the game is silly, but the actors are pretty good. Vienna Cole is pictured by Sonequa Martin-Green, who also plays Michael Burnham Star Trek Discover. She does an excellent job at playing the ex-racer who is dragged back for one last big score. I also really enjoy Vienna’s nonbinary best friend, proposed by nonbinary actor Kate Dillon. The pair create a compelling team. I wish they were in a better game.
But they are not in a better game. They are in Fast & Furious Crossroads, where the street markers are confusing, treat sports cars like minivans, and many cars have special capabilities such as harpoon guns, rotating wheel blades, nitrose boosts, or hacking. That’s right, Cam Stone is a hardcore hacker who can turn off police cars as they drive down the road at high speed.
They can do it too while parking, but that’s not so fun.
There is an early race that I continue to restart because there was no way to win, only to eventually discover that there was no way for me to win in the first place. Although my character speaks as if they are in the lead, they actually stand in fourth place out of four for most of the circuit. Instead of reaching the finish line, a cut comes up, in total my car. Look, video game, you told me to win the race. That’s what I’re trying to do.
Driving in Fast & Furious Crossroads is not the best. The highways of Barcelona, the starting point of the game, are filled with parked buses, construction projects, and floating yellow arrows meant to keep me on my path. Sometimes the player is given the freedom to choose their own route to their destination. Other times, they are restricted to a set path. The PC version I played does not even allow keyboard and mouse control. It is a very odd experience.
And then there are the lengths the game goes to get you behind the wheel. Since every action drives and the story unfolds through non-interactive cuts, Crossroads has ridden a lot unnecessarily. Drive to the police shooter. Drive now as your friend shoots to the police. There’s a big race tonight; drive the racing fuel quickly but also carefully to home so that it does not explode. Customize that Tadakhul syndicate from to his destination so you can be noticed by one of the game’s big bad guys.
I enjoy the more extensive ride setpieces of the game. If the player gets to switch between different cars and racers while, say, trying to take down the dirty cops you chase after stealing sports cars, then that’s fun thing. I enjoy shooting cars off the road, Burnout style. I wish it felt more like, well, Burnout, but developer Slightly Mad Studios is known for pumping out an entertaining racing game like two.
The most impressive thing about Fast & Furious Crossroads is the balls of Bandai Namco to release it as a full $ 60 video game. This is budget cost at best. I would go if it mentions the best of budget costs, but there is not a whole game here. Players who have completed the game report five hours of playing time between rides and cuts. There’s also an online multiplayer mode with three teams of three players cast as heroes, villains and cops, which sounds like it would be nothing if people were playing it.
Fast & Furious Crossroads has great cars, great stars, a stupid action movie story, and gameplay that can be a lot worse. It’s the video game equivalent of a live-to-video sequel, only Bandai Namco’s decided to take their chances to release it in theaters. It’s worth playing, but I’ll wait until it’s much cheaper.
Fast & Furious Crossroads is now available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
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