I have expressed before my general respect for the effort and hard work that goes into developing racing titles. I've always found that their grasp on fidelity and all the little features that elevate this hobby from a pastime to an artform can often put entire other genres to shame. Just look at the amount of talent that went into constructing the recent F1 game; genuine F1 drivers have attested to how accurate that title is, if there's higher praise to be had I don't know it. But if there is one type of racing game that brings down everyone, not just the racing genre but gaming in general, it is a half-assed cash grab product. Just as a brilliant, well-conceived product ups the quality of all those around either out of inspiration or fear of being left behind, a soulless cash grab drags down the quality of all those around it in a depressing fashion. On a related note; Fast and Furious: Crossroads, everybody!
Let me be the first to admit that I am not a fan of the Fast and Furious movies, I've only seen the first two movies and 15 agonizing minutes of 'Tokyo Drift' but I got a decent grasp on what the franchise had to offer and why it didn't appeal to me. It is a franchise built around grand spectacle and impressive (if fake) stunts, with weak attempts at character development shoved in every now and then. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, mindless action films can be a great time for those with the time and tolerance to withstand it, but it tends to birth a franchise with very little space to grow and become transcendent. Fast and Furious has proven to be one of the few lucky ones who have managed to escape that stigma and become important to the global movie conversation, (for better or for worse) allowing the brand to stretch out to multiple sequels, an apparently god-awful spin off, and a real life stunt show that actually exists. But could such a franchise survive the jump to video games?
My initial gut response to that query would be 'of course it could, duh.'. Afterall the franchise is built on giant spectacle and set-pieces lacking any real substance, a great many AAA gaming titles boast that exact same premise, but what if that very merit is harder to translate than we give it credit for? To understand what I mean, take a look at the first F&F video game tie in, (At least that I know of) 'Forza Horizon 2 presents the Fast and Furious'. The basic premise of that title was grabbing the successful framework of the car enthusiast game of that year, Forza Horizon 2, and using it show off digital versions of the flashy cars that identify the F&F franchise. A perfect storm of free marketing for the films and an attractive tie-in for Forza, everybody wins.
However, when you take a look at the actual effort put in by Universal to accommodate this crossover you can see an interesting discrepancy. The car models for this spin-off title look great, obviously as they were all handled in-house by the Forza developers, all the team behind the movies had to do was provide an interesting scenario and the voice talent. The story in-question was incredibly weak and revolved around racing cars (a plotpoint that the movies left behind since 2006's Tokyo Drift) and, despite racing everyone's iconic cars, the only voice talent that the studio were able to provide was Ludachris. (Wow, I'm star struck.) Now, I understand their mentality "Hey, we're providing the bulk of the value by agreeing to this crossover, so why should we have to put in any effort?" But the lack of tangible effort on the studio's part speaks to an inherent lack of caring for the perception of their brand and/or a disdain for the video game market in general.
So now we have the announcement of 'Fast and Furious: Crossroads' which seemed to tick all the right boxes, in theory. They revealed the title at the game awards, using the 'gamer-cred' of Vin Diesel to sell it's legitimacy. (And Michelle Rodriguez, I guess, but she did arguably mispronounce 'Tekken'.) So what went wrong? How about the game itself? From the moment the trailer started it became immediately obvious that something was seriously off about this product. Maybe it was the PS3-era graphics, the seemingly sub-60 fps or maybe the... actually, it was defiantly the face models. Dear god: the face models! This time around Universal went out of their way to bring their A-talent to this title (likely because they had to) but the end-result ended up looking like uncooked pudding more than an accurate digital depiction of Vin Diesel's mug. I mean, how could they get it this wrong? Vin has been bought to life in video games before, from Riddick to Wheelman. (Although those titles were admittedly rather visually stylized.) This just screamed 'half assed' from the moment go.
Developed by 'Slightly Mad Studios' (The guys behind 2015's project Cars), Crossroads seems set to deliver a more faithful F&F experience than the Forza outing. That is to say, when looking at the trailer one can see all the hallmark indicators that you could expect from a Fast and Furious movie. The game's narrative will follow espionage, explosions, giant guns attached to sports cars, and all manner of set-piece moments that look like they come straight out of a bad Bond movie. They even managed to rope in the talented Sonequa Martin-Green to lend her voice and a rough approximation of her facial features to the project. Throw in some vague talk about 'vengence', an unfunny back and forth between Vin and Tyrese Gibson, and you've got yourself a F&F trailer.
And yet it all of it feels very weak-sauce compared to many of the things we see out of the F&F movies of today. (Or at least, the trailers that I watch.) Where's the big eye-rolling stunt to close out the trailer, where's the customary message about 'family' for the umpteenth time, where's the braggadocios celebrity villain? This trailer failed to capture any of the stupid charm of the movies and I feel that may be a real problem going forward. 'Slightly Mad' have a game that looks dated and a trailer that doesn't feel like the source material, at this point all this game really has going for it is a release date that hits the same week as the movie, and I'm not entirely sold on if that will be enough.
Just like most everyone else who watched the game awards, I found this title to be an embarrassingly weak title to end the show on and that may have peppered my reception towards it. After watching the trailer through again a few times, I will admit that it does look like a title that might some vague potential. Afterall, it's been a while since we've been graced with a racing game that is married to a narrative, so the end result might not be completely terrible. I just hope the team has the time to do something about those character models in the next 6 months. (Yikes.)
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