Following in the criminal footsteps of Driver, is Smuggler's Run. In Rockstar's take on the lifestyle of a professional driver, your job is to deliver various contraband items for your employers. Unlike Driver however, you are not confined to the city streets, in fact a good rule of thumb is to avoid paved areas altogether. We know this game delivers lots of illegal paraphernalia, but does it deliver a good gaming experience? Read on to find out.

As a driver for a gang known as "The Forgotten", led by Gordon Temple, you'll receive your missions via radio transmission from Radio Girl (Yes, that's her name) and you must complete these missions as quickly as efficiently as possible. Some of the missions are simple pick-up and drop runs, while others pit you against rival gangs in a race to deliver a certain item, or sometimes just a flat out race to impress your boss. The multi-player modes offer all out turf wars against rival gangs, and there is a variety of other multi-player modes, but they play mostly the same.

The gameplay of Smuggler's Run is easy to pick up, yet difficult to master. The wide variety of terrain present in the levels teaches you that sometimes the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but it is not always the easiest. Mountains, cliffs, rivers, and towns all stand between you and your goal. In addition to the terrain slowing you down, you've also got to deal with the local boarder patrol. Once again, a case of the man trying to keep us down, but you've got to deal with'em if you are to be a successful smuggler, and make your mother proud. Rival gang vehicles are also around on some levels to make life difficult, as they will steal your pick-up and try to deliver it to their base before you can catch them.

Rockstar did a nice job of capturing the feel of driving on rough terrain, without making it terribly frustrating. If you flip your vehicle over, a quick tap on the analog stick will return your vehicle to its wheels. Vehicle damage is a factor in this game, so you will have to learn which jumps to avoid, and ways to avoid excessive contact with police vehicles. Different vehicles such as a buggy, truck, street car, and SUV are all available, and have different attributes, making vehicle selection very important to the success of certain missions.

The game is not without its flaws in executing the gameplay. The AI is pretty poor, with the police sometimes pushing you up a hill helping you get over and away. Also, the paths of the authorities are very easily memorized. After a few trips through a level you'll know exactly when and where the police are coming from, though this information doesn't really help you get away because the police vehicles are far superior to your own. It got to be very frustrating when I was clearly outdriving and outrunning the Boarder Patrol, only to find that I could never lose them, and they could ram me at will. After a few hours the game gets extremely repetitive, as you continue to perform the same routines over and over, with only the levels changing.

This game is nicely done graphically, but some of the huge levels showcase some of the limitations of the system. Textures are very repetitive, and not very detailed, making the levels somewhat tedious to look at. Don't get me wrong, some things are done very well, and add some nice touches to the levels. The skies are nice looking, the trees are very realistic, and the car models are well done, but the game is not going to blow you away from a graphics standpoint.

It seems to me that the last thing that Rockstar got around to putting in this game was audio. Most of the time I found myself wishing that they hadn't bothered, and just shipped the game without it. Radio Girl is one of the most obnoxious announcers I have ever heard, and I found myself just turning the sound off after hearing her cackle "Once, Twice, Three times to the next pick-up!" about two dozen times. What the hell is that supposed to mean anyway? Sometimes she gets downright pornographic, which really doesn't fit in; I guess the developers just thought they were going to be "edgy". It doesn't work. The music is very forgettable, but fortunately it's not as annoying as Radio Girl. Those tough guys in the Boarder Patrol shoot such intimidating things as " You are driving foolishly, pull over now!" Your best bet is probably to invest in a pair of earplugs and avoid this horrendous audio altogether.

Overall, I'd have a difficult time recommending this game for anything more than a rental. It's fun for a few hours, and if you've got a few friends over, it's entertaining as a multi-player experience. I did have fun for the first few hours I played this game, so I don't want to get too down on it, but the bottom line is that the shallow and repetitive gameplay that this game offers will keep you from playing this one again after you've beaten it.

Shawn's Opinion:
Although I didn't get in as much playing time with Smuggler's Run as Aaron did, I can give you my initial impressions of the game. The moment I started playing I began picking apart minor graphical flaws and such but that's just the way I am. The game looks ok and at least the frame rate is high. Even though the vehicle models have realistic, moving suspension systems, the textures are completely flat. There is no shiny effects or reflection on the surface of the vehicles to speak of, it's all just one color. Fortunately this isn't as bad as it sounds but still quite a suprise to see such lack of detail on PS2. Like Aaron said, the levels aren't incredibly beautiful and are quite repetitive. Speaking of repetitive, the music will drive you nuts, especially if you pause the game. Note of warning, if you're on crack, don't pause the game. Crack and obnoxiously repetitive music are not a good mix! Gameplay is monontenous, especially once the game gets harder when you have to play the same level over and over again. After a while it seems like everything is pre-determined, the direction the cops travel, even your own fate! There is no doubt, this game can get very frustrating but at least it is challenging, unfortunately this is not in a good way. I found that the cops seem to inflict damage upon your vehicle even if they barely touch it and your vehicle often tends to breakdown at the strangest times, adding to the frustration factor. Smuggler's Run is a fun game to play up to a point, then it just becomes unbarably repetitive. If you rent this game, you'll suck all the goodness out of it in a day or so. Don't buy it.