Stuntman: Hollywood Revives a Classic Franchise with Blockbuster IP
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Polygon's Summer Game Fest preview of Stuntman: Hollywood explores how Saber Interactive is reviving the classic driving franchise using iconic Universal film licenses, balancing a brilliant concept with some uneven handling mechanics.
Saber Interactive is bringing back a cult classic from the 2000s with Stuntman: Hollywood, giving the precision driving franchise a major upgrade using licensed Universal Pictures properties. As reported by Polygon in their recent Summer Game Fest preview, the game drops players into iconic cinematic vehicles like Brian O'Conner's Toyota Supra from Fast and Furious and Doc Brown's DeLorean from Back to the Future. Instead of following a traditional racing line, players must react on the fly to a director calling out rapid-fire cues, executing high-stakes jumps, aggressive drifts, and narrow near misses to nail the perfect Hollywood take.
While the concept of blending high-octane movie set pieces with arcade driving action is undeniably strong, early hands-on impressions suggest the execution still needs some fine-tuning. The handling, particularly the heavy reliance on drifting, does not always feel entirely intuitive. Much like classic score-attack games or the Tony Hawk series, success requires memorization, precise timing, and plenty of trial and error. Players will fail often as they learn the ropes of each custom sequence.
Fortunately, Saber has addressed one of the biggest frustrations of the original series by drastically cutting down restart times. Bouncing back from a botched stunt or missing a crucial checkpoint is lightning fast, keeping the gameplay loop addictive rather than punishing. If the developers can tighten up the vehicle handling before launch, this revival could easily find a massive audience among both nostalgic veterans and younger players looking for arcade thrills on console and PC.
Tags: Stuntman Hollywood, Saber Interactive, Summer Game Fest, Racing Games, Polygon
Original article: Polygon