After watching several of his movies, one thing is clear to me: Vin Diesel is a badass. The man does nothing but pummel faces, bed hot women, and drive exotic cars in manners both fast and furious. Wheelman attempts to share some of Vin’s awesomeness with the rest of us - allowing you full control of The Diez through dozens of open-world driving and shooting missions. Does this game live up to the man or is it a pale imitation?

Wheelman begins by setting you loose in Barcelona - a city full of crime, violence, and plenty of things to crash through. Diesel plays Milo Burik, an undercover cop that has been tasked with taking down a number of sinister gangs. Over the course of the game’s 31 missions, you will have to ride, shoot, and detonate your way through Barcelona’s criminal scum by engaging in some of the most dangerous and destructive car chases ever to rip through Spain: a task that Burik seems apt to handle.
The overall design of Wheelman borrows from the Grand Theft Auto series as you are given a vast city to explore and a ton of missions to blast through. The game’s objectives include chasing down enemy vehicles, escorting cars holding valuable merchandise, following a target without getting caught, escaping from the police after a high-speed chase, and even stepping out of your ride for a couple of shootouts.

The on-foot segments are groan-worthy, as the lock-on targeting mechanics and uneventful gameplay don’t offer as much excitement as the car cases. Driving missions fare much better, offering hectic vehicular battles and window-to-window gun play. The assignments get more creative as you get deeper into the game - highlighting on a thrilling street chase that leads to an underground shootout against a runaway subway train - but the overall quality of Wheelman’s missions is hit or miss.