With the magic of computers and editing, you see some amazing action sequences in today's movies and television shows. There's no way in real life that a person could actually perform many of the feats you see, yet it seems realistic enough on film to be plausible. Stuntman: Ignition is built on this premise. For a real movie, each of these elaborate stunts would be filmed in pieces, splotched together, and augmented with computer graphics and animation. In this game you film the whole scene from beginning to end, in one hair-raising, stomach-churning, white-knuckling, heart-thumping sequence. It’s one wild ride.

The graphics are very well done. There are a variety of locales and themes for the action sequences you are shooting, and each has a vibrant, lush, alive environment. There are tons of things happening as you blaze through each stunt and the chaos occurs at a blistering pace without a hitch. There are three different chase views and a cockpit view from which you can drive, although the cockpit view doesn’t show the console, steering wheel, driver, or mirrors.

With the cheesy action movie soundtracks, the unique personalities of the directors, and the variety of film-specific characters that offer some chatter between scenes for each movie, it's very apparent that the audio was developed as much more than an afterthought. All are tied to the theme of each film, and help draw you into the context for the shots you are filming. Plus, the films are at the least a parody of something that has already been done, if not a downright knock-off, which makes the game more believable. The explosions, collisions, and other ambient sounds are right off the silver screen.

The game play is like a hybrid of the "crash" mode in Burnout, and Project Gotham Racing. In Stuntman: Ignition, you mostly try to get as close as possible to the mayhem during a stunt, without actually crashing into a pile of vehicles, but many of the individual stunts feel similar to the hurling of your vehicle into an intersection and executing precise movements to maximize points (minus the slow-motion) in Burnout.

You're also rewarded for stringing successful moves together; not only the stunts themselves, but any other driving tricks you execute between them, like slide turns, getting air, near-misses, riding on two wheels, and so forth, much like the Kudos system in PGR. There are only about a dozen or so different stunt maneuvers to execute, but the context of the stunts and the variety of movie themes keeps it from getting repetitive. Plus, you get to drive several different types of vehicles (motorcycles, sports cars, eighteen-wheelers, monster trucks, etc.), and each vehicle handles differently, contributing to the variety in the game play. The driving physics don't feel particularly realistic, but you can definitely tell a difference in the weight, mobility, acceleration, and power of the various vehicles.

The stunt scenes you shoot have a duration of approximately one to three minutes. During each stunt, there are specific maneuvers you need to execute in certain locations, with precise timing. If you miss five of your marks, you have to reshoot. If you don't complete the scene in the allotted time, you have to reshoot. Lastly, if you or your vehicle becomes incapacitated, it's time to call the rescue squad, and you have to reshoot. Otherwise, based on the points you earn for executing the stunts, stringing moves together, and keeping good time, your work is scored from one to five stars for the scene.

Prior to each scene, the most important or most difficult stunt is highlighted. However, there are many more stunts in each scene, and you're only given a cursory walk through and limited verbal instructions as to what you're supposed to do throughout the entire scene. Obviously, in a real movie, these things are choreographed in great detail. In Stuntman: Ignition, many of the stunts will take you more than a few takes to even learn the course. Also, with the fast pace and crazy action, it's a challenge to execute everything successfully, especially during some of the longer scenes. That said, it's not too difficult to earn at least a one star rating to move on to the next scene, but it's seemingly impossible to earn four or five stars the majority of the time, at least without an inordinate number of retakes. The bottom line, though, is that the action and the challenge, combined with the sometimes hilarious movie themes, make it easy to keep coming back for more.