Vin Diesel spent the late 2000s trying to turn his screen presence into a video game franchise. Wheelman is the result: an open-world driving and shooting game built around his face, his voice and his name. It arrived in March 2009 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows, developed by Tigon Studios with Midway Studios – Newcastle and published by Ubisoft alongside Midway Games.
The pitch was simple enough. Cast Diesel as a getaway driver in a city full of criminals, hand the player a fast car and a gun, and let the two things blur together. Wheelman mostly delivers on that promise. It just does not do much else.
Trailer, via Gamehelper.
Barcelona With Destructible Everything
The game drops you into an open world modeled after Barcelona. The city is dense with destructible objects, alleyways and shortcuts that cut through office blocks, and it rewards a driver who ignores the roads. That is the best thing Wheelman has going for it.
There are 31 story missions and 105 side missions. Most of them are driving-oriented, which is where the game wants to live. The rest are foot missions played from a third-person perspective, and they are the weaker half. A wide variety of weapons are available, including pistols, assault rifles and RPGs. None of them change the fact that shooting on foot feels like a break from the game rather than a part of it.
The missions are spread thin. A hundred and five side jobs sounds generous until you notice how many of them reuse the same streets and the same objectives. Barcelona is a good backdrop. It is not a hundred and five good backdrops.
Airjack Is the Whole Idea
The hook is a mechanic called Airjack. Players lock onto an enemy or civilian vehicle and jump into it from the car they are already driving. It is the one thing Wheelman does that most open-world games of its era did not.
Airjack turns every chase into a decision. Do you keep the car you have, or do you leap into the one ahead of you and keep moving? It is fast, it is reckless, and it fits the character. When the game leans on it, Wheelman feels like it knows exactly what it is.
The vehicles themselves are a mixed bag. Milo Burik drives a Pontiac G8 and an Opel Astra, among others. The demo carried a license plate reading MRTL KM8T, a nod to Mortal Kombat, Midway’s fighting series. It is a small joke, but it is the kind of detail that tells you who made this.
Milo Burik and the Factions of Barcelona
The plot casts you as Milo Burik, a CIA undercover agent. He is assigned to investigate a briefcase of classified documents that the criminal factions of Barcelona intend to steal and sell to the highest bidder.
Milo is placed under the supervision of Anton Gallo, the assistant bureau chief. He makes his presence known by working as a getaway driver for Lumi Vega, an independent thief supposedly assembling a team for a heist. From there he infiltrates the Chulos Canallas and befriends Miguel Delgado, the enforcer and brother of gang leader Stavo.
The story keeps expanding. Milo confronts Felipe Lial, nephew of Paulo Lial, who runs Los Lantos, the most powerful criminal organization in the city. Felipe has been talking to rival factions and leaking their secrets. Milo intimidates him into arranging a meeting with Paulo, who is impressed by Milo’s courage and driving, then orders him to escort Felipe to a deal. The deal goes wrong. Felipe betrays Milo and escapes with Lumi, who has picked him as her wheelman for the heist, alongside her computer scientist Javier Ramos.
Milo then approaches Adrian McGann for information and learns that Micca the Morro, an associate of Felipe, is trying to go independent. Milo captures and interrogates Micca about Felipe’s location. It is a lot of names, and the game moves through them faster than it earns them.
What the Pieces Add Up To
| Element | What Wheelman does |
|---|---|
| Setting | Open world modeled after Barcelona |
| Mission count | 31 story missions, 105 side missions |
| Mission type | Mostly driving, with third-person foot missions |
| Signature mechanic | Airjack, jumping from one vehicle into another |
| Weapons | Pistols, assault rifles, RPGs |
| Named vehicles | Pontiac G8, Opel Astra |
| Protagonist | Milo Burik, CIA undercover agent |
The table tells the story. Wheelman is a driving game with a shooting game attached, and the shooting game is the part you tolerate. The Airjack mechanic is the part you remember.
Vin Diesel is the reason this exists, and he is also the reason it works as well as it does. The game does not ask him to do much beyond be a wheelman, and that restraint is smart. Where Wheelman fails is in believing that a big map and a long mission list are the same thing as content. They are not.
Should You Drive It
Wheelman lands at 6.5 of 10. That is a fair score for a game with one genuinely good idea and a lot of filler around it.
The driving is loose and fast in the right way. Airjack gives every chase a second act. Barcelona is a real place with real shortcuts, and the destructible objects make the city feel less like a set. Those are not small things.
But the foot missions are a chore, the story drowns in faction names, and the side missions pad a game that did not need padding. Wheelman came out in March 2009, competing against open-world games that did more with less. It is not a bad game. It is a good mechanic trapped in an average one.
If you want a driving game with a personality, Wheelman has one. If you want the rest of it, you will be waiting a while.
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