Stuntman: Hollywood is a brilliant idea, with an uneven execution

The stunt-racing game returns, now with Fast & Furious and Back to the Future set pieces

The execution, based on playing Stuntman: Hollywood at Summer Game Fest this past week, is a little less exciting. But there's a strong idea at the heart of Saber's new Stuntman, and I hope they pull this trick off.

At Summer Game Fest, five levels from Stuntman: Hollywood were playable, offering only a taste of what the action-racing game promises. I played through a couple of levels based on the early Fast & Furious films, including one that ends with my stunt driver barely outrunning a train, just like the ending of 2001's The Fast and the Furious. I also played a level based on the scene in Back to the Future where Marty McFly attempts to outrun the Libyan terrorists who are peeved at Doc Brown.

Each level began with my stuntman's car (e.g., Brian O'Connor's 1994 Toyota Supra MK IV, or Doc Brown's DeLorean time machine) at a starting line and me being given little information about what the ensuing stunt sequence would require. Stunts are instead called out in rapid succession by the director on the fly; he asks you to perform various jumps, drive dangerously close to other cars, knock over obstacles, and (most of all) to drift. There's a lot of drifting in Stuntman: Hollywood, regardless of the franchise, and it didn't always feel intuitive. Each level has some specific move or unique set piece to pull off, and you're graded in real time on your performance. Landing these scene-stealing tricks felt great.

It's easy to fail or botch a stunt. But unlike past Stuntman games, which were criticized for their excessive load times, Stuntman: Hollywood makes retrying a level or restarting from a checkpoint speedy. I found myself doing that often as I sped through each level, immediately feeling the allure of pulling off a chain of perfect stunt sequences.

In that way, Stuntman: Hollywood is a lot like its predecessors: It's a game of trial and error, and your enjoyment of it will probably come down to how much you enjoy perfecting runs of levels, à la Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

There's some strange dissonance in Stuntman: Hollywood because of its licensed properties. The Back to the Future stunt sequence captures the look and feel of its cinematic inspiration, though in Stuntman: Hollywood's version of that chase scene, Doc Brown's DeLorean isn't chased by one VW bus, but a whole fleet of them. Outracing multiple enemies who are firing AK-47s at you feels more than a little absurd. Stuntman: Hollywood players should know ahead of time to suspend disbelief.

One of the more enjoyable levels in the demo I played was based on the 1974 disaster film Earthquake. Like the film, the stunt driver is tasked with driving through and surviving a catastrophic earthquake as it destroys Los Angeles. Stuntman: Hollywood felt best in this scenario; the ambient chaos and destruction lent the level a real white-knuckle, barely-hanging-on feel.

There was a lot of Stuntman: Hollywood I didn't get to see. A menu interface hinted at the return of Odd Jobs from past Stuntman games, and I didn't get to see any levels based on the Miami Vice and Death Race licenses. I also only got to experience racing in cars, but there are other types of vehicles, including motorcycles. Hopefully, Stuntman: Hollywood has more surprises in store.

Stuntman: Hollywood is coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game has no announced release date.