Interstate '82

The Good
Well all the good car action / shooter elements are here, laid out in the same vein as Carmaggedon and Hot Wheels Velocity-X. The game puts you in the role of a vigilante that seeks to destroy some terrorist group (or so... doesn't matter). Fast and furious action, the game is quite addictive and you can expect to spend many happy hours with it. The thing that sucked me in was the variety of cars that you have the chance to drive. The game claims to be full of 80's cars but OK, some of them are 70's really (which is a good thing after all). The cars physical models are in a very arcade action style, so you can't really expect to find any simulation value in this. It's the action that this game stands for, going fast and shooting enemies. And on this respects the game rates quite high.

The Bad
First of all we have average graphics altogether. Beginning from the menu and going into the game. There are no graphical masterpieces here. And maybe that's because the machines back in 99 wouldn't be able to support supreme textures combined with high 3D transformation speed.

The levels are of mixed difficulty. You can fly through 2 or 3 levels in 10 minutes and get stuck in one damn level in the middle. Imagine having to replay the whole level again and again simply because of a false jump, which is a total nuisance, if not disastrous for the game itself. Most of the times there are no alternative routes. You gotta do it their way only. Personally I got stuck in the mines level where I've tried to get out of there about 50+ times and failed in every try. And that was when I lost interest on the game and uninstalled it from my HD.

The Bottom Line
I liked this game a lot. It has all the nice elements for an action packed speedy game. The cars variety is a big plus but then again, once you get stuck... that's it.

I can't really say that this is going to be the jewel that left forgotten 4 years now, as I feel that it won't keep you going much. I have never played the other games of the Interstate series so I cannot really compare. But I dare say that this game might deserve a little try.