Highway Patrol 2 (Amiga) - A Playguide and Review - by LemonAmiga.com
100Highway Patrol 2 is a cop and bandit chase driving game, released by French company Microids in 1989. It features a smooth road routine, and a vast sandbox* (literally) landscape. Many players struggled to understand this, so let's take a look.
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Recorded: 25th March 2024
Narrated: 6 Dec 2024
Uploaded: 31st Dec 2024
It's been so long now, I cant remember much about recording this one. After recording Populous I wanted to cover some games which needed a play guide to understand then, and I wanted a few driving games, so I went for this one and Prime Mover (which was recorded for series 13, but never went out). I could swear there was a version of this game with a map built in to it, so I tried both the U.S and French releases, but no luck. The original French release seemed funny, because of the European style siren, apparently in the middle of America. This seemed very odd, so I tried to make a point about this in the narration - although the point seems a bit lost by the time the siren happens, and most of my explanation of why this was not French Sahara or Africa seems instead to insult the audience, who can see it is plainly not Africa.
So after a quick warm up; where I caught the easiest criminal; I started the recorder, and this time I didn't catch him. So I loaded up the English version and selected the hardest criminal, and used the old trick of cutting over the desert directly. After a few false starts, I managed to head him off, and fill his car full of bullets.
The review was put on hold for most of the year while the more important ones got made. After returning from Benidorm, there were a heap of 7 titles which were almost ready, so I got through those in November, and this was the first one which was not pre-edited. It took most of December to finish it, and it was released to backers on New Years Eve.
Danscore:
Although many driving games were made on the Amiga, most relied on a banded effect, to give the illusion of motion. Even the celebrated Lotus games use it, although a few used vectors; like Vroom and No Second Prize. Highway Patrol 2 features a very smooth vector road routine, which feels nice. Controlling the vehicle feels like figure skating in an ice area rather then rubber stuck to the road, and its easy to swerve off into the 100% indestructible concrete road signs, or the 100% indestructible concrete cactuses. The dashboard graphic is perhaps the most well drawn example on the Amiga platform, and stands out far beyond the likes of Test Drive 2. Most of the dials work, and crashing will lead to the engine overheating. Fuel is also here, so just like the Test Drive Unlimited series, you'll occasionally have to pull in to a fuel stop to soak up some fumes. Gas stations are fairly common, although these are the only features on an otherwise deserted featureless landscape. The aim of taking down a criminal by plotting their location on a map would have been nice in two player mode, where one player is the navigator. But because the single player experience relies on pausing every 10 seconds to find out where you are, it is far easier to cheat and cut straight to the criminal as the crow flies. Not that the player can follow behind the criminal on the same road, because the enemy will rob all the gas stations along the way, forcing the player to run out of fuel!
Without a police APB bulletin system, or massager on the screen, it is hard to engage otherwise, and it would have been better to have highway signs to indicate where to go. Or even a mini map! Like "Criminal Westbound on Highway 9, he's taken a hostage, don't fire at the passenger side!" etc. Instead, what lies within this creature is simply a road routine demo, with some spawning cars, and a 2.5D criminal. So not exactly Knights of the Sky in terms of a totally open world, and it feels like a cheap trick. The paper thin gameplay is hidden by the lack of instructions, and the lack of locations, or stuff to do in general. A huge technical achievement compared to a Dizzy game, and non the less pretty, but vacant. So I'd give this 6.5 out of 10. The overall package sings and dances the same tune over and over, which seems initially very fun, but gets boring fairly quickly.
N.B. - Sandbox was first coined because of Sandbox World in the Japanese game Pac-Mania, literally a world made from sand boxes; which are boxes set nearby a road to hold sand for the winter months.