I went into Sony’s June State of Play expecting the usual: Some game announcements, a release date or two, maybe a surprise indie game or PlayStation exclusive, all slapped with the PlayStation logo and no information about other platforms you can grab them on. What I didn’t expect was a new Stuntman game. Honestly, I don’t think anybody truly did. The last entry in the series, Stuntman: Ignition, came out back in 2007 on the Xbox 360, PS3, and even the PS2. Nearly two decades later, Saber Interactive walked out of nowhere and announced Stuntman: Hollywood, and it immediately became my most anticipated thing out of the entire showcase.
The original Stuntman games had a concept that was genuinely great and genuinely underappreciated: You’re not racing others trying to create chaos or destroy stuff as you do in games such as Ridge Racer Unbounded; instead, you’re performing stunts. You play as a stunt driver executing precise sequences for a film production, hitting marks, nailing drifts, threading near-misses, all while the director shouts at you through a megaphone. The frustration of getting every single thing right except one jump, then having to restart the whole sequence from the beginning, was maddening in the best possible way. So it was quite shocking to see Stuntman of all games show up completely unannounced.
What Hollywood Does Differently
Here’s the thing that makes Stuntman: Hollywood a genuinely different proposition from the original games: Instead of having to rely on just making your stunts happen in a fake studio on fake sets, you’re about to do stunts based on real licensed movies and TV shows. This fixes a huge weakness the original games had, where it was entirely fictional, having you do stunts in places loosely inspired by real films. While the entire IP lineup is unknown, the following has been confirmed so far:
- Fast & Furious
- Miami Vice
- Knight Rider
- Death Race
- Back to the Future
- Jurassic Park
Just writing that lineup makes me excited. You mean to tell me in Stuntman, of all games, I’ll be doing stunts in the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park sets? I get to experience what it’s like to not just create stunts for a fictional film but do so with actual licensed brands and names I know? Just hearing that makes me wish pre-orders were out already because I could see myself spending so many weeks just playing the game. From what we know, each film is split into episodes, each with its own unique vehicle, environment, and gameplay twists. Saber says the goal is for every film to feel completely fresh from the last.
The inspirations cited by Saber are exactly the things you’d want to see for a game focused on cars: The Burnout series and Split/Second. Burnout gives you that sense of high-speed driving with consequences if you mess up, while Split/Second gives you the cinematic chaos spectacle that makes you feel like a badass while driving a car. Both are beloved games that don’t have modern successors, so I’m happy to see Stuntman: Hollywood is positioning itself to fill that gap while doing something genuinely its own on top of it. I just hope and pray this reopens the era of badass car games with pretty visuals, cool cinematics, and fun modes to experience. Imagine if this somehow brought Blur back from the dead, that would be insane.
Why This Matters To Me Personally
As you can probably tell by my writing, Racing and driving games have been my kryptonite. The open-world racing genre is in a solid place with Forza Horizon 6 being a beautiful and fun entry, but pure arcade driving games built around spectacle and precision have become a dead genre at this point. Ridge Racer is dead, Need For Speed most likely will never get another entry, Burnout Paradise was the last great Burnout game, Split/Second never got a sequel, and the list can go on and on. We still do get some solid games, such as Tokyo Xtreme Racer, but nothing like how it was before. The lane that Stuntman: Hollywood is entering is genuinely empty right now, and that makes it more interesting before we’ve even seen the full game.
There’s no release date yet, which means this could be a long wait. But between the licensed IP lineup, the Burnout and Split/Second DNA, and the revival of a concept that’s been dormant for nearly twenty years, Stuntman: Hollywood shot straight to the top of my watchlist from the moment the trailer ended. I’ll be keeping a close eye on everything that comes out about this one while praying it revives one of my favorite game genres.
