In October of 2000 Sony had a handful of great games when the Playstation 2 first launched. One of the more impressive launch titles was one that not too many people knew about. It was Angel Studios’ Smuggler’s Run. Sporting massive maps that allowed you to literally drive anywhere they could see, you would take the role of a smuggler of illegal goods.  Avoiding the cops, FBI, and the army, your goal was to get the goods to the drop point without getting arrested.  Not only would the law try to stop you, but so would the clock.  It featured some entertaining multiplayer games, and is now a Greatest Hits title.  So if you feel like enjoying a great PS2 classic, you can pick it up for around $19.99.  However, the sequel to this PS2 classic has now been brought to the Gamecube as the new, revamped Smuggler’s Run Warzones.

Warzones is basically an overhauled version of Smuggler’s Run 2: Hostile Territory, featuring locales such as Vietnam, Russia, and East Europe. Each map contains a handful of missions that require you to get from point A to point B within a time limit while avoiding authorities. The maps are true to the Smuggler’s Run name by featuring very detailed environments and expansive drivable terrain. Wildlife, military personnel, civilian vehicles, castles, villages, temples, and many other items for your destructive pleasures are littered about the four maps. No two levels feel the same, each country having its own unique feel and features.  For example, the Europe level has a huge castle atop a hill while Vietnam has the ruins of an ancient temple. The people and animals vary with their environments as well. As an added bonus for fans of the original, a totally reworked and upgraded version of the forest level from the Playstation 2 Smuggler’s Run is unlockable. What they’ve done to that level is like magic. The texture detail is incredible, grass is actually sticking up through the ground, and forests consist of more than a dozen trees. This graphical level is consistent throughout each beautiful level of Smuggler’s Run Warzones.

On the subject of graphics, SR Warzones does not disappoint. I don’t know how they got it to look so good while keeping the map size so large, but they did it. Someone should give them a medal, or a gold star. The framerate is so smooth, keeping the action intense and uninterrupted. While in the marshes you’ll find yourself surrounded by weeds and mud, but when in the forest you’re windshield-deep in bushes and grass. Each car is very detailed and each piece of the car can and will fall off of the vehicle. The piece of damaged car will loosely flap in the wind as you drive until you damage that area further, at which point that piece becomes part of the environment and will remain there. Each car has its own ups and downs. Take the Du Monde – its speed and acceleration far surpass its peers, but it is easily damaged and unstable over uneven ground. It’s up to you to pick the right car for each mission depending on your objectives. At first you start with just a simple buggy, but as you successfully complete missions, more vehicles become available to you. If you’re good enough, there’s a secret vehicle that can be unlocked.

Not only do the cars characteristics vary, but so do their countermeasures. Each vehicle has two countermeasures to loose nearby pursuers. Countermeasures include such things as rear-deployed bombs, oil slicks, vertical jump, and more. They add a whole new way to play, especially in the multiplayer modes. The absolute best part of the game is when you grab one to three of your friends and play the multiplayer games. The Gamecube version keeps the same game types from the previous Smuggler’s Runs, but adds two more for your multiplayer pleasure. The first is called Domination and it puts you in one of the five maps along with your opponents, one piece of loot, and a certain number of checkpoints. You must take over each checkpoint by driving through it with the loot in your possession, at which point the checkpoint turns your color. The goal is to take over all the checkpoints in the level; all the while your opponents are trying to do the same. By bumping into your friend with the loot you can steal it from them, but be careful, the loot takes damage too.

The other new game mode is called Fox and Hounds, which is a special type of tag. There’s one token to pick up, and once you get it you must hold on to it as long as possible. The token is sensitive to damage, so bumping into other players and going off jumps will damage it. Once it breaks, a new token pops up somewhere else, and everyone must scramble to pick that one up and hold it. The one that has held it the longest all together before time runs out is the victor.

If you’ve ever played any of the previous Smuggler’s Runs, then you’re probably familiar with the joyride feature. It allowed you to drive around any of the maps with any of the vehicles, minus the pesky police and rival gangs. It really had no purpose, it was just to drive around and get used to the different maps. Warzones gives the joyride feature a purpose by hiding three secret tokens in each map, and finding all three in any one map will unlock different things. The tokens are extremely difficult to find, much like the hidden packages in Grand Theft Auto 3, but are definitely worth looking for. It adds more to the already expansive gameplay of Smuggler’s Run Warzones. The game has great options for multiplayer fun, varied and entertaining solo missions, and each map hold secrets that only the most observational gamers will find. Each time you play you’ll find something you never saw before. Smuggler’s Run Warzones is a great game to add to anyone’s Gamecube library.  

Gameplay: 7.8
The gameplay is involving and enthralling. Countermeasures have been added to greatly increase the use of strategy and raise the amount of frustration your friends experience as you beat them in one of the many multiplayer modes. The joyride feature has expanded by now rewarding curious players by hiding secret tokens that unlock new missions. Anyone with friends can enjoy any of the five awesome multiplayer games, too.

Graphics: 8.5 
With the maps being as huge as they are, the graphics are very impressive. Along with the smooth framerate, the game is very pleasing to the eye and the player. For those who notice detail, there are plenty of things in each level to occupy your time. Every tree, bush, and grass blade seem so real as you smoothly fly through all of it at 130mph. Plus every texture has much more detail than before, so cliffs, meadows, bridges, and rivers look much more dramatic.

Sound: 7.2
While the music can get a bit annoying sometimes, the engine and environment sounds have been greatly improved since the first Smuggler’s Run. The helper voice is a lot less annoying so now it’s much more helpful. Overall, the sound isn’t great, but it does not detract from the gameplay at all. Even though the music can get a little annoying, not all the music is bad.

Difficulty: Medium
Smuggler’s Run Warzones has its fair share of difficult levels, evenly matched by its quite easy levels. Some levels may take a few tries, some may make you want to break your nice little Gamecube controller, and others are a walk in the park. In other words, the difficulty of the game is well balanced, but not too easy.

Concept: 7.5 
The concept of smuggling over expansive environments was a great idea in the first place, but since that was done in the first one, they had to come up with something else so the game didn’t feel like a clone. Well, they were successful on expanding on their initial vision. The addition of countermeasures, while seeming simple at first, changes the way you play entirely in both single and versus modes. The AI has also been improved to provide a more even competition than going up against enemy superhuman geniuses.

Multiplayer: 9.3
The multiplayer mode took me by surprise by being the most entertaining part of the game. There are five modes to choose from, and with each mode having five different objectives on each of the five maps there are plenty of ways to keep boredom at bay. Smuggler’s Run Warzones as a multiplayer games ranks up there with Super Monkey Ball, Sega Soccer Slam, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Overall: 8.8
Smuggler’s Run Warzones was quite a surprise to me. I didn’t expect much of a difference between Smuggler’s Run 2 and Smuggler’s Run Warzones, but the game proved my hypothesis incorrect. The game has enough extras, graphical improvements, and secrets that it does a great job just being itself and not another port. I love Smuggler’s Run Warzones, and I think anyone who owns a Gamecube needs to play it.