![]() ![]() ![]() Of course, these two sequences are just a fraction of what you’ll see and do in Yakuza 5.įrom a comprehensive pop idol simulation, noodle house operation, fishing, snowball fights, viewing actual manga, eating regional-specific dishes, playing Virtua Fighter 2, or trying to win a Hatsune Miku doll from a UFO Catcher, the title can feel like an interactive pitch for Japanese tourism. Serving as a lead in titles like Virtua Racing and Daytona USA, Yakuza 5 producer Toshihiro Nagoshi doesn’t force players to obey speed limits for long, following up the aforementioned taxi assignment with a breakneck highway chase that has your cab drifting around corners, building intensity in your Heat Action meter that’s used to blow past the delinquent who challenged you. While it might sound like Gran Turismo’s dreaded license tests, taxi service skillfully shirks frustration, feeling more like some kind of obscure, oddball arcade game. Instead it’s a meticulous and refreshing test of observance and decorum, where players are evaluated on details like acceleration and braking speeds, signaling, coming to complete stops, and even making appropriate conversation with your customer. Here, passenger transport isn’t just a madcap sprint to a specific location. The sum of these experiences makes an early taxi driving mission in Yakuza 5 seem delightfully refreshing. From GTA, Saints Row, Watch Dogs, Sleeping Dogs, The Godfather and the Mafia games, reckless driving has become routine, with distinction found mostly in physics modeling. Once inside the car, driving feels all too similar, as we navigate through a standardized traffic simulation where the rules of the road apply to everyone but us. An example of that similitude is found in the impulsive hijacking of vehicles, a mechanic that has become sandbox standard. For all the autonomy that’s granted to gamers, we still find ourselves interacting in many of the same ways. Although the genre extends an exhilarating sense of freedom, offering virtual playgrounds filled with interactive objects, all too often titles rehash Grand Theft Auto’s tenets. There’s a curious tension about open-world games. ![]()
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