Time to Burn Rubber
Boosting your Driving skill is essential to successfully navigating the dangerous, crooked streets of Pacific City. When you begin your life in the Agency, you’ll be no better than a pre-teen with a learner’s permit. You’ll be crashing into street lights, sideswiping buildings, and recklessly swerving into a sidewalks full of scumbags. But if you stick it out long enough to max out your skills, you will be a demon on wheels and will be mowing down scumbags with a purpose.
From the moment you hit the streets, the Y-button will give you full operational access to any vehicle within reach. Simply stand near a vehicle where you can see the Y-button indicator, press it, and strap yourself in for a wild ride. Next, press down on the right trigger button to give you the acceleration you need to go for the gold. The harder you press it, the faster you’ll go. You steer the vehicle with the left thumbstick. Try not to hit too many obstacles, Agent. We just had your car waxed. The left trigger serves both as brake and reverse, for those times when you want to see who was whistling at you or run over the more obnoxious pedestrians. The all-important green A-button is your hand brake: it allows you to perform those impressive skids and burnouts you only see on TV. Used in tandem with the steering wheel, you can navigate 90-degree turns or spin out to drive in the other direction even going at top speed.
Go Greased Lightning
As an added bonus to your starting benefit package, you will be given a choice of one of three souped-up monster vehicles. The Agency Supercar is a sleek and aerodynamic sports car. With it, you can navigate traffic at top speeds without needing to change lanes, the low front bumper serving to scoop any annoyingly slow cars out of the way. With the Agency SUV, meanwhile, you can just rumble right over top of any traffic and obstacles in your path. It is the ultimate off-road vehicle and the only one that allows you to perform the more difficult aerial stunts. The third Agency vehicle is the Truck Cab. This behemoth is a monster on the road and will drive through everything in its path. As an added bonus to all three vehicles, you can honk the horn with the B button. Oh, and feel free to listen to the radio as you serve justice. Simply press the bumper buttons to cycle through the songs you hear. There are three stations to choose from, but don’t listen to the lousy ones. I mean it, Agent—what you listen to, I listen to.
Throughout Pacific City you will come across several purple rings of light floating in the sky. These are called Stunt Markers, and their purpose is to provide you with a target through which you can drive a vehicle for extra Driving skill points. To do this you will often need to strategically place ramps at the right angle and distance so that you can achieve daredevil status. If you make it through a purple ring, you’ll get more purple orbs. Oh, how I love those glowing purple orbs. These orbs are more precious than gold and more tasty than candy, Agent.
Throughout the city you will also find purple shafts of light emanating from the ground. These are road race markers. The purpose of a road race is to race…on the road. The rules are, “There are no rules”—just drive as fast as you can from waypoint to waypoint to arrive at the finish before the clock runs out. Take special note: only the next waypoint will be fully lit. The succeeding waypoint is partially lit to let you know where it is, but the rest of them will not be lit at all, and they never will be lit if you miss one of the waypoints. Fame and fortune await you at the finish line, Agent, and if you manage to beat the time indicated you will receive a boon of purple orbs that increase your Driving skill.
Put the Pedal to the Metal
Completing races and jumping through hoops are all well and good, Agent, but the most pleasurable method of gaining purple Driving Orbs is driving over gang members. When you eliminate a hostile with your vehicle, his body will emit a shower of purple orbs for you to soak up. When you start out, you may have to run over a gang member a number of times before they die. As your driving skill increases, though, you’ll find that once is enough, but you have permission to run them over several times all the same. Some criminals are slow in learning valuable lessons.
An important, exciting fact about your Agency Vehicles: they reflect your Driving skill. When you’ve advanced to higher levels of Driving skill and enter an agency vehicle, you’ll see it transform around you into a fully featured Monster Carriage of Doom. The Supercar becomes more aerodynamic and you will be able to skate underneath traffic without any adverse effects. As an ultimate prize, you can even gain machine guns mounted on the sides of your car. Once you have the guns, simply press the cherry-red B button and enjoy an endless barrage of justice. Cherry-flavored justice.
The Agency SUV will also morph. Its wheels grow in size and density and it gains very strong axels and suspension. Running over intervening traffic was never so easy. The biggest boost to the Agency SUV is the increased control you have when soaring through the air. Move your right joystick and you will be able to do flips, barrel rolls, and corkscrews to your heart’s content. This immense amount of control will help you unlock the more difficult Driving and Stunt Achievements. It is also invaluable in helping you gain the altitude needed to soar through Stunt Markers. Pressing the B button allows your Agency SUV to jump into the air on command even if it isn’t moving.
The final mighty morphing power vehicle is the Agency Truck Cab. This formerly gentle giant transforms into a massive monster. Nothing will stand in its way. Innocents and criminals alike will know fear at its approach. At its top speed you only need to bump a gang vehicle to see it explode off of your bumper. Gang members inside will be crushed in the wreckage and you will feast upon the precious purple orbs that stream from their lifeless bodies. Luckily the Agency is heavily insured with full Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability Insurance. Just try not to get our premium too high.