I wasn't sure how to feel about the fact I was downloading the Wheelman demo. It seemed like a cool idea but then I learned it was being published by Midway. After I started warming up to it again, I learned Midway was declaring bankruptcy and selling the game off to Ubisoft. Did this mean the game was so terrible Midway was desperate to pawn it off and make back some money? After clearing these thoughts out of my mind so I could give the demo a fair chance, I was pleasantly surprised.

I played through the entire demo which consisted of a tutorial chase scene and two side missions. The side missions are useful to complete, according to the demo, because ranking well provides upgrades and unlocks items. The demo only allows the side missions to be retried three times although it assured me that in the full game, I could retry as much as I needed. The tutorial car chase was fun with the character in the back seat yelling out instructions (damn back seat drivers!). 

The first side mission I tried had me attempting to chase down cars to steal via "air jacking" (more on that later) and racing them back with as little damage as possible to the drop off point. I wasn't that excited by this mission as I was given four minutes to steal three cars. This seemed to be the weakest part of the demo for me because each time I used up the full time and was only able to successfully steal two cars and deliver one. Maybe with more practice, I could get it down. The cars I had to chase seemed to drive unnaturally fast and accurately despite one of them being a moving truck. Seriously?

The second side mission was more fun although it was simply racing. Similar to Burnout, you're encouraged to take out your opponents by crashing them or moving special moves to shoot the cars until they are destroyed. This permanently removes the opponent from the race and moves you one rank up. I came in second place by eliminating three other racers and remaining ahead of another car. Also, I was able to air jack into new cars when my current one was too damaged. Air jacking is awesome. Simply drive up behind the car you want to steal, hold the button and release at the proper time to leap out of your current one and commandeer the new one. No time wasted to stop the vehicle and steal a new one - it's all on the fly.

Overall, I was happy with the demo. My expectations were low because I hate being disappointed. Based on this demo, I would probably pick it up for myself. As for you, if you enjoy action movies and crashing (or shooting) cars, download the demo now! Wheelman releases for the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the PC on March 24th.