Missions are rated according to how fast you complete them, with Bronze, Silver and Gold medals awarded for exceptional play. These medals carry various levels of points that fill an experience meter. Every time the meter fills, you gain a level and usually unlock a new vehicle for your garage. You can also gain experience by cruising through the city and seeking out randomly generated emergencies.

Each of the emergency types is track-based. The fire fighting missions place you in a closed-in environment (a college campus, an amusement park) and force you to follow a set path and put out fires as you encounter them. Early in the game, you might only need to extinguish five fires to complete the mission, but later missions add to the number of hot spots that require dousing. As the game design is track-based, should you miss a fire, there’s no reason to backtrack, as it’ll come back around again as you navigate the circuit.

The car chase sequences drop you into a section of open city and charge you with chasing down and disabling a criminal. A car can be disabled by repeatedly crashing into it. Later chases add new variables that limit the sides of the car you can hit. It’s the car chases that feel more like a traditional driving game, with the criminal changing routes on the fly. Once you’ve completed a set number of missions, additional areas of the city will open up, thereby presenting more complex missions to tackle.

Tying the whole package together is a narrative that follows the new recruit Zack and a mysterious figure from his past that might be behind the escalating series of attacks and mayhem that have plagued the city. This mysterious racer will pop in from time to issue cryptic threats and move the story along.