The Getaway

The Getaway, says Sony, is a perfect combination of both movie and game. You, the player, have to complete missions implemented in a storyline told by several cut-scenes. On-screen information like health bars, hints and directions simply don't exist: you have to rely on your car's turn signals to find your way through the faithfully remodeled city of London. Realism is the keyword here.

And it's the realism that makes this game hell to play. I am a big fan of the 'cartoon' approach that Rockstar uses in its brilliant GTA games. Unlike Grand Theft Auto, The Getaway wants to be taken seriously. Example: killing pedestrians in GTA is fun. You get money for doing so and if you wait a few seconds, an ambulance will arrive to undo the damage you've done. Whereas driving over pedestrians with your vehicle is ludicrous in GTA, it's a rather uncomfortable business in The Getaway. The sickening thud and the screaming of the person you just hit make this quite horrible. And you'll have to kill a few peds in this game, believe me. London folks appear to be suicidal, which means they'll regularly walk into your car. Same goes for the innocent people who get killed when they walk stupidly into your line of fire.

Telling the entire world that your game is ultra-realistic sheds expectations. People don't expect crappy animation, cheesy controls and abysmally behaving cars in a 'realistic' game, and neither did I. This game should have set a benchmark, and it did: The Getaway is the world's first ánd worst movie-game combo ever! A brilliant idea, good storyline and seedy atmosphere are worth nothing thanks to the ruddy gameplay. Games shouldn't be realistic, they should be fun. Ironically, The Getaway is neither realistic nor entertaining. A lousy 5.5/10 is even more than they actually deserve.

I really liked this one for starters. It was well worth the wait and well worth the attention as well.

• The graphics in the game, in my opinion, were very good. I can see how the game makers and designers at Sony Computer Entertainment America and Team Soho made the levels very unique and challenging because you have to reach your destination by following the indicators on the tail lights of your car, and then when they both flash, that means you've reached your destination. I think that this was a very nice touch because it feels so real and all the places you go to are all real as well, and not in some kind of "made-up" place that the game makers and designers thought up of.

• The controls in the game, in my opinion, are pretty good. I know that it can be a bit irritating at most times, because you never know when you're gonna run out of ammo because, again, they don't have a display for that. But, then I realized that you'll know when you're running low after you've been firing the pistol, shotgun or assault rifle a lot of times, and then you feel the controller vibrate. That's when you know it's time to reload. The driving controls for the game were also good as well.

• The voice-acting in the game, in my opinion, was very good. I can see now why it said on the back of the case, "Cast of professional actors", because every single actor and actress gave a really good performance in the entire game right up 'til the end. Just amazing.

• The dialogue in the game, in my opinion, was also very good. There's no scenes of empty dialogue anywhere throughout the entire game and I think that the dialogue was very detailed and very well-written.

• The cars in the game, in my opinion, were very good as well. Just make sure that you don't go flying at a rapid speed, then what happens is that your car would catch smoke and if a front or a rear tire is flat, then you'd be swerving around all over the place, which is kind of annoying at most times, but other than that, the cars are very good to handle and get around with.

• The gameplay in the game, lastly, in my opinion, was really good, too. I find that the idea of you having to drive to a certain place and it takes you a little while to get there and then you can shoot up different people there for a little while too, whether you were Mark Hammond or Frank Carter, it was fun, and nothing but fun.

Some action-driving players may feel unusual about the idea of a game that has no map or a bullet screen or an arrow to show you where to go next, but, I have to say that this game is definitely one of the best driving/shooting adventure games I've played in a long time, right up there with Grand Theft Auto.

I definitely would recommend this to anyone who's looking for a real fun challenge in a really fun game.

With all of that said, I give "The Getaway",

9 stars out of 10.

For the first time, a game like this actually has a point, has suspense, and keeps you entertained with hard as hell missions. this game is truly unique, and I suggest people either play it or read up on it. I mean, if you like crime movies or crime novels, you will most certainly enjoy this game. Long live the ultra-violent crime games!

"The Getaway" is not a video game version of the Sam Peckinpah heist flick or even of the Walter Hill remake. It's a British gangster movie in the vein of Guy Ritchie's "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". Or is it a video game? It certainly seems like a movie, but it's not.

For years, game developers have been wanting to create a so-called "interactive movie". A product with the look and feel of a motion picture, but one where the viewer is totally in control of. For the most part, they've failed miserably, as is the case of the horrible FMV titles from the Sega CD days.

However, most recently, programmers have come close to such a thing, just play "Max Payne" and you'll realize how much game makers have evolved the concept. Still, I've never played one such as "The Getaway", a gritty, in-your-face gangster opus with characters that use the "F" word so many times that you would think Quentin Tarantino had something to with the script.

In fact, like Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction", the story of "The Getaway" is structured in a very nonlinear way. The two central characters, an ex-gangster who's been pulled back into the "life" and a rogue cop share the spotlight in telling the tale from their own different perspective.

It's us, the players, who could use some help controlling these characters in putting them to good use. As great as the "movie" is, it's the game's controls that need to be polished. Moving these two characters around is, for the most part, a chore. In the name of "realism", the makers have decided to get rid of the usual standard for video games.

There are no health bars (you look tired as you get shot), no maps of the city (London) you constantly drive in or even direction indicators (you have to rely on your turn signals). This is a bold move on part of the makers, because we gamers love games because of the very reason that they get us away from realism. We don't really care for realism in video games. At least the way it's played out in this product. It makes for a very frustrating game expierence.

The reason the "Grand Theft Auto" games are so fun and addicting is the way it constantly relys on a "virtual" world. "The Getaway" is the opposite, I know most players will look at this as a "Grand Theft Auto" ripoff, but it's far from the truth. "GTA" is a parody of recent American gangster pictures, "The Getaway" is a dark, unnerving action game that isn't comical in any way. Its a step in the right direction in bringing the "interactive movie" to life. In that way, it works, but there still is room for improvement.

I'd give it *** out of **** (Good)

PS2 owners have been awaiting the release of The Getaway in the same way fundamentalist Christians await the second coming of Christ. Screenshots were first made public a couple of months after the console's release, and ever since then there has been a massive sense of anticipation - could it ever live up to it's hype ?

The answer is both yes, and no.

The Story is played out from two different perspectives, both of which you get to play, and both of which interact with each other as they take place simultaneously.

In the first part, you play Mark Hammond, low life gangster scumbag, fresh out of jail. His wife is murdered and his son kidnapped by henchmen of Crime Boss Charlie Jolson. Thus Jolson blackmails Hammond into carrying out a variety of multi task missions for him as Hammond becomes public enemy number one as he battles to get back his son.

In the second part you play Detective Frank Carter of the Flying Squad, your typical maverick copper with no respect for authority. Carter's missions generally occur in the aftermath of the carnage created by Hammond, although the stories often cross when Hammond and Carter begin working together.

The voice acting is brilliant, real actors, real Londoner's, real story, and the FMV's are the best that have ever been seen on any game so far (although it can be annoying that you cannot skip them). The story has an incredible cinematic quality,, and you feel like you are playing a part in a Guy Ritchie movie.

Also, on the positive side, the game boasts truly beautiful graphics - at least hi-spec PC standard, with realtime lighting and shadows, beautiful car models and incredibly detailed scenery. The first thing that strikes you when you open the box up up is the map that comes with the game, the area of London that is photographically reproduced is simply MASSIVE !

There is no popup, very little slowdown - even with 30 plus vehicles onscreen at the same time. In fact the game runs frighteningly fast.

The game tries to opt for realism too, your car's performance degrades pretty quickly after afew big bangs, and smoke pours from the engine before eventually bursting into flames.

The car models are stunning, they really do look like the real thing.

Also too, there's no cartoon-esque fliying through the air and getting up when a car hits you, ONE hit and you are dead ! Similarly when your character is shot he very quickly becomes incapacitated and can hardly walk, this can be resolved by standing near a wall and resting.

The police are also frighteningly intelligent, as are the gangsters who accost you on the streets. Although I was abit aghast that the British Bobby's would open fire on me for brushing my car against a lamppost ! They lay down stingers, set up roadblocks, pull up alongside you and shoot your tyres out. You WILL scream at them with using the same four letter words that the game's characters use (-:

But be warned, this game is not for the sensitive and the politically correct, this game really does deserve it's 18 rating. There are scenes of torture, brutality, incessant violence, all with a relentless undercurrent of racist invective directed at the West Indian Yardies, and the Chinese Triads by the white characters.

The "out of car" part of the game is also extremely well done, it is part "Metal Gear Solid" (back to the wall, skulking in the shadows) and part "Max Payne" (diving rolls with guns a-blazing). But even better (cough) you get to grab any person near you an use them as a human shield !! Finished with them ? Then snap their necks or blow their brains out with your gun ! Told you it was violent.

It's full of neat and yet cruel little touches, for example in one of Carter's missions you are in the hospital on Tottenham Court Road protecting your partner who was shot earlier. You can wander into the other hospital wards, see those people in the beds attached to life support machines ? Hear the "beep beep beep" of the machines ? Well, why not shoot the life support machines, or shoot the patients themselves and hear them flatline ! :-)



On the negative side.

First thing you will notice are the way the vehicles react to the controls. You will expect GTA3 style vehicle performance, and you will curse when you don't get this. But calm down, you'll soon get used to the "realistic" car performance. And the second thing you will notice is how damned hard the game is ! You'll be swearing at every lamppost and bollard you crash into, cursing every copper who gets too close to you and handcuffs you on the floor. But bear with the game and you will get used to it.

There is NO ingame map !!!! How crazy is that !! The designers decided not to clutter the onscreen display with information of ANY kind, the directions you need to take in the vehicles are decided by your vehicles indicator lights. There is not even an onscreen compass so you know which direction to go. Unless you have an enyclopaedic knowledge of London streets then you WILL get lost very quickly. One mission sees Carter at a Docks near Tower Bridge, and he is called to a disturbance in Soho (right across the other end of London), and he says he will be there in 5 minutes !!!! In the packed and twisting narrow streets of London, this is nigh on impossible without a Gameshark cheat cartridge.

Probably most disappointing of all this that once you have completed the game, all you unlock is "freelook" mode, where you can cruise the streets of London at your leisure. It is now that you quickly find out that the environment has no interactivity to it at all. You CANNOT visit ANY London attraction because they are all fenced off for no reason I can think of ! Why can't I walk upto the Millenniuum Wheel ? Why does it have a big fence around it ? Why cant I crash my bus through the gates of Buckingham Palace and have a snoop around ? No reason at all except that the designers decided that you couldn't do anything that was faintly interesting and it all seems pretty petty.

It is now that you realise that the game possesses the same kind of "empty" quality that "Driver" and "Driver 2" had. All this beautiful scenery to look at, but nothing you can do with it except admire it from a distance. This is where "GTA3" and "GTA Vice" score big, because once the missions were over then the game really began in earnest and the environment truly was interactive.

But in "Getaway" you are hemmed into what the designers want you to do and see, and this is why I took my copy back to get a refund.

Team Soho - the designers have spent many years creating their own game engine which is in every way superior to "GTA3"'s "Rendaware" engine, but I believe they were forced to release the game early for the Xmas market and so it seems only 75% finished. With the massive amount of money invested in this game there will surely be a franchise created, and I think that the next game in the series will be something truly extraordinary that will make the gaming world really sit up and take notice. All the potential is already there in this game, it just needs more GTA3 style interactivity.

I would say, RENT this game before you buy.