The Getaway

The Good
Boasting excellent production values, Getaway manages to present a believable, atmospheric world of organized crime in London. Cinematic cutscenes with excellent voice acting reveal the statement behind the game: make it as movie-like as possible. The city itself is meticulously reconstructed: every building is unique, the streets, the squares, the signs, the various types of cars, buses, and pedestrians are realistic and done in great detail.

The gameplay largely consists of two portions: driving and shooting. The driving basically involves going to the place where you have to complete your mission, and getting away from there. Often, rival gangs or police cars will chase you. They'll damage your car, but you'll always be able to steal another one. You also can just get out of the car and wander through the city. But mostly, you'll have to hurry to your next mission, where the main part of the gameplay, namely the shooting, begins. The shooting in Getaway is somewhat similar to that of Max Payne. You also control your hero while viewing him from the third person perspective. You can either auto-aim, or aim your weapon manually at a target, and can perform moves like crouching or rolling to a side.

An interesting feature gives Getaway a unique look: the game screen contains only the game world itself, nothing else. There are no health bars, no indications of weapons shortcuts or how much ammo you have left, and even no overview maps. There are no messages appearing on the screen (except subtitles for voices in cut-scenes), such as "got a bazooka" or "you have to find a silver key to open this door". There is no inventory and generally nothing you can do outside of the game screen (except pausing the game and accessing an options menu). There are also no shortcuts for weapons, because - quite realistically! - you can't carry more than one weapon in each hand, and if a weapon requires two hands to use it, then you'll drop your other weapon. So, you won't be running around with five kinds of guns, a crowbar, a shotgun, a flamethrower, and a chainsaw all together. You also won't search the environment for healing potions and ammo that are usually scattered around in shooters. Sometimes, you'll find storage rooms for weapons, and there you'll be able to find a weapon, or you'll be able to pick the weapons off the enemies' bodies, of course. But don't expect looting rooms for healing items and various ammo, because there are none.

The Bad
Getaway's biggest problem is that it sacrifices fun to its own ambitions.

Very often it tries to get rid of unrealistic features by replacing them with others, which turn to be even more unrealistic - and less entertaining. Example: "wall-lean healing". The developers decided to eliminate the old trusted concept of healing potions and ammo being scattered all over the virtual world. At first sight, it seemed like a good idea. But when the natural question arises: how will you be able to heal yourself? - the answer is: by leaning against a wall and waiting. So a gravely wounded man, all covered by blood, unable even to walk properly, will magically regain his entire health by leaning against a wall. That example alone should remind us that gameplay conventions were created with a reason.

Getaway strives to be a tight story-driven experience, but since it still uses a basic GTA formula for its gameplay, the comparison is inevitable. And while Getaway is undeniably more "artsy" than GTA games and has a better narrative, its gameplay is quite far from being the all-consuming, addictive fun GTA games became famous for. The ambition to be cinematic made the creators of the game throw out a lot of pure video game-related stuff: free-roaming, shopping, mini-games, optional missions, non-linear mission structure - none of that was implemented, presumably because this way the game would have a tighter narrative, become more like a movie.

And that, ultimately, is a design mistake - because video games should not strive to be movies. The strength of a game lies in its gameplay, and if it is neglected in favor of anything else, the game loses.

The Bottom Line
Getaway tried to become a more serious, more edgy, more realistic GTA - and it succeeded in everything except what matters most: gameplay. Fairly solid, but lengthy and uninspired shooting sequences coupled with awkward driving and constant limitations makes it a lesser game even though it could have been, perhaps, a better movie.

The Good
The Getaway is a cross between Grand Theft Auto and Driver 3, but has a uniqueness all its own. The story is actually well written and compelling and I love how the two stories intersect at times and the voice acting is pretty damn good with a list of professional actors, it really draws you into the story even more and gives it the feel of a movie. The graphics are pretty decent for the game as well, giving it the look of Driver 3 and the sound and music are expertly done as well.

The game also gives it a real feel of authenticity with the actual car brands and real locations of London. The physics are pretty decent too, hitting a pedestrian will send them flying in a fetal position over your car as opposed to lying straight on their backs and high into the air as in Grand Theft Auto games. Also a nice little feature is the ability to take hostages to stave off police, pretty handy at times. I also like how the cars won't explode on you, now granted they do catch on fire, but it gives you enough warning and time to get out before you get caught. The health system is also a nice little touch, you don't have to search around for various items to rebuild your health, instead all you have to do is find a place from crossfire and enemies and lean against a wall and after a minute your set to go. Now granted sometimes you don't have time especially when you get surrounded and the more damage you take the slower he gets, but still it's a nice feature.

The Bad
Well, there are things that did bother me, one of which is the lack of weapons in this game. You get a choice of a 9mm, shotgun and a machine gun and that is about it. Now granted they probably wanted to stay away from Grand Theft Auto with an insane amount of weapons, but still a few more wouldn't have hurt. It also sucks when you have to get ammo for your weapon of choice, mainly because when you are out you have to resort to stealing a car and hitting a nearby enemy in hopes of picking up some ammo. Problem is if you are caught off guard you can be easily taken out before you get a chance to reload.

There are also a lack of options in this game including the ability to change the volume of the sound effects and music. Now there is a "balance" meter that you can configure that substitutes, but the problem is on older TV's that the sound is at severely distorted at times. On newer TV's this has been negated, but for the older ones you have to really turn down the effects and gear it more to the music so it is kind of a hassle. Also it would have been nice to configure the controls, the problem with that is that if you are used to playing games like Grand Theft Auto and Driver 3, you'll be pressing buttons in this game that will do quite the opposite. Once you get used to it, it won't be a problem, but it still would have been nice for some configuration options of sorts.

Also it would have been nice for a camera system while driving, there is one for when you are on foot, but the problem is that you have to hold the "R2" button then use the left analog. It would have more simpler just to use the left analog instead, especially for the driving section so you can gauge how far the cops are back of you, but for the foot section if you are not careful you can be easily killed or arrested. That also brings me to another point, you can be too easily arrested in this game, there are times where a cop will sneak up behind me and before I know it, I'm on the ground in handcuffs. It would have been nice to have some sort of way of getting away or try to keep from getting handcuffed, also it would have been nice to the ability to climb over some obstacles or even jump.

The Bottom Line
In the end, this game isn't that bad at all, it's pretty damn good. With the cinematic feel and the decent graphics it really gives it a uniqueness. However the lack of weapons and the other little niggles does bring down the joy factor to it, but it's still good. If you have never experienced this game at least give it a try, even if you don't like games like GTA. On a side note, the instruction manual actually comes with a glossary for some of the British terms that are used in the game. It is kinda funny since my brother tried this out and was looking at me in hopes I could enlighten him on some of the words in the game he thought was made up. Luckily, the public broadcasting near me has had many British shows on the airwaves that I have been watching since I was a kid so I knew the terms. The sad part is, however, I'm just wondering how many people actually used that glossary when playing caused they were confused. Oh well, like I said this game is good for a rental at least.

The Good
Everything. Well, almost. But where to start? The seriousness of the game compared to GTA, almost reaching a dark aura at moments is the first thing that comes to mind. But then there is the British accent, specially the many ones you can find in London, recreated perfectly, due to the game being casted with professional actors. Oh, and the fact that unlike GTA all the vehicles avaliable to use in the game are fully licensed. One enjoys just chilling in a good'ol Rover 75 or going like hell in a Bedford Opel Kadett as if there is no tomorrow.

The Bad
The controls are basically fucked up at some moments, specially in the missions in which you have, in one way or another, to hide, whether it is behind a wall or walking without being seen. Also the buttons for changing weapons take a bit of time to remember. But overall this does not in anyway ruin the gaming experience.

Whenever you are in a chase, you better watch that the other cars on the road do not decide to, suddenly, crash into you. Are this guys paid by the police or what? Like, come on, the chase with the police is not their busniess.

The Bottom Line
A more realistic GTA, like Mafia or The Godfather, set in Europe, to be precise in one of my favourite countries, the United Kingdom. Could it have created a new genre called crime/police simulator? I think the answer could well be yes.

The Good
This thing is like a movie. They made it in such a way that there is only the action, only the story on the screen. No indicators, no map, nothing. It's very special, other games haven't done it.

The voices are so fitting! Every character has a special voice. Like Charlie, who has a hoarse voice. The actors are good.

The gameplay is pretty interesting, there are some nice levels, like Charlie's house. There are some very original elements, like the ability to lean on the wall and rest, this is actually pretty realistic, a person surely must restore some health when resting! It's not less realistic than medicines being everywhere just because you need them.

There are some nice details, like for example, when you are hurt, you really look that way, you run very slowly, it looks really like a person who was hurt.

There are more interesting parts, like hiding behind a corner, just press X and you'll stand right near the wall, then you'll be able to suddenly jump out and shoot, and then go back again.

Story is great. First, it is a story-driven game, it is focused on story. More than San Andreas, for example. We want to play this game for the story. We never forget, not for a moment, about it. Why is it good? Because we can really feel what the main character feels. We can understand why he does what he does in the game. We can have compassion for him. Also, there are some unexpected parts, like when that policeman appears for the first time.

Graphics are so good, like a real movie! Also better than "San Andreas".

The Bad
I'm telling you, I hate those traffic jams, I hate, hate, HATE them! And this police... po-li-ce! I hate them! They always arrest me, only because I went in the opposite direction on a one-way street! So what?! The police shoots at me just because I drove in a wrong direction? What kind of a police is that?! And by the way, I hate those one-way streets, too.

You can't see your own health. You just see your blood on your clothes. Sometimes you can't see when you're going to die!

You'll have a partner in some missions. Sometimes I accidentally hit her, and then she begins to beat me till I die! Is she crazy?!

The missions are also too similar, driving, shooting, driving, shooting, they are all the same. And you can't do other things outside of the story, like drive taxis, which was so fun in San Andreas.

The Bottom Line
Because of the story, the game is worth playing. But it's not perfect in gameplay. People who like gameplay more should better play GTA games, but people who care more for story should play "Getaway".