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*shrugs*
Presentation:
Graphics are reasonable, if a little jaggy on building edges/other vehicles.
It's certainly not GTA3, but then no doubt someone will argue it's not supposed to be but c'mon...
Cut-scenes are many and you have to sit through them, which is ok the 1st time but when you reload a game after a break it gets annoying to sit through up to 2 mins of mockney swearing.
Voice acting is good, if a little "Awight darlin'" "Geeza!". Imagine Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels idea of cockney London. I do have a problem with the swearing though. I'm not a prude, but it seems to be included merely as a giggly "Hehehehe, this is an 18 cert game. Let's have more swearing" and uncecessary to be honest.
The cutscenes are cinematic and done well, lots of wide-boy violence dished out and lots of no-neck gorillas saying “####” a lot.
Which is always nice.
Gameplay:
Driving is handled well, if a little strange at first. It feels like the road is turning instead of the car but you soon get used to it and it becomes un-noticeable after a couple of minutes. No in-game map, you follow the indicators to tell you where to go. Again, an unusual idea but it becomes 2nd nature after a minute or so.
My main criticism of the driving is the camera. There’s no option to look left or right, nor can you look behind. Which is a problem at intersections when a collision will result in the police giving chase. You literally just have to pull out and hope for the best. Same with high-speed chases, you can’t look behind and see how close the police/triads/other gangs are, it’s just floor it and pray.
Car destruction is handled very well, eventually after charging down the Embankment and smashing into loads of cars, yours will grind to a halt.
I was chased by 3 rozzers, flew across a stinger and had sparks flying from 2 wheels. And still I sped along like a demented Tron-bike enthusiast.
Running/Shooting.
Oh dear. This took a *lot* of getting used to, unwieldy and cumbersome. Camera is terrible for the most part, it’s hard to see what’s going on unless you stop, hit R1 and pivot like a tank turret. But one in a suit.
Foes have a nasty habit of respawning unless you go round that corner/into that room to prove to the AI that it’s empty. Which can get frustrating, especially on the Chinese Artifact level when you have 6 blokes with AK47s bearing down on you. And twice I got stuck whilst ducking behind objects, he wouldn’t stand/shoot/roll/look about – just crouched like a stupid cockney garden gnome.
However, once you adapt to the idea that your character is a robo-plegic romcock and not a lithesome athlete, then gunfights are actually good fun. Something satisfying about ducking out from the cover of a wall, blasting someone a few times and your character saying “You ####ing muppet”.
Don’t expect the fluid running/shooting of GTA3 and you’ll soon lower your expectations enough to get into the gunplay.
I just wish you could do something about the camera control, it gets annoying to have to stop and rotate in order to look about, then start running again. This is especially hard when bailing from a dying car, stop/rotate to find another car, start running to it, stop/rotate to face the door and then steal it.
Plus Points:
A large area of London, replicated down to the major roads and easily recognizable landmarks. I don’t care who you are or your “violence in video games” standpoint, you can easily enjoy bombing it around Piccadilly Circus, up Shaftesbury and then charge down Tottenham Court Road whilst being chased by police.
I ignored the 1st part of the 2nd mission and instead of driving to a rendezvous, I went up to Old Street and took the journey I do a couple of times a week from the studio to a mates house nr Battersea. And yep, bar side-roads you can’t go down, it’s picture perfect – right down to the advertising boards and traffic lights. Hell, you even get traffic jams.
Car chases are good fun, if a little unrealistic and the lack of cameras whilst driving means intersections are a 50/50 chance of getting smashed in.
Negative Points:
Camera angles in car/on foot are not changeable at all. Behind for the car, behind for the running. Don’t bother trying to use the “free look” function, because you have to stop to look about, which doesn’t help when you’re being shot at and need to locate an exit.
AI
A major, major annoyance.
The police have 2 set AI routines (tested out over 2 hrs).
You are flying down Regent Street at whatever speed (no onscreen data *at all*), there are police coming to stop you. They will either
(a)Be in front of you and swerve into your path. It doesn’t matter what speed you go or whether you hit the brakes or not, you *will* hit them broadside. There’s no just-evaded sense like in GTA3 when you dodge an oncoming psycho cop’s car. They come at you, you try everything to evade – you will hit them. Try it, try to dodge them by accelerating to one side. Or try handbraking so they skid in front of you and you can carry on. Doesn’t matter at all, no matter what you do? You’re going to plow into them, accept it.
(b) Be behind you and be inches from your bumper. You’re on a straight and things are looking dicey. There’s a corner coming up. You can’t look about so you stick your foot down and just barrel across and pray. You make it, the sirens are still screaming. Here comes a sweeping corner now. Just as you start to turn? The police obtain a surge of speed and come alongside you, forcing you into the wall.
Wow, that seemed hardly fair- I’ll retry that level and go a different route.
Straight road, they aint catching me.
Here comes a corner aaaaaaaaaand…..WHAM, they get level and force you into a lamppost.
I may not have been doing something right, but level after level after level? Police straight at you means you’re hitting those piggies, regardless of your choice of action. Police behind means you’re getting slammed on a bend into the wall/lamppost/traffic light
The Getaway. 2 years in development, screens released and features written about the next generation of it all.
Merited?
Not really.
The streets look very good and London has been replicated to an extent. But it feels like they spent all this time mapping out an area, then sat round a table and said “Alright, now what?”
“A game. With swearing”
“And car stealing. And some more swearing”
“Cool.”
“Er…Grand Theft Auto 3 has just been released”
“B****r. Let’s leave it a year and wait for the fuss to die down then, release some screenshots of London”
“Cool”
*flash forward a year*
”Ok, the GTA3 thing has died down. Let’s release it”
“Er…Vice City has been released”
“Oh for fu…right, release it in December then. Add more swearing”
“Yep”
----
It's an alright game,just nothing special bar the London-mapped thing.
I'll play it, but it's nowhere near as special as I was thinking.
Murdered by hype?
I just did a mission where you have to go to that bar Hammond sets on fire, and it was bloody fun as well. You get down there and the street is full of police cars, ambulances and fire engines, and you and the rest of armed cops have to fight off Collins's gang members, who owned the bar. It's also great how smoke from the place just fills up the streets, though it was hard to see things through it.
There's also a mission where you have to clear up a massive gang war in China town between the Yardies and Triads, and the fighting itself ends up in a parking garage with burnt out cars and gang members everywhere.
I defiantly prefer carter’s missions to Hammond’s.
> 56KB per save.
>
> YOu got plenty of space :)
Thanks. Got enough space then for this and Tony Hawks 4. Need a new card soon though, and need an new 251 for the GC as I only have 15 blocks on my 59. Good thing about the XBox is no need to worry about space.
seriously underwhelmed by it...was expecting a lot more
also the graphics aren't as amazing as i thought they would be...well at no point do i ever think...OMG it's real. quite like the reflections off the car windows though
hate the indicator thing...makes it a nightmare to find the place.
dodgy camera (VERY DODGY)...they should have let you use the Right analogue stick to swivel the camera around.
really like the story...only got to the last mission of Hammond's missions.
quite like the targetting system
don't particularly like the driving although once you get used to it it's alright.
i'll get onto the carter missions and see whether my score will go up
Basically, you cant kill that cop there and then. its like a sequence. you give him a few shots, and then he'll run into another room. give him another few shots and he'll run away again. next he'll run downstairs. you have keep on following him and shooting him. He'll end up in a interagation room where you finally kill him. The way to finish him off is with a smack with your gun. i coudnt seem to finish him off with bullets.
> Right, i'm on the mission where you have to kill that geezer in the
> cop shop. And i aint kncokcing off tonight till i finish the job.
>
> I'm alirhgt wor killing that ******* ****
>
> But i cant make me bleedin way out of the bloody place.
>
> flippin filth all over the place with the gas and what not
I'm at that level too. No idea how to get out and when I try to waste the cop you have to kill he always runs away before I get the chance and then cops just come from everywhere.
> What would you guys give it out of ten?
Probably 8/10 to 9/10 for the game.
10/10 for effort.
I'm alirhgt wor killing that ******* ****
But i cant make me bleedin way out of the bloody place.
flippin filth all over the place with the gas and what not
*ortega - heavily influenced by the getaway*
> adrian wrote:
> How much space does it take up on the PS2 memory card? I only have
> 695Kb left.
> So anyone got an answer for the question above please ?
56KB per save.
YOu got plenty of space :)