The Getaway Review

First off, I would like to say that The Getaway features some of the ugliest people that you have ever (or will ever) see in a video game. As most of you know, England’s capitol is London. It has many popular places and traditions such as the Big Ben, Fish N’ Chips, tea, etc. One thing London will never be known for is as being the centerpiece of an outstanding video game, at least if they all turn out like The Getaway.

One complaint from the get go is that SCEE wanted to make this game a more movie like version of the hit Grand Theft Auto. Comparing the two in any way is really a disgrace to the GTA name. At the least, you know that GTA is a game. The Getaway wants it both ways, it wants to be a movie and a game. Sorry, but it didn’t work out too well.

The plot mainly relies around Mark Hammond who just so happens to be an ex-criminal. Mark is on the run for the murderers of his wife and kidnappers of his kid. The game is set in modern day London and boasts 25 square miles of streets for you to have fun on (or more like it; not have fun on).

The game starts out with a cinematic movie, in which a group of British hoodlums talk in their fine accents and murder Mark’s wife and take his kid. The game’s faces may be unique from all other faces in the game, but they sure are ugly none the less. To give the game some credit, there is a large variety of cars, buildings, etc. which all look nice. SCEE wanted The Getaway to be as realistic as possible and their main goal was to make the streets of London be accurate. Unfortunately, with those good points come even more bad points. The game has invisible walls (not really, just roads basically fall off into the abyss), faulty object detection, and dropped textures.

Voice acting is good, at least if you live in the greater London area. In an effort to make the game as realistic as possible, SCEE employed some top notch U.K. actors/actresses to portray the characters’ voices. Unfortunately if you speak normal English (as in you live in the U.S.) you can understand almost none of the profanity (that’s all the dialogue is in this game) that the characters say in their conversations.

The control, inventory, and driving system are all extremely clunky and/or faulty. While driving, the only way you know where to go is through the use of a turning signal on the back of your car, which proves to be very inconvenient and stressful. Actually, the only thing it helps you do is die easier. How thoughtful, SCEE tries to extend the life of this game by making it “challenging�, then again, what is so challenging in not knowing where to go?