Gameplay

The game begins with some thugs planning a kidnapping. What you discover as you watch the cut-scene is that those thugs are planning on kidnapping Marc Hammond's son and killing his wife. As the scene plays out, you take control of Marc as he attempts to track down these underworld scum to get his son back. What you end up doing is getting re-involved in the British criminal underworld as you are forced to complete various tasks to get your son back. You'll play through 24 missions on your quest to take back your son, all of which can be replayed from the perspective of DC Carter, a local cop, once you've finished the game as Marc.

The entire game is played throughout a wonderfully mapped, 40 square-kilometer area of downtown London. Very few details have been missed when it comes to realism, right down to the weird zigzag traffic control stripes on the pavement. For those who've ever been to London, it's quite fun to recognize places you may have visited in the "real" world. While you won't get to enjoy the scenery too much during gameplay, once you finish the game, you automatically unlock the explore mode, which lets you free-drive around the city and see the sites.

Getting between mission areas in The Getaway is done through driving sequences, which are fairly well implemented. Just as in the Grand Theft Auto series, you can steal any vehicle in sight to get the job done, including double-decker buses and FEDEX trucks (my personal favorite). The vehicles themselves are great replicas of their real life counterparts, with plenty of nice graphical details and handling. Vehicles in The Getaway take damage, just like real cars, and if you're a sloppy driver, you'll find yourself having to jack multiple vehicles in order to complete a mission. Driving around London is what really makes this game; it's a lot of fun and plays out realistically, as careless driving will reward you with a burning car and swarms of police following you around town.

One complaint about the driving system is the maps, or lack thereof. Rather than provide you with a street map, you are guided through the city by the turn signals on whatever vehicle you're driving at the time. At times, I found the turn signal system would lead me straight into walls or expect me to make turns far too tight for any vehicle. Also, when you're being chased by half of London's police force at 120KPH, it seems almost surreal that you'd be using your turn signals. Lastly, if you've ever been to London, you know how confusing driving around the city can be, and not having a map, even in a videogame, makes it even worse.

Once you've arrived at your mission point, it's time to spring into actions. This is where the game shifts into your basic third-person shooter. As Marc, or later as Carter, you basically run around your target area blasting everything in sight. You start out with a simple pistol, which you can upgrade to other weapons such as shotguns or Tommy guns or even go for two-fisted pistol action. The problem with the weapons system is that there's no way to know how much ammunition you have saved or spent at any given point. It's best to reload frequently, as you never know when you'll run out of ammo in a gunfight.

Along with the lack of an ammo meter, there's the complete lack of a discernable damage system. Although you can tell how much damage you've taken by your body condition, if you fail to pay attention to the number of bloodstains on your body, you'll die quickly and frequently. Instead of a damage meter, you simply start breathing more heavily; walking more slowly and bleeding more profusely as your wounds increase. And to make it a bit stranger, the way you heal yourself is to simply lean up against a wall. That's right, you just find a quiet corner and take a breather. The longer you rest, the more your wounds heal, with the bloodstains magically disappearing from your coat and skin.

While it's a simple system to get used to, it completely kills any gameplay rhythm as you start a fight, kill someone, duck behind a corner to rest, jump back into the fray and repeat. Considering that the AI is so weak that the bad guys won't bother following you around the corner 90 percent of the time, you'll be able to finish any level by just using the "shoot, hide, recover" method. Due to this simplistic healing system, you never really feel like Marc or DC Carter is ever really in danger, and more often than not you'll enter most levels with guns blazing, knowing you can just take five to heal right back up.

The missions themselves are basic tasks generally involving killing someone or destroying something. While not the most creative or intricate on their own, as you play the game through, you'll discover that they all work together to help you uncover a more sinister plot unfolding on the criminal underworld. Another interesting detail is that when you play the game as DC Carter, you'll be seeing all the same mission details as Marc, but from the policeman's point of view.

Graphics

While The Getaway was touted as having some of the greatest graphics seen on the PlayStation 2, in reality it's not all that impressive. Character faces, while well detailed, are strangely horrific at times; some characters are just plain sickening to look at. The skin tones just aren't right, and the attempts to make someone look wrinkled actually make them look like they've been dug at with a pickaxe.

Motion is almost surrealistic. During the cut-scenes, characters have a strange, almost marionette-like, nature to their motion. Quite a bit of the time, the motion is so unrealistic that you'll swear you're watching a computerized version of Thunderbirds. Upon closer examination, it seems that the joint articulation for the characters isn't right; it's too stiff, which leads to the puppet-like feel.

The camera is a total nightmare, being a single view monster that at many points may lead you to your doom. The camera ranges from being super skittish to locked in place, never seeming to be in the right place at the right time. Just as an example, if you stop to rest on a stairwell, the camera will start bouncing uncontrollably, making you feel as if you're trapped in a video earthquake. This is truly one of the worst cameras I've ever seen in a game, and it leads to many controller-throwing outbursts during gameplay.

The full-motion animated sequences, while placed so as to make your feel like you're part of an interactive movie, just get annoying after a bit. While they serve to keep the plot moving, there's no way to stop or skip them. With some sequences lasting upwards of five minutes, you can get frustrated pretty quickly.

The Getaway really shines when it comes to vehicles and environments. Vehicles are nicely detailed, right down to their hood ornaments or company logos. Environments are an especially high point, with the city streets being the most impressive. Having been to London recently, I can say the developers did a great job with everything from storefronts to street signs.

Sound

Parents beware, the voice acting in The Getaway mostly involves drawn-out swearing sequences. I'm no prude, but in order to capture the feel of the London Underground, the developers went over the top with having characters swear like sailors. Even with all the cursing, the voice acting is top shelf, with each character having a distinctive voice that shifts in tone depending upon their mood and the situation at hand. One minor annoyance is the in-game speech gets repetitive after a short bit of time, as gangsters frequently cry out "Hammond, are you insane?," and other drivers constantly shout, "Hey, I just polished that!" You'll get real tired of those voices after just a few minutes.

Other sounds, from vehicles braking to guns blazing, sound pretty good. The squeal of cars is a bit overdone, as even the lightest amount of braking or acceleration will make your vehicle sound like it's skidding off into the abyss. Gun sounds are realistic, right down to the metallic click of a clip being loaded into a pistol.

Replayability

The Getaway has limited replay value since it's so heavily mission-oriented. Once you've finished the game as Marc Hammond, you'll unlock two new features. The first is the ability to play the entire game from the side of the police, more specifically, Officer DC Carter, a man bent on destroying London's criminal underworld. This is an interesting take on the entire game, as you'll run into Marc Hammond on his way to perform his tasks to get his son back. The second is an exploration mode, which simply allows you to roam freely around the gameplay areas. This can be fun if you want to visit London "on the cheap."

Even with the extra unlockable modes, there's only so much of The Getaway you'll be able to take. The horrid camera and basic gameplay can get tiresome for even the most dedicated shooting fan, and the average gamer will probably give up after playing the game through as Marc.

Overall

Even with its horrible camera and limited replayability, there's still a lot to be said for The Getaway. It's an ambitious attempt at creating an interactive movie, which can be interesting to see implemented, but at times may not be as fun as it could be. What it lacks in some areas, it makes up for with style and ambition. It's definitely worth trying out if you're a fan of action games, or even action films, for that matter.

See more screens on The Getaway media page