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The Getaway Preview
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
The Getaway merges GTA3 with excellent script-writing and superlative visuals, it can’t fail can it???
In development for the last four years, SCEEā The Getaway has all the markings of a classic in the making.
For those not in the know, the game places players slap in the middle of an English gangster flick, think āLock Stockā and āSnatchā and youāll be somewhere near as to what to expect from the storyline and narrative. Players take the role of Mark Hammond during the first half of the game, a gangster on the run, desperate to clear his name and wrongly accused of the murder of his wife. During the second half of the game, control switches to Frank Carter, a ruthless vigilante copper, suspended from the Flying Squad but prepared to go to any lengths to get justice. The two stories entwine, and youāll find yourself coming up against Charlie Jolson, a notorious crime boss and king of the London underworld for more than 30 years. Itās an innovative and refreshing approach to story telling in a game, more akin to the direction that a film takes then that of a videogame, as you take control of two men separated by the law but joined in their obsession to bring down Londonās crime supremo.
For more coverage of the title check our earlier Preview, which will give you all the information youāll need on The Getaway.
The demo that we played at the Playstation Experience apparently kicks off from the start of the game. Picking up control of Mark Hammond after an excellent real-time cut-scene introduction, we had to get into a car and chase after one of Charlieās minions whoāve murdered his wife and kidnapped his daughter. The driving scenes have really been improved since we first saw them at E3; firstly the framerate has been smoothed out from the jittery version we witnessed at E3. The cars have a nice weighty feeling to them rather then the twitchy nature at E3, automatically power-sliding when you take a curve too fast just to accentuate the cinematic nature of the scene in action. The AI of the pedestrian traffic, which swerves to get out of your way, flashing their lights and hooting their horns as you drive manically towards them, also impressed us.
After a few attempts we finally reached the location and carried on on-foot. At this stage the game certainly looks to be more linear then GTA3, a result of the strong story-telling and narrative, however itās equally as enjoyable from our brief playtest. On foot the characters have a range of moves, you can hide up behind walls similar to Solid Snake (waiting by one sees your character rest against them and slowly begin to recover energy), roll around dodging gun-fire, taking hostages and using the shoulder buttons to auto-target and close in for manual targeting. It takes a little getting used to, however itās nice to have such control over the character especially when compared to the limited nature found in GTA3.
We were then confronted with a number of enemies and a very heated gunfight entailed. The opponents all seemed to act intelligently, hiding behind objects and dodging bullets to ensure that this isnāt another button-bashing disappointment. This scene produced one of the very cool scripted events that the game is likely to be full off; picture an outside staircase with a gangster shooting you from above, picture barrels of explosive substance underneath them, picture shooting them and watching as the whole staircase crumpled under the explosion, watching as the gangster flies off in flames, absolutely amazing.
The remainder of the demo was spent taking Hammond through numerous gunfights in a warehouse, oh yes unlike GTA3 The Getaway is set to contain numerous indoor locations, ideal for showing off just how impressive the visuals are. Crates of beer are all meticulously textured with the actual textures, we found crates of Heineken, Steel Artois and Fosters, which should give some description of the levels of detail and realism found within the game. In fact along with Primal, The Getaway is the best looking PS2 title weāve ever seen, featuring superb scope (over 50km of London realistically portrayed), intricately detailed and varied textures and absolutely amazing animation.
