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The Getaway Preview
Chris Leyton
15/11/2002
We've been wanting this one, and we're sure you'll want it too as we take an extensive look at The Getaway.
Reportedly one of the most expensive videogames ever created and having been in development for the previous three years, you can understand why SEEE wanted to get The Getaway out in time for the lucrative Christmas market.
Billed as GTA in London, we recently received preview code and have been putting the game through its paces; can it live up to GTA3, is the hype surrounding the quality of the cinematics to be believed, can The Getaway recoup its massive development costs???
Anyone who has followed our previous coverage on this title will know that players take the role of ex-crim Mark Hammond. Forced back into the game by gang leader Charlie Jolson when his wife gets murdered and son is kidnapped; Mark finds himself set up for the murder and blackmailed to undertake a series of jobs for the notorious crime boss and king of the London underworld in order to see his son again.
To be fair The Getaway is more like Headhunter then GTA3, instead of presenting the gamer with a free-flowing adventure where their choices have a direct consequence on the progress of the game; The Getaway is a tightly-nit experience with a strong storyline and distinctive missions that follow one after the other. Although this type of gaming structure isnât as appealing for long-term play, The Getaway presents a cinematic experience that is unrivalled in the videogames industry. The moment you see the first cut-scene, youâll find yourself scraping your jaw from the floor; never before have we seen a computer game look so realistic, everything from the perfectly crafted motion-capture animation to the attention to the smallest details such as proper volumetric fog to recreate cigarette smoke will astound you. The Getaway is the first time that actual actors have been digitally recreated for inclusion in the game, providing both the motion capture and voice-acting to ensure the overall look is as accomplished as could possible be hoped for. Having watched the introduction, youâll also realise that this is one of the most adult orientated titles created; copious amounts of violence and swearing decorate the intro, however itâs not just in there to boost sales, it plays a crucial part to setting the atmosphere of a classic London gangster film throughout the game.
The first mission saw us having to visit our old haunts in SoHo; to prove your allegiance to your new boos youâll have to torch your old friends nightclub, killing your old mates in the process. Of course youâve got to get there first, which is quite a task considering that Team SoHo have recreated over 40Km of inner London to splendid detail. We were amazed when both Metropolis Street Racer and Project Gotham gave us digital representations of famous cities, however The Getaway takes it all one-step further. Once again itâs the attention to detail that stands out; a huge amount of famous shops from Burger King to The Link populate the pavements of Oxford Street, whilst the East End looks as dirty and seedy as youâd expect. Driving through London is a tricky affair as the developers have managed to cram the streets full of traffic and pedestrians, perfectly recreating the congested nature of London. Again the attention to detail is marvellous; civilian traffic acts the way it should, stopping for red lights, getting out of the way for Ambulances and Police Cars; we witnessed one crash scene and were amazed to see the police waving the traffic through the narrow gap.
The actual driving is a great mixture of arcade physics and authentic realism, each of the games 50+ cars all handle and respond differently, however the best aspect is the portrayal of loosing control at high speeds; whip around a corner at 50MPH and you can expect to be slip-sliding all over the place, fortunately you never seem to lose total control, itâs been designed to heighten the adrenaline levels but still keep it fun by ensuring youâre not crashing all the time. Of course crashes are inevitable, and despite featuring a whole selection of licensed cars, they all feature a great damage system that sees bodywork crumple, tyres blow out and windows crack then shatter to pieces. As with GTA3, if it all goes wrong you can jump out of the car and hijack another; everything from Citroenâs to Londonâs famous Red Buses can be stolen to help you through the adventure.
A very neat touch that heightens the cinematic nature of the game is the complete removal of any type of HUD or icons on the screen, instead your blinkers will tell you which way to go, whilst your health is depicted by increasingly dark patches of blood appearing on your character. Of course youâll not find any health pick-ups throughout the game, so to increase your health all youâve got to do is wait against a wall and your character will rest against it and begin to replenish his health, very neat!!!
The typical mission structure usually revolves around driving to the scene, getting out to complete the mission objective and then hot-tailing out of there before the cops arrive. The on-foot sections again take a little while to get used to, but once you get used to Markâs full repertoire of moves youâll be shooting people off from distances, crouching up and peering around walls like a certain Solid Snake and grabbing hold of hostages to use as human shields. The on foot sections put GTA3 to shame, 22 indoor locations have been wonderfully recreated, usually for you to destroy in some possible way. Mark becomes a fluid character to control after a short while, youâre given two targeting options which really help during the heated gun fight scenes; R1 pulls the camera just over the characters shoulder giving you the ability to manually target, whilst taps of R2 target enemy characters in a similar fashion to Z-Targeting; it works wonderfully and makes the aiming system of GTA3 and even Vice City look woefully inadequate. Other moves allow you to cling up against a wall to remain hidden, here you can peer round corners and use the two types of targeting, or simply whip your gun around the corner without peering around yourself, thus reducing the risk of getting yourself shot at the cost of reduced accuracy. You can roll around to dodge bullets or roll into a wall and assume the cling position, duck behind objects and whip your gun above it in a similar fashion to whipping it around the corner. By pressing X when youâre near to another character, youâll take them hostage to use as a human shield, by whipping out your gun you can put it to their heads or shoot other characters that pose a threat. The controls during these sections are everything we could have hoped for resulting in a perfect mixture of HeadHunter, MGS2 and GTA3 that gives you more freedom then in any of these titles.
The only stumbling block between The Getaway achieving success and all it set out to do â“ not simply a GTA clone set in London â“ is a lack of coherence; weâve encountered a number of vital gameplay bugs (some critical), whilst the game doesnât gel fully at present suffering from a lack of continuity when transferring between cut-scenes and in-game action. This did break up the flow, something that does have an impact on such a cinematic game, however weâre hoping to find that the final version amends these errors.
