Reviews// The Getaway 2: Black Monday

With all these niggles amassing to a veritable niggle-ton, The Getaway 2 has apparently squandered all the advantages it should have taken. It could have been something incredible if certain details had been sacrificed for an improved engine. The graphics throughout are excellent, but they're pitching over the game's weight. Like they say, you can't polish a turd. However, Team Soho has set out to disprove this - there's a several inch crust of polish on this. Not only does it look great, but the storyline, cut-scenes and voice acting all add to that mystical 'cinematic' quality that PR types are always banging on about. Short of those ridiculous laser-disc affairs, this is the closest thing we've seen to an interactive movie since... er, since someone last used the term 'interactive movie' or 'laser disc' about a decade ago. But the fact remains, beneath the story sequences, it is a bit of a turd; even when you get one of the better missions that aren't thwarted by aforementioned problems, that unmistakable whiff is ever-present.

But let's, for the sake of argument, objectivity and diplomacy, suggest that those basic game engine issues aren't so important. It is true, after all, that in isolation there's nothing too seriously wrong with it; it's just by comparison to other leading third person action adventures that it begins to pale - and if that's acceptable then The Getaway 2 is well worth a gander. The tale told is fairly compelling, and refreshingly, this sequel has put a small amount of distance between itself and the stereotypical London wideboy nonsense. It's common knowledge that the old Hackney geezer no longer makes for a particularly convincing London street criminal. Consequently it avoids falling into that Lock, Stock branded crap trap that could have killed off something more creative. Instead we've got an edgy-ish, in-the-vague-direction-of-yer-face story involving Eastern Europeans in interesting suits. It's still not as convincing as gunning after a gang of nine-year old vandalous masterminds, but perhaps the world isn't ready for that yet.

One surprising credit to the presentation of the game is the scripting itself. Often video-games neglect to get the timing right for in-game and cut-scene speech. From the very first mission in The Getaway 2, however, you've got a barrage of voices shouting at you, crackling-radio conversations over gunshots and what could technically be termed as a 'head full of noise'. Aurally, it's as immersive as it gets: at least for the on foot missions, and so you always do feel part of the events that are taking place. And it's these superficial things that counter-act the bad points to make The Getaway 2 reasonably playable.

It's easy to see what Team Soho was trying to create with this, but that's surely over-ambitious. With more time, and perhaps a PS3 devkit, this license really does have potential, but it's missed the mark again with this particular effort. A better PS2 sequel might have just taken the story out of the large London setting and placed it somewhere more manageable, say, The Getaway: Generic Balearic Island. Then there might have been scope to refine the engine a little. Otherwise the impressive, but disc-filling modelling of our fine capital could be put to better use if the gameplay foundations were removed entirely. In fact, SPOnG's got a big idea for this one.