The Getaway: Black Monday

"A sequel that adds more problems than it fixes"

The Sequel to the Getaway, a love it or hate it title, and to be honest, I was much more on the love it side. I loved the Story and Presentation of the original Getaway, the graphics were good, the characters were memorable, the game was pretty hard, or frustrating, however you want to look at it. It wasn't the greatest game of all time, but it tried new things, and it worked out pretty well. That is the same reason that The Getaway Black Monday is nothing more than an average shooter.

While many things are similar, that seems to be a problem in this game. There really isn't anything new in this game. No big changes were made, there were minor changes, like duel wielding guns and riding motorcycles, and the occasional health pack, but other than that it's pretty much the same game. So what's the problem?

First off it's not really a sequel. It takes place in the same area as the Getaway, and some of the less important characters make appearances, the two main characters are missing. And they never even get a mention.

Although it's close to the same game it is also worse in many areas. Before I keep going on with what's worse I will say that the voice acting is still as amazing as the original. I love the characters, even though they aren't as great as before, and I'm not a big fan of the cop you play as. But you do get to play as an amateur boxer named Eddie, and everything about him saves this game from being unplayable. The graphics are either worse than the original, or it's just the fact that it didn't get any better and people expect that. Although I truly think that the FMV's are worse than last time. Also, the story isn't even comparable. The original had a great story that kept you on your seat the whole way, where the two different characters stories flowed together perfectly. In the Black Monday, the story is pathetic at best, and the only reason for the multiple stories seems to be because that's how the original was and now it just seems forced and boring. There are no plot twists, no suspense, just simple bad guy does bad things he must be stopped. And not only that but as simple and boring as the story is they couldn't even find a good way to explain it to the gamer. Even though there's nothing to it, after you beat it you can't help think you missed something.

Another big difference, which many people would see as a good thing is what has been done to the cars. First off, there's now a map, which although you can get through the game without it if you learn to use it then it definitely helps. Because there's nothing worse than being chased in the original by gangs and cops and not being able to make a turn and instead of going straight you have to turn around because you don't know the area and your signal keeps saying you missed your turn. In this game, you won't run into that problem. A few other things have been done to make the driving portions of the game a lot less frustrating, because the Getaway tried to be very realistic but because of that the driving portions upset a lot of people. I personally didn't mind them but it was frustrating when your stuck on a level because you can't get past the driving portion, never mind the main part of the mission. The cars seem to be able to take a lot more damage, and not only that but the London traffic has been lightened up on a lot. You can finally shoot from your car too which is definitely a good move.

The problem is when they made the driving a lot less frustrating they also made the driving missions way too easy. They should have at least kept the difficulty from the original. But that's one change that lasted throughout the entire game, it's just too easy. Can easily be beaten over a weekend. The driving missions are just there to let you drive, but you'll never have a problem with any of them. There are some stealth missions thrown in that are horrible. The good part of the game is the actual action parts of the game. I've been spending this whole review complaining but the core of the game is pretty good. The problem is it doesn't do anything new. But when playing Eddie's missions you will have fun. The levels are pretty well designed with plenty of different environments, but even with the different environments it does start to feel repetitive because you keep doing the same thing over and over. And even though you could do the same thing in every action game ever put out, there's always something satisifying about snapping someone's neck.


Overall even with my complaining it really isn't a horrible game, I'm just very disappointed. It's just such a mediocre game on every single level. They didn't really add anything new, and they took away my favorite part of the original, the story. It's an average action game with some below average stealth and some fun but easy driving missions.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/04/08

Game Release: The Getaway: Black Monday (US, 01/11/05)