The Getaway

"Good game, but it took 4 years to make... It should have been better."

The Getaway took four years to make. I heard about it one year before it came out... It's a good game and all, but you'd think if someone took 4 years to make a game, that it would take longer than a day to beat. Not only was it short, it wasn't really that hard to do. I hope that the sequel to this game is much better because this just doesn't cut it.
What I don't get, is how other people can make a video game in a year, and make it take a week to beat, yet the makers of The Getaway took four years to make this game, and it doesn’t take much skill to beat it in under 24 hours. Everything in the game is great, except the length
Now, I understand that they delayed the release when the driver series came out, then Grand Theft Auto came out. But you'd think they would take that time to expand on, and add more levels. They sure as hell had enough time to do so. You'd think that after four years, they would want their hard work to pay off, by making it long, and harder as you go along. I wish they had.
The fact that it is a fun game makes the fact that it is short even worse. Once people beat it, they want more, but they don't want to start the game over and just do the same levels over again. They want new better levels. I hope that the next Getaway will have more levels. Because if not, people probably won't buy it.

Gameplay - Right when you start out you will notice that this game is quite different from Grand Theft Auto. It is very fun to play because of that. The way the car is controlled isn't better than Grand Theft Auto's cars, but it is more realistic. Which isn't bad or good. But it does make it more fun to play. But the crashes (hitting walls/cars) are kind of weird. You just kind of hit the wall and bounce off and not much happens to your car.
The game isn't very hard, which is bad, because if you’re going to make a short game, you might as well make it hard to beat. I found myself rushing through the levels, faster than it would have happened in real life. I think they should have made it harder. The only real challenging levels were the last ones.

Story - It starts off, when your up in your room, and your wife is taking your child somewhere. There is a car parked to the side watching them, with some people talking in it. They're planning on kidnapping your wife and child. So when your wife comes out, they go to take them, but your wife tries resist, so they shoot her in her stomach, and go away with your kid. You run down to see your wife, and she's dying, she tells you not to let them get away with your son. Then she dies; just then, he picks up the gun, as a pedestrian walks by and sees you with a gun, and your wife dead. Now, the policemen want to arrest you for killing your wife and the people who really did kill your wife have run away with your son. So you get in your car and speed after them.
After you beat the first part, another story takes in. About a Vigilante Policeman. It starts off when you’re sitting in your car with your partner, watching a building you believe a criminal is in. You then see the criminal go in, and go after them. You split up with your partner, and work your way up the building, until you catch the criminal. But your partner has been shot. So you then have to drive him to the hospital in time. This mission is an example of an easy one. Although, it's hard to do it the first time, the second time, you know exactly where to go, so you can just drive to the hospital and drop him off. They give you all the time in the world.

Sound - I like it. The sounds of the cars are good in this game. Sound just as realistic as they drive. You can hear the gears changing just like in a real car. And every car you can drive (which is a lot) goes it's own speed, and sounds different.
The Voiceover's are just as good. The two main characters talk just like you'd think they would when you look at them. Although, Voiceover's in games generally aren't bad, they're also good in this game.
The music in this game is weird. Not that it's bad. It's not actually bands. It changes when the police go after you. And when you're doing different missions. It's actually very good.

Graphics - Very good. The story cut-scenes are great. They're better than in Grand Theft Auto. They couldn't have done much better with them because they are already very good. The looks of the cars are pretty good. I think they are a little choppy though. Not that much. Everything in the graphics are good except when you are driving. They kind of mess up some there. Other than that, the way the characters look and everything are great. The designers did a good job with the graphics in this game.

Replay Value - It's pretty low. It won't take you that long to beat, and then once you beat it, there isn't any reason to go back and beat it again. Because nothing new happens. It would have helped a lot if they had added just 10 more levels to the game.

You should probably go out and rent this game, because you'll probably find yourself taking it back early anyway since it's so easy to beat fast. Unless you’re eight years old, you should probably just rent it instead of wasting a lot of your hard-earned money.

Pro's
Good Sound
Good Graphics
Good Control
Great character voice-over's

Con's
Too Short
Very easy

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/03