The Italian Job

"An great game, sadly marred by a few key faults"

Red, White And Blue.

First thing's first. For those who don't know, The Italian Job was a hugely successful British Crime Caper about a Bullion Heist in Turin by some Cockney Gangsters (Soon to be remade in LA. Just wait till it fails at the Box Office.). It Starred Michael Caine, and swiftly became a cult classic. Cut to 32 years later. A Movie, that only gets the 7pm Christmas slot on Sky Cinema, is about to get a makeover for the small screen. How can a Movie, 32 years old successfully make the Transition from Movie to Game? There have been successes (Goldeneye, Die Hard), and Failures (Street Fighter: The Movie and almost every Batman and Superman Game, N64 owners can attest to that). So what actually does make a good movie/Series to game conversion? Konami, Activision and Acclaim will be wondering themselves. But what people remembered most (Apart from that line, You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!!), was the superb chase through Turin in Minis Coopers. And that sets the scene for the game. Albeit with Buses, Wolsley’s, Hillman Imps….

Remember, They drive on the other side of the road, here.

As soon as you start and witness the title screen, Driver fans will start to get a little déjà vu. The title screen set-up has shall we say been “Borrowed”. Indeed it does get that overall Driver feel, from the required take a ride mode to the Additional missions, they are not afraid to show their source of Inspiration. Missions take you from London, to Turin and Finally the Alps, where you attempt to three point turn in a Bus. This allows for some brilliant varied scenery. But this goes a lot farther in terms of varied environments than say, London Racer. From Warehouse districts to Roundabouts, London Buses, you can't get much wrong in search of a game that's close to home for British people. Turin is also a Fine city, with many different places to see, all from the movie, with a short motorway, some lovely Roman buildings and of course the Weir.

Your Only supposed to blow the bloody doors off.

What makes these cities better than in Driver is the superb amount of things to do, Stunt wise, and also the quite marvellous scenery. See a Plank on a Skip in a Mission, go back in Free Ride and perform outlandish stunts. Drive on top of buildings and Stadiums. This is as Fun and as Good as it gets on the PSX. Remember in Las Vegas, Driver 2, when you finally got to the Construction yard and Tried to drive up that awesome Ramp? Me too, and I distinctly remember being disappointed. Italian, actually lets you drive up practically anything. Graphically, the game is superb for the PSX. Vehicles all look their real life counterparts and handle appropriately. However the speedometer on the cars (Nice inclusion anyway) tends to lie to you. It claims you will be doing 60 MPH, when you clearly aren't. At least it doesn’t look like your going that fast. Also, I hardly think the top speed for an Aston Martin DB6 is 100MPH. Backgrounds are superb and all look different to one another. Superb. There are varied options available, including superb mini games. Destructor and Challenge to name a few. In Free Ride, you get to drive as most cars from the game, including the Ultra cool E Type Jag. The Options available will keep you going for months as it takes a while to complete them all. For example you can unlock Challenge mode, which lets you perform some outlandish tricks and stunts, which is brilliant, again increasing the lifespan. These options are many in number and high in the fun factor, which has to be commended.

Hold on lads, I’ve got a good Idea.

The missions themselves are quite fun in parts, but many are extremely frustrating. However to say something good, the third to last mission is probably one of the best single mission on any game EVER. The mission recounts the getaway from the Piazza where the heist takes place. You drive the blue mini while your friends drive off in the Red and White ones. What’s so excellent about this mission is that it shows everything that happened in the chase sequence in the movie, almost making you feel that you are part of that film. It has everything, the Fiat factory, the Church and the Ice Rink. Not to mention the Mall. As you undertake these memorable stunts, the game goes into a cinematic view showing how you do it, making it feel even cooler. I don’t know, but almost everything wrong with this game was nearly compensated by this one excellent mission.

Croker, You don’t even know how to spell big.

Those are the good points; Now lets weigh them against the bad. Music is usually good; It’s sort of a remix of “Self preservation Society” and the national anthem repeating over and over and over and over. And of course when you are repeating a mission, which will probably happen quite a lot, it can get extremely repetitive and irritating. In fact Many Single player missions are Frustrating and pointless in relation to the plot. I'm sorry that's the way I feel. One mission’s objective is for Lorna to keep up with Charlie in order to have a role in the job, so you frantically pace around London in an E-Type Jag whilst chasing Charlie in his Aston. Why? So what if she cannot get involved in the job, it doesn't stop the heist going through, does it? It is frustrating after this. As soon as you pull up close to his Aston, Charlie accelerates off like he’s in thrust 2, making it near impossible to keep up. He drives around Flawlessly as you struggle to keep up which is even more irritating. Some missions involve going form one place to the next. However, fail on one and it's back to the start. At least give us checkpoints where we can save in the middle. Nothing is worse than repeating a mission over and over to get one thing right, which is increasingly a problem in the getaway. Take a ride mode. You get to drive round Turin and London. But why not the Alps? It’s a Level, it's fun, and why wont you let us drive it! In my opinion I loved the Alps missions. I'll never know why it wasn't included in the game. Finally, Italian Job suffers from the absence of look buttons. Being able to look behind you was a decent addition to Driver and WSPC, as you could see how close the Old Bill are (That's the Police, my International Friends). It would have helped. There are no maps, but that's all right; You'll find your way around soon. But again it’s a case of this should have been put in the game, because it would have been all the better for it. Also, you cannot change your view, but the chase camera is good enough methinks. Handling is a little ropey; with cars sliding all over the place, but hey it can’t be that realistic, can it?

Sadly, The Italian Job is something that tries so, so hard but fails due to needless and avoidable flaws. The good thing is yes, it’s a superb recreation of a groundbreaking film, with a huge myriad of options to keep you busy for quite a while. Unfortunately it’s let down by a few key errors which spoil this games reputation. It’s very worthy of a purchase, but just expect to have to persevere because it really does get frustrating.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/01, Updated 05/02/02