PlayStation 2

The Getaway: Black Monday

Chcesz się poczuć jak prawdziwy, twardy policjant? Chcesz się poczuć jak prawdziwy zwyrodnialec obijający facjaty degeneratom? Chcesz obalić polski mit, że gry są dla dzieci? Zagraj w The Getaway: Black Monday i pokaż tę grę wszystkim znajomym, którzy wyznają stereotyp infantylnego gracza. Pierwsza część „Ucieczki” była czymś niespotykanym w grach wideo. Oferowała bowiem coś, czego inne pozycje wywodzące się z tego samego pnia mogły jej tylko pozazdrościć – dojrzałość. Dojrzałość w każdym aspekcie gry, którą chłoną gracze utwierdzając się w przekonaniu, że właśnie uczestniczy w niezwykłym, interaktywnym filmie gangsterskim. Jak to bywa w przypadku specyficznych produkcji Sony – tytuł ten nie wszystkim przypadł do gustu... Dziś sporo się zmieniło, ponieważ na rynek wypłynęły nowe pozycje o tej tematyce. Długo wyczekiwany Driv3r, konwersja znakomitej Mafii, czy doskonałe GTA: San Andreas. Co oferuje nowa odsłona The Getaway w starciu z tymi tuzami?

If Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino collaborated on a crime film, only to realize that they hated each other’s guts halfway through filming and wanted nothing more than to sabotage the project, a cinematic failure along the lines of The Getaway: Black Monday would likely be the result. Amid hardhearted action sequences and vulgar cockney dialogue, the plot unfolds through flashbacks, flashforwards, blurring time periods, and maybe even some wormhole-related anomalies. I applaud Team Soho’s grand scope and attempt to bring ambitious storytelling to the video game front. With beautifully animated and well-acted sequences fueling every second of the story, it definitely feels like an interactive motion picture. Sadly, it’s also a bit hard to follow, and not nearly as gripping as Charlie Jolson’s twisted mind games from the original entry in the series.

The Getaway: Black Monday has several faults, which stop it from achieving anything other than an average gaming experience, if that. The game tries to do too much and as a result doesn’t really do a lot well. Eliminated some of the less refined elements (like the car sequences) would help, especially if that effort went into making the interface tighter and more accessible. The Getaway: Black Monday is certainly not a bad title – it just is a little too clumsy.

What can actually be said about Black Monday in the end? Well, the concept of the game itself (and of the series) is a decent one that’s hampered by a lot of AI and gameplay issues. What’s more, the inclusion of stealth play that is weakly implemented compared to other titles further sheds light on the problems of Black Monday. Only serious fans of the original should seriously look at this title, otherwise, it’s a rental game at best.

Riding Guy Ritchie's successful wave of English thuggery is this Getaway sequel, Black Monday. Two years following the conclusion of the first PlayStation 2 exclusive, the London underworld is once again in a violent uproar. A troubled policeman, a vengeful boxer, and an unscrupulous thief live out a perilous and profane day. Would you like to participate? Oddly, it's the participating that we'd like to do less of.

In the two years that have passed since Sony released The Getaway--the company's first-party crime-drama action game that appeared on store shelves in 2003 in a rather unpolished state--many similarly "cinematic" action games have followed. And, unlike The Getaway, some of them have managed to get the concept right. So, it is with more than a little confusion that we find ourselves with The Getaway: Black Monday, a game so utterly devoted to the same flawed concepts as its predecessor that it might as well be the same game with a new story. Sure, SCEE Studio London and Team SoHo have fixed some of the superficial issues with the first game, but there are still a number of silly holdover problems in the sequel, as well as a bevy of new issues on top of everything else.

How else can an American bloke get a kick out of how accurate this city is to its real life counterpart if you don’t know its rich history? London here is recreated down to individual stores and nightclubs. But I will never know the difference between these joints, because they're not highlighted within the game at all. Also, Team SOHO should have taken a page from GTA lore and added different missions and mini-games that force you to explore all the different locales, giving you a better idea that this is a real life city. As is, it simply feels like you are playing in a swimming pool with no water.

At best, The Getaway 2: Black Monday could be perceived as a title that is single-handedly upping the ante when it comes to narrative presentation in interactive games. At worst, though, it embodies one of the more unfortunate trends our industry is prone to follow: putting style and presentation over substantive interactive experience. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that an excellent interactive experience can carry a less-than-stellar narrative, but no vice-versa. If at least a smidgen more effort was put into making this game compelling to play, then I would wholeheartedly recommend it. As is, I suggest that only the most patient among you check it out.

We expected it to be a whole lot more than the mission pack it's turned out to be. Maybe if any of the significant flaws of the original had been ironed out, and the missions were actually compelling, we wouldn't mind, but the excitement and thirst for vengeance of the original has been replaced by exceptionally ordinary shoot-'em-up missions, one on-rails shooting section, and a few awful stealth encounters. To be honest, the best thing about Black Monday is the awesome title music and the accompanying animation. It's literally all downhill after that, and that's not something we thought we'd say. Back to the drawing board, Sony.

O Team Soho iniciou o projeto de "Getaway" e de sua continuação com objetivos interessantes e que poderiam ter resultado em uma obra-prima, mas a execução repleta de falhas não apenas desmerece os méritos esperados, mas também transformam a série em uma das mais frustrantes no mercado. Com boas opções de jogos similares - como "Grand Theft Auto" e "Mafia" - "The Getaway: Black Monday" parece redundante.