Xbox

The Italian Job

The Italian Job is a great-looking, great-playing and kinda-good-sounding racing title. The game is a good buy although there are more recommendable games now. Still, if you’re a fan of the movie, this is a great buy.

The Italian Job feels like it should have been an arcade game due to its length. If the game was a little bit harder, longer, and just better overall this would have been one of the best movie to game conversions in a while. At least give this game a rent.

Fahrgefühl und das Gokart-ähnliche Steuerungsverhalten der Mini-Flitzer wurden vom Entwicklungsstudio Climax gut umgesetzt. Es macht Spaß, Abkürzungen, halsbrecherische Fahrmanöver und Kurvenschneiden einzusetzen, um gegen deftige Zeitlimits und Gegner zu bestehen. Neben dem Story Mode dürfen Sie Ihr Können auf Hinderniskursen und Stadtrennen beweisen. Statt gegen drei Konsolengegner fahren Sie bei den Stadtrennen auch gegen einen Freund. Grafisch und audiotechnisch präsentiert sich The Italian Job ansehnlich, zusätzlich motiviert die Jagd nach Bonuspunkten, die es zum Beispiel für Sprungeinlagen gibt. Die "künstliche Intelligenz" ist eher dürftig - meist weiß die Polizei, wo Sie auftauchen, zivile Fahrzeuge fahren Ihnen gelegentlich rücksichtslos ins Heck und versetzen Ihren Fahrplänen damit im Handumdrehen den Todesstoß.

When you take a turn at top speed and get your MINI on two tires as you slide between oncoming traffic, you really do feel the rush of excitement. But with so many better, deeper racers coming out in the last couple of months like Midtown Madness 3 and Midnight Club II it's still tough to recommend The Italian Job as anything more than a rental.

On ne peut pas dire que l'adaptation vidéoludique du film Braquage à l'Italienne aura bénéficié de beaucoup de considération de la part du développeur. Voilà un soft d'arcade tout juste sympathique mais qui affiche de façon un peu trop effrontée son manque d'ambition.

Despite being cursed as a game based on a movie, The Italian Job is a surprisingly decent driving game. It has modes for every mood and no glaring flaws, although its short length and numerous frustrating bits will surely turn people away. But the game is also very demanding, making it worth a look if you have a free weekend.

It’s not to say that The Italian Job is a horrible game. It clearly went through some testing, as I didn’t encounter much by way of weird pop-up, suspect AI, poorly executed collision, or framerate difficulties. It’s just that what is there is the bare bones. You are only afforded a small handful of cars and not much by way of customization. The story mode features cutscenes whose only animation is the camera moving around a car or van, and alternate modes only encompass two players.

MINI Coopers, assuming you can fit in one, are an utter blast to drive?so much so, in fact, that they make this bare-bones racer seem better than it actually is. A basic copy of Wreckless, The Italian Job has you darting around L.A., causing havoc over a series of timed missions. The graphics are crisp and astonishingly smooth, but the game is terribly short?the mission mode is too easy and the auxiliary racing bits are uninteresting. While not an awful game (Climax's driving engine is rock solid as always), it would be much better suited for arcades than home systems.

The Italian Job won't please anyone. Fans of the film looking to experience some Mini Cooper-themed racing fun of their own will be severely disappointed by the game's short and pointless story mode. Fans of open-city racers will quickly discover that this game doesn't even come close to recent releases like Midtown Madness 3 and Midnight Club II. But even on its own merits, The Italian Job simply doesn't have enough going on to make for an interesting ride.

The Italian Job offers players a visceral experience while it lasts, but it is over all too quickly. Lacking any sort of replay value, it is hard to recommend the game as anything other than a rental, especially when there are other, deeper, options out there like Midtown Madness 3.