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A must have!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Although comparisons to GTA are unavoidable, I think this game has a style all it's own. Yes it does lack free roaming and a variety of side missions, but the graphics and variety of characters are great. Very much like a movie. I found the dialog funny too. Nice to hear something other than the typical American slang every now and then. A common complaint from people is it's "realistic" gameplay ( no maps, health meters, etc.) I actually found the realistic play to be a nice break from the anarchy of GTA, a game which I do LOVE!! If you're good enough, and have aiming accuracy, taking people out with a single shot is rewarding and saves amo. I hope a Getaway II is in the making. There is an awesome game here with some possible improvements such as more sophisticated missions and some puzzle solving that could take it even further in it's ranking.

Your not a true gamer if you dont have this game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I came on here to see the reviews cos i wasnt sure how other countries would react to this amazingly good game. The graphics are great and i know where i am in the city. It is hard i admit but its worth buying it just for the free roaming. I've noticed that alot of people have said that the way of getting your health restored is stupid. You have to stand next to a wall for a short amount of time depending how much you have been damged. The maximum is about 20 seconds. This is NOT stupid. Its just as realistic as geting a pick up like in GTA. It is much more logical. It makes sure that you can only heal when you arent being attacked. So read the title and buy it if you dont have it already.

oh bloody hell...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Okay, I'm sorry to compare this to Vice City, but they really set the bar up high, and Getaway has a lot to be desired. Obviously, they were going for more realism in this game, but in some cases, that's a bad thing. My main NUMBER ONE complaint is having to sit thru the beginning cinematic sequences every single time you start up your Playstation. I even tried hitting the "R3" button, but that doesn't work. When I want to play, I want to play, and having to wait two or three minutes to get started (even when you're at a save point) just plain ....
On that subject, I also don't like the fact that you can't save at certain key points during a level without succesfully completing the entire thing.
Complaint number three is that when you're in a car driving around, you can't view different angles like in Vice City...and realism is not an excuse in this case, because in real life, when you're in a car, you can actually turn your head and look in rear view mirrors. Believe me, it's true.
And finally, the last complaint I have is the soundtrack. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE...sure, it sets the mood for certain scenes, but it gets very old after playing over and over a few times. Why can't they have a cool radio station thing like Vice City with awesome psychedelic British music...bands like the Beatles, the Who, trance, rave, etc., etc., etc.
I have more complaints, but I won't continue to bore you with them...the one thing I do like is the scenery and different cars you can drive. European atmosphere is great...
Well, that's about it...please rent before buying this game. So much potential, but falls short. What a bloody shame...

Its not GTA London, its Max Payne with a car

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ok, you have a car and a gun, and get coerced into doing work for the mob; but that's where the similarities to GTA Vice City end.

What I liked most about Vice City was that it was free form. If you wanted to just drive around and see the city you could do that. You could pick, to a degree, which missions you wanted to do when, etc.

In The Getaway you have a bunch of directed missions you must do in the order they are given to you. You can't take a break from the missions to just drive around and collect money, weapons, armor, etc. In fact in this game there is no money or armor.

There is no map of the city, either on paper or in the game. So to drive to your destinations you just watch the directional lights on the car you're driving which indicate which way to turn. Since I don't know London this has led me down several one-way streets going the wrong way; and in this game car accidents do attract the attention of nearby police. Also, while driving you cannot change your view, so you have no idea who is chasing you, or how close they are. This can make "getting away" a bit more difficult.

Traveling on foot is where this game reminds me most of Max Payne. It's third person and again you can't really change the camera view. As everyone has mentioned there are no health or any other indicators on the screen. Apparently this was done for "realism"; but in this game when you get shot you can just lean against a wall to heal up - just like in real life. Which is another annoying aspect of the game, they don't tell you this anywhere. Unless you happen to pause the game while you're all shot up. Then a little hint bar at the top of the pause screen tells you to lean against a wall to heal. So I died unnecessarily a few times before I figured that out. I will say that you can figure out when you're in trouble because you will start hobbling around as you take more damage.

Another annoying aspect of the game is that there are very long cut scenes you cannot skip; and you cannot save your game until you complete a level. There are several missions in each level, and you cannot save until after you complete all of the missions. If you die and stay in the game you can restart a mission. If you die and quit the game you have to restart the whole level, and watch the intro cut scene again, like it or not.

Some of the missions are a little too vague as well. I have driven to some locations, and then had no idea what to do. There are no dots or arrows like Vice City. Then I had to restart the mission and actually listen to the 5 minute scene to see if I could figure out what to do.

I think if they had gotten this game to market after Max Payne, and before Grand Theft Auto it might have been as a step forward. As it is, its a step back into restrictive game play. Bottom line, I think they did accomplish a greater degree of realism, but at the cost of fun.

Deserves all 5 stars

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The Getaway is a very underrated game. I'll state why...

___Pros___
Good controls
Liscensed cars
Picture perfect graphics
Real physics
One of a kind storyline
London is perfectly detailed
No health bars, ammo counts ect.
You can run and shoot (by auto-locking)
You can skip FMV sequences (by pressing R3 and L3)
You can also roam freely (using a cheat code)

___Cons___
Bad camera
Cops only run after you not the gangs shooting at you
Leaning on the wall to heal yourself?

Language filled (especially the f-word)

The Getaway is a must buy for any ps2 owner. It can't be compared to GTA because its a different kind of game, with a different setting. Oh, and as for those last 2 Pros, I'll explain how you can do them. For the skip through FMV sequences (that you all want to know) you have to watch a FMV sequence once and then if you watch it again hit R3 and L3 (note: this only works on some sequences). Now for the free roam cheat, press... triangle (3), left, square, triangle (3), left, circle, during the FMV sequence that appears before the main menu. A woman groaning will show that you entered the code correctly. Anyway, I hope you enjoy The Getaway, like I did.

Glad I Rented It

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game isn't as great as some reviewers would have you believe. It is NOT like the GTA games. The GTA games are free, loose and fun. The Getaway is stiff, humorless and frustrating. I appreciate the ability to drive through "the real streets of London", but you feel trapped in those streets. They're too narrow and congested and you have to obey all the traffic laws, otherwise you'll get a bunch of cops on your tail.

When you're out of the car, the game gets even worse. The camera always seems to be looking the wrong way, which makes it difficult to deal with the bad guys that are shooting at you. There are no health or ammo meters---and I know that they were purposely omitted for "realism", but realism aside, it would be helpful to see your vitals.

The Getaway is more like the Driver games---strictly mission based with no room for fun. I rented it, played it about twice and took it back. As the British would say: "Fookin' Rubbish!"

If This Is You

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If This Is You(exaggerated or not):

1) ZOMG!1! This game is too linear!
2) Why should a game have long cutscenes? It's not a movie!!!

-and the ever popular-

3) It's like Grand Theft Auto in England!!!

DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME! You'll look, feel, and be foolish. Side effects include: turning into a fanboy, ranting, ranting on forums, ensuing in oil and water arguments, generally pissing people off.

If THIS is you:

1) I like The Transporter, Snatch, and/or Tarantino kitsch.
2) I can watch these movies again and again.
3) GTA is fun until you're forced to repeat missions over and over.

Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is, this is much MUCH easier than the controller-grinding frustration of GTA. It also conforms to the central european gangster genre(i.e. foul language mixed among Britishisms). In that sense, it also has amazing character development and a driving plot(i.e. the main character can only take so much being bullied around before he decides to take the dominant role - oops, was that the ending?!). Anywho, the bad is that it's just slightly frustrating if you can't adapt to the game's high standard of visual puzzles(i.e. blinky=turn, blinky blinky=stop, drop, and boogie). There are some nice challenges, and you WILL beat this game if you try hard enough. Whereas in GTA, it makes you physically ill to repeat a task, in Getaway, it's actually a possibility.

So hey, it's extremely linear and it's "trying to be a movie". If you can't get over that and just enjoy the good story and the neat challenges, play something else or bash your pretty little head in with GTA! Ranting won't make the hurt go away.

A Great cinematic experience set in the heart of London.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When first hearing about a cockney speaking version of GTA, I instantly thought it'd be a 5 minute interest and everyone would be done with it. Obviously not! When playing a demo of the game, I needed to buy it when released. Over here in England it was released the beginning of December. Being presented in a widescreen format, brilliant voice acting and a down-to-the-cashpoints (EXACT) replica of 46 square kilometers in London, makes this game a must for the people who like realisim. Unlike GTA all cars are real makes, the place is real, the feeling is real. I suggest anyone who likes gta get this game, its great.

Entertaining, but not great

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: April 25, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I assume since you're reading this you know the games premise, so I'll get down to mechanics. Pros: cool British slang, detailed London locations, hard-as-nails baddies. Cons: every British cop is a woman and a psychopath, lousy combat mechanics, awkward movement.

The missions are very linear. You go through each mission the same way, every time. There's no way to think outside the box here - if you deviate, you can't complete it. Every mission follows the same pattern - car chase, then bloody shootout. Sometimes the shootout comes first, but that's it for variety. The driving sequences are pretty good, but there are some missions where you must "chase the rabbit", that is, catch up with a police van or speeding Rover full of crooks. There are only a couple places you can catch up to them, no matter how fast you drive, so if you don't follow the exact route required, at maximum speed, you fail. No room for creativity here.

For a game where combat is so vital to success, it is poorly executed. Characters move only at straight angles, and it's very awkward to shoot from behind a wall or cover. The auto-aim should be called auto-miss. The baddies can move and shoot - you must stand still to fire your weapon! I could live with that, if I could exercise a little tactical creaticity, but the missions are so linear, that it just adds to the frustration. This diminishes replay value, since once you know the "correct" sequence for a mission, you've got it down. The enemy will be in the same place, in the same numbers, every time. They never deviate from plan either.

Rent it before you buy.

Too Much Down Time

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

You can not skip cut scenes. Every time you play a level you have to sit through the whole 10 minute cut scene, no matter how many times you've seen it. Also, when the character is on foot, he heals by leaning on the wall. Cool concept, but I spend so much time waiting for him to heal. You just sit there and watch him breath for like 60 seconds. It really adds up after a while. Between that and the cut scenes, this game winds up being a huge waist of time. It's a shame, it looks great, and the driving parts are very cool. There's just too much down time. I suggest getting a book or magazine to read while playing this game.

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