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Better than the first!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: January 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I don't know what these people are talking about. This is a great game but is a little short like my review.

biased reviews

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: May 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

beware of biased reviews panning this fine game.they do so probably because its British. It's far better than Gta san andreas.

Better than San Andreas

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have no idea why this is game is getting such bad reviews. In my opinion its much better than GTA San Andreas...better graphics, better storyline...better overall game play.
The story of course takes place in London, as it did before, which is meticulously detailed. You complete the story, which plays out like a movie, using 3 characters, which creates different perspectives on the events that take place.
The only issue is the shortness of the game, which can be completed in about 20 hours. Whereas GTA goes on too long with melancholy missions, which take away from the storyline, making it a bit boring at times. This leaves you wanting more.
My only advise is...get this game.

Much Better than the GTA Series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: January 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The Getaway Black Monday is an improvement over the original Getaway, and both games are better than any of the GTA series. Both of the Getaway games are intelligent games with brilliant detail. Don't believe what the GTA SA fans are saying - this new Getaway game is much better and has a great replay value. My copy of Vice City has gotten dusty on the shelf since I got the original Getaway and from what I've seen of GTA SA it doesn't hold a candle to the Getaway Black Monday. It's a must have game.

Not As Good As The First

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The reason I liked the first Getaway, other than the fact that you're operating in the realm of a real city, is the way the game flowed. The game wasn't too fast paced, the storyline was engaging and suspenseful,and the missions were original and cool and actually gave you a tourist's view of London.

The tempo of Black Monday started off so fast that I didn't get to absorb the storyline or the ambience of the game. If you are looking to buy this game you should really do it with the knowledge that you'll actually enjoy this game more once you've completed it. The game pace was too fast and I didn't understand the storyline really until the end and even then I didn't buy into it. Plus I thought the missions were either boring, unoriginal or too drawn out, except for level 17 & 18 I believe (the ones with Eddie).

The first Getaway was a little better because there were more high speed driving missions, stealth missions, major gang shoot-outs in places like an art museum, a hospital, a multi level car park, and a huge ship. There were cool objective missions like setting fire to a building, dropping off a dead body, asassinating the police chief inside the police HQ, going into different gang hide-outs and searching a booby trapped house. You also knew what the main characters were about, and the difficulty level was a little higher. The originality and methodical pace is absent in Black Monday I believe. But the movement of the characters and visuals were slightly improved from the first one.

There are also annoyances with camera problems, movement, AI, and glitches. There is also no "London experience" like there was in the first game. The other thing about this game is that it is full of huge glitches! There was one mission where Levi was somehow stuck in the top subway car in the junk pile where I couldn't arrest him, and I had to restart the mission. In the next mission, where I was chasing Levi by car, he hit a car and got jammed in between the car and a street pole and was unable to get to the building I was supposed to follow him to! Also, in the subway level the other cop on the mission with me was standing at the top of some stairs and a bad guy was standing a few feet next to him and neither of them started shooting at each other until I reached the top of the stairs.

But, on the positive side, the great thing in this game is the free roaming mode and I don't think some people understand why.

I played the free roaming mode for about 2 hours before I realized that there are actually cool hidden side streets behind wooden planks and objects where cool cars are and there are car ramps also. And these are for each character in each section of the city. So once you find these hidden areas you can go from alley to alley for about 20 minutes (for each character) discovering these new cars. And you can store a car in hidden garages all over the city, only one car though.

At first I was annoyed by the fact that the cops are on your tail for everything in free roaming, but after a while I thought it was cool because it takes away the monotonous aspect of just driving around, and the cops can't really do much to you or chase you, unless you start hijacking a lot of cars, then beware!

Also you can venture into the buildings that were featured in the storyline but there is no real point to it and you don't have access to the entire building. The motorcycles are cool too especially when they hit another car at high speed and the bike and passenger go flying...sweet! There are more sweet cars in this game also. The hand to hand combat part comes handy when you don't have a gun and have to get one from a cop. But no gangs to beware of in free roaming mode. Also if you play as Mitch the cop you can subdue and arrest people. I'd like to figure out if you can get into the subway somehow also. If they ever make a third rendition maybe they can make use of the tower of london and other points of interest. I wish the taxi mission part was longer also.

Solid, but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed this game but either found that the missions that are there aren't satisfying enough or that the game itself wasn't long enough. I'm not entirely sure which. I guess that I'm glad that the ending seemed to leave it open for a sequel because I really liked the first game of this series. I hope that ultimately this will just be a stepping stone to a game more like the first.

Very Good game(8.2/10 IMHO)(SPOILERS galore)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I don't feel like comparing this to GTA, to me it feels very different and takes the step towards realism, I like "The Getaway" series more than True Crime and I nearly like it as much as I do Driver/GTA.But after this I will stop the comparisons

Its a stepforwards from the original "The Getaway" which Sony and Team SOHO released in 2002 for PS2, although there are things in "The Getaway:Black Monday" that aren't as good as the original such as the graphics

The game is set in London, England(again) and puts you in the shoes of three characters...in the one storyline:

Sgt.Ben Mitchell-
A very touchy cop claimed by the Media for being a "Delicate" and "Trigger Happy Cop" after he shot a teenage boy in the back after the teen never dropped his weapon.The year after the incident, he is back from suspension but some of his teammates aren't exactly warm about his return such as Evans who believes "Mitch" is the liability of the team and claims Mitch is too sharp round the edges.
Mitch works for the CO19 firearms divison in the Metropol. Police.Mitch will usually be armed with a GLOCK 17 handgun and an MP-5 submac.

Eddie O'Connor-
Ed is an amateur boxer for his local gym, Shoreditch Boys Club and has been trained by a local hero and trainer, Danny West who has been working there for over 30 years, however the darkness is that the fact Danny has bad gambling habits and one of the days it gets out of hand, Ed and a few other people Danny knows including a codebreaker, another amateur boxer and a young girl hacker(Sam) but they get caught and all of Eds' teammates(with the exception of Sam) are killed.And to make matters worse, the same people bust into Shoreditch and kill Danny and one of Eds partners in crime son aswell as others.Eddie is hell bent on revenge.....

Sam-
Sam is a 19 year old stealthy and capable hacker, from far she looks like a docile teenager, she was one of Eddies partners-in-crime but luckily she wasn't captured.Now her and Eddie are fugitives after Danny's murder, she is forced to handle the stealth missions while Eddie goes after revenge

My ending was that all Mitch, Eddie and Sam survived the standoff(at the end, when Mitch and Ed have each other at gunpoint and Mitch goes to shoot Sam)...The ending I wanted anyway since I liked the characters

You have 4 minigames, Chase, taxi, race and freeroaming(the freedome aspect of the game)

In freeroam you get to play these characters:

Mitch(the only one that can't get Cops after him unlike the others listed)
Eddie
Sam
Yuri
Zara
Jamahl
Viktor Skobal(the man Ed wants to kill)

Amazing tour of London, but annoying gameplay

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: January 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Getaway - Black Monday is the sequel to the Getaway game. This is set in an almost photorealistic version of London, with cops and robbers trading bullets.

For better or for worse, everyone is going to compare this game to GTA - San Andreas, as well as to the first Getaway that came out several years ago. So it's a strange situation in that the game is truly amazing in its own right - but it is very weak when held up to the standards of today's gaming.

First, the amazing parts. You literally are driving around the actual streets of London in this game, in real cars. If we had shown this game to gamers 5 or 10 years ago, they would have been blown away. Every detail of the streets is paid close attention to. If you played this game for a few weeks and then visited London, you would know your way around. That is an amazing achievement.

The game is very much like an interactive movie. Often the cut scenes almost seamlessly merge into your action. The shadows and movements in game are quite impressive. Some say the cut scenes are too long - but again this isn't a game about blasting away. It's about being drawn deeper and deeper into the story.

The graphics are very impressive, with tons of details. For example if you pick up dropped ammo, you actually stoop down and pick up something that looks like ammo. If you're in a car that is hurt, it goes more and more slowly, and the smoke obscures your vision.

The sound equally draws you in, from the various accents of the characters to their dialogue and background sounds. Also, unlike most of the games of this style on the market, you're actually playing 'good' most of the time. Instead of just killing people for fun, you are able to handcuff them and only take out the truly bad guys. That's a refreshing change.

Now, for the not-so-great aspects of this game. The one that really drives us crazy is the camera angle and controls. There are ALL sorts of times that the camera actively impedes your gameplay. Maybe we've been spoiled by Splinter Cell - but interpersonal combat is very clumsy here.

Next, gameplay is *incredibly* short. With games existing that take months to solve and explore, you could literally finish this game in a day or two. Now, if this had been the first release, I might have understood that. After all, building the incredible map of London was quite a task! But this is the *sequel* - meaning all of that hard work was done. All they had to do was maybe enhance the graphics, and add new missions. To add on missions that were so quickly solved seemed a shame.

I really love open ended missions, but this game makes it border on the edge of truly annoying. Sometimes you can kick open doors - but other times you can't - and there's no rational as to why. I love the no-health-meter interactive aspect - but you lean against walls to insta-heal? How about carrying a health kit at least? You don't have an ammo meter - again to make this immersive - but you can't actually see your gun's ammo levels.

I appreciate greatly that you can handcuff bad guys instead of just killing everyone in sight - but for some reason you just tap a guy and he dutifully lets you cuff him without a fight, and everyone else nearby pauses in their shooting until you're done. I would rather have some sort of mini-game that lets you cuff them in more of a challenging fashion.

A LOT of this game requires an intimate knowledge of the streets of London. Of course if you played the first game, you're pretty set here. If you aren't, make sure you take as much time as you can to learn them. It often spells the difference between success and failure.

And finally, as much as every game in modern times seems to involve swearing, this one goes over the top. The cops and bad guys seem to swear every third word. Sure, half of them are "English" swears so maybe don't carry the same weight in non-English countries. But it is still pretty incessant.

This really could have been an incredibly excellent game, but the combination of bad camera and short gameplay make it more of an exercise in frustration. You get periods where you really get into things - and then periods where you are swearing as much as the characters on-screen are. Maybe if they get around to a Getaway 3, they'll finally find a good balance.

Flawed, but strangely addictive.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: January 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

When the first Getaway came out, it was naturally compared to the revolutionary Grand Theft Auto 3. It was the first game similar in the city re-creation aspect to follow GTA3. After years of creation, it was released with much fanfare and a lower price of $39.95. While it wasn't a failure, it sure did not live up to the hype.

Now the sequel has been released in a much more subdued launch, with much lowered expectations, and though it is extremely flawed, it's an enjoyable game. It's a strange game. In terms of gameplay, in terms of problems, and in terms of wasted potential, this game should be terrible. Despite all that though, for weird reason, I couldn't put it down.
Even though it has the City of London to traverse through, the game is mostly a third person shooting game with just a smaller part consisting of driving or chasing missions. You play as three different character in 22 chapters, a cop and a criminal, and a teenager.

First, the bad. The most glaring problem are the camera angles. In many missions, the camera is the toughest enemy. Close quarter angles are just terrible. This is mostly an indoor shooting game, and much of it relies on stealth and looking over corners . The camera just doesn't want to cooperate. It's just bad. I can't stress that enough.

This brings up the stealth missions. Now, with the camera described above, it makes it annoying. While doable, you'll be spotted, but you'll never see who spotted you. While a nice change of pace from the constant gun firing, the camera ruins it as you can't see half the stuff you need to. It's also sometimes pretty unintuitive to figure out where you need to go.

The game is short, which is what I prefer, but the reply value is virtually non-existent. You get to roam around London, go back to missions to find keys to I guess unlock more stuff, race, or drive a cab. I had no inclination to do any of those except drive around London, and that was dull after twenty minutes.

Finally, what good is reproducing London if it's really just a gateway to the missions? In the original GTA 3, the city was always an integral part of most missions. In this game, it's just a place to drive through. There is a lot that can happen, but Team Soho didn't bother to take full advantage of their years of work. I can only imagine a shootout in Hyde Park, or snipers on the Tower Bridge.

Now to the good. As with the first game, the graphics are great. London is as, well, Londony as ever, the graphics for the indoor parts of the missions are smooth, polished, and capture the ambiance of warehouses, office buildings, slums, etc. Unlike the first game though, the map is really useful, as it tells you where you are and where you're headed, so there is no need to rely on those horrible blinkers from the first game. Even if don't use the map, the blinkers actually perform much, much better than the first game. Team Soho saw the weakest part of their previous game and tackled it.

Though I think most cut scenes are usually game filler with no redeeming value, the cut-scenes compliment this game very well. They're much shorter than the first game, and describe a particular event from three different perspectives. They intermingle well with the game and add to the gameplay, not detract from it.

Finally, it's just addictive. I got it Wednesday, thinking I would have something to play over the weekend. I finished the second half of the game in one sitting on Friday night. A game has great flow and is addictive when someone like me, who can't sit still for an hour straight, can play this for almost five hours straight without even realizing it.

Don't expect miracles, in fact, expect some flawed gameplay. But still, it was a fun game.

Pros:
Could not put it down
Story and gameplay splicing is perfect
Improved map and handling was a drastic improvement
Great flow with little frustration
Great graphics
No backtracking and little repetition

Cons:
Camera is perhaps the worst I've seen on PS2
Stealth missions don't work
Up close aiming not as fine tuned
Doesn't really use the city of London
Extras are useless

Time to Complete: 10 hours

Frustration Level: Low

Difficulty Level: Low

Decent but Problematic

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have to admit that I really enjoyed playing this game. But, having said that, I have to admit that it is way way to short. If they had added a few more missions, I would have been much happier. I don't know if they didn't have the time or the space on the disc, or what. The game just flew by. To give you an idea, it took me about the same amount of time to beat this game as it did to beat Katamari Damacy. Maybe that means I was really bad at Katamari, I don't know. On the city, it's amazing. Sure, they made a few mistakes. I can point out that the pub and the Oddbins on the Seven Dials have been flipped. And they got rid of a street off Soho Square. But, by and large, its a great rendition of London. You could use it to plan out a trip, if you really wanted to. Just don't expect to find the Tate Modern gallery, they blocked off the bridge. I am going to stop mentioning mistakes in geography now. The addition of taxi mode is a nice touch, as well as race and chase mode. They definitely add to the value of this title. In free roam, where you can just ride around and site see, the police have have a weird way of coming after you if, say, you ride your bicycle (yes, bicycle!) into a lamp post. But they can't knock you off the bike very easily, and if you get off it and walk around a corner they lose you. I had the experience of hearing the police say "We found the car, he's nowhere to be seen," while I was standing right next to the car and shooting at the police. Having said all that, I really did enjoy playing the game, I just wish I hadn't paid full price for it. Better AI and a longer story, and I probably wouldn't be so disappointed.

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