The Getaway: Black Monday
- October 25, 2004 06:59 AM PST
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Crusin' for a brusin' along the streets of London.
Although reviews were mixed when Sony released The Getaway in January of last year, the game was a noted success for the company and a sequel was all but guaranteed. With a release set for early 2005, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's Team Soho is currently hard at work putting the finishing touches on The Getaway: Black Monday.Set two years after the original game, Black Monday once again takes the player into the depths of London's criminal underworld, but unlike a traditional sequel, Black Monday doesn't simply pick up where the story left off. Rather it is a new chapter in the series and it tells a new tale. Some bits will undoubtedly be familiar in their tone, but this is a new cast and crew for you to adventure with.
Weaving in and out amongst three characters and more than 20 chapters, the story starts off with a heist gone bad and never slows down. Players will find themselves controlling the roguish Eddie, special operations officer Mitch and sneaky Sam. An amateur boxer with a taste for getting physical, Eddie is the type of character who prefers the "in-your-face" approach to problem solving. Mitch, on the other hand, is better suited to gunplay and weapon usage, while svelte Sam uses her crafty creativity and small frame to bring a stealth approach to the game. Switching between the three styles promises to keep gameplay varied and intriguing.
The game begins the day after the heist (on a Tuesday) with the player controlling Mitch, who has only recently come off suspension. In keeping with the original game's cinematic flair, and borrowing a bit from the Tarintino method of storytelling, the plot in Black Monday isn't exactly linear. Instead, players will find themselves moving back and forth in time, experiencing one character's story, pausing at a cliffhanger and then moving on to the next chapter. While a bit disconcerting at first, this style does lend itself to a great deal of flexibility in fleshing out the details within the plot.
Gameplay appears to be quite open-ended, with the game giving the player a set of objectives for each chapter and leaving it up to you as to how you want to accomplish those objectives. Approximately 25 square miles of downtown London have been modeled for the game, leaving plenty of room for players to explore and hi-jinxs to unfold. The city is quite a bit more detailed in this iteration of the game, with real-life locations being accurately modeled including the famous London subway system, known as the "Tube" or the "Underground" by locals.
In a partnership with local officials, Team Soho was allowed access to the offices and maintenance tunnels of the Underground system which gave the developers the opportunity to model a portion of the system that is rarely seen by the public. One of the game levels has the player running through a closed section of track and it is downright eerie.
Getting behind the wheel is a core component of gameplay, with more than 140 different vehicles available for use. That is more than double the amount found in the original title. While the flexibility in transportation might evoke surface comparisons to the Grand Theft Auto franchise, such assertions would be incorrect. The development staff at Team Soho is focusing on a realistic feel for its vehicle handling models, as opposed to the arcade style action found in Rockstar's hit series. A highly detailed damage model will allow players to shoot out windows and tires, as well as ride a car down to the rims--in case you happen to be the one who's tires just got shot out.
In keeping with the cinematic aspect of the story, Black Monday has a heavy focus on digital actors. All of the scenes (including one harrowing bit of suspension torture) were filmed by actors in motion capture suits with digital bodies applied in post-production. Basic stunts were performed live, while more complex and dangerous feats (such as getting shot and falling off the side of a building) were created entirely on a computer system and then integrated into the game.
To help ensure an additional level of detail, all of the actors had their heads scanned into the game and mapped to their virtual counterparts. While some tweaking was done, the effect was quite impressive as the process helps capture each actor's natural quirks. Even more impressive was the fact that Team Soho has the ability to scan in an actor in mere minutes. Doing the same task on the original Getaway two years ago took nearly a week. With a cast of 20 actors, the time saved adds up rather quickly.
With an engaging story and well versed cast, The Getaway: Black Monday has a solid dramatic base from which to fashion a compelling game. So long as Team Soho spends as much time polishing the actual gameplay as it has the cinematics and overall world map, PlayStation 2 owners will have an action packed way to kick off the New Year. We'll have more on the game soon.
