The Getaway (Forgotten Gems)
4Mark Hammond is an ex-gangster who wants to forget his past and live honestly with his wife and little son. Everything goes horribly wrong when London's most vicious criminal, the organized crime boss Charlie Jolson, decides that he needs Mark's services and obtains them in a twisted and cruel way: Mark's wife is murdered, he is framed for this murder, and his child gets kidnapped.
Jolson makes it clear: unless Mark does what he orders him to do, the boy dies. Using the helpless man in his plan to bring down other criminal organizations of the city, Jolson sends Mark on suicidal missions during which Mark has three terrible choices: walk away and lose his son, get killed in a battle against overwhelming odds, or single-handedly help Jolson to get rid of his adversaries.
Once the player completes Mark Hammond's story, a new scenario opens, in which the player controls Frank Carter, a vigilante cop who won't stop until he brings Charlie Jolson to justice. Frank's scenario is parallel to Mark's, shedding more light on events that remain somewhat unexplained during Mark's scenario.
The Getaway is a hybrid of driving and third-person shooter gameplay, similar in concept to Grand Theft Auto III. London has been digitally recreated for this game, and the player can explore it freely on foot or driving a vehicle. Unlike GTA III, missions follow each other linearly, dictated by the plot. The game is more story-driven and does not have any free-roaming activities. Many of the driving sequences also have a time limit, restricting free exploration.
Each mission usually consists of a driving section, which requires the player to drive to a certain destination (sometimes chasing another vehicle or being chased by enemies), and a third-person shooter section, often with an additional driving section afterwards. Police or rival gangs will frequently pursue the protagonist. The player can hijack any car or bus from the streets, or move on foot.
Third-person shooter sequences are longer and more prominently featured than the corresponding sections of GTA III. The protagonist can perform a variety of moves: sneak, crouch, roll to the sides, etc. A few missions are completely stealth-oriented, and are failed if the player character is discovered by enemies. It is possible to use the butt of the gun as a melee weapon, and also take hostages to prevent the police from shooting at the player character.
The game's distinguishing visual feature is a total absence of visible interface and text feedback. Rather than consulting a map, the player follows the car's blinking lights to arrive at the right destination. Damage taken by the protagonist is indicated by the character bending over, walking slower, and having blood on his clothes. Health is recovered by resting (leaning against a wall); there are no health kits scattered around. The protagonist can carry only two small or one larger weapon at once.
Developer: Team SOHO
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release Date: 11 December 2002
Development
The game took almost three years to make. The development team recreated 40 square kilometers (about 25 square miles) of central London, in which the game is based. Over 500,000 images were taken by the developers of the London streets and locations featured in the game.
Interface
The game did not feature any on-screen indicators as to how much health, ammo, or time you had left:
When you got shot/hurt in the game, your character would bleed through their clothing and limp, holding their chests. The amount of blood on your clothes and speed you moved at indicated how much damage you'd sustained. When you rested against a wall (there are no health kits in the game), you regained your health.
Your character could use 2 pistols or 1 machine gun/shotgun at a time. When the machine gun/shotgun emptied out, your character would drop the empty gun and pull out their pistol(s). When you ran low on pistol ammo, your character would drop one pistol, indicating that you were running low on ammo and that you need to find ammo fast!
On timed driving missions, the in-game music would indicate how much time you had left to finish your mission. The music got more and more urgent as the mission progressed until you either finished the level or passed the time limit and it was time to try again.
An interesting little touch in the driving missions, instead of an arrow on screen telling you which way to go, as with Crazy Taxi, before you came up to an intersection, the indicators on the car would flash telling you whether you needed to go left or right. If no indicators were flashing, you were headed in the right direction. If you were headed in the opposite direction, one would flash until you turned 180 degrees. When you got to where you were supposed to be going, both would flash (your hazard lights) to indicate you should stop, exit the car and explore.
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