The Getaway (PS2) | 
 enlarge | From: Sony
Category: Video Games
List Price: £14.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £14.98 (100%)
New (10) Used (26) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  153 reviews
Sales Rank: 6904
Platform: Playstation2
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
ESRB: Adults Only
Media: Video Game
Number Of Items: 1
Age: 18 - 18 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 711719634515
EAN: 0711719633617
ASIN: B0000AN1C2
Release Date: September 19, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: 100% working In stock. Dispatched from United Kingdom first class delivery usually 2-3 days from order complete with instruction booklet. International delivery available
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Amazon.co.uk Review
The Getaway is basically Grand Theft Auto III/Vice City in London, albeit with a stronger storyline, slightly less variety and a slightly different control system. You start the game in the rhythm and blues (shoes) of ex-cockney gangster Mark Hammond, who has to watch as his trouble and strife (wife) is killed and his dustbin lid (kid) kidnapped. As the game begins you tear off in hot pursuit along the impressively detailed fields of wheat(s) (streets) of London. The driving is a notch more realistic than GTA's in terms of handling and the damage your jam jar (car) can take; this realism means The Getaway is not so immediately appealing as the GTA games, but it manages to be amusing enough since you're still allowed to run over people and half-inch (pinch) their cars. Where the game is unquestionably better than GTA is in on-foot combat. This features much tighter controls, including two aiming modes and a wall-hugging option like that of Metal Gear Solid. No doubt Sony are also under the impression that the story is far superior to GTA's rather amorphous narrative, but it's certainly an acquired taste, featuring as it does enough non-subtle language, mockney accents and poor dialogue to make even Guy Ritchie blanch. In terms of freedom of movement The Getaway is more restrictive than GTA--but what it loses in freedom it gains in tighter gameplay and, of course, the ability to drive on the right (i.e., left) side of the road without the Old Bill getting in a how's your father. --David Jenkins
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| Customer Reviews: Read 148 more reviews...
 The good and the bad June 1, 2008
Overall not a bad game at all: good storyline and the London layout is superb. But driving in this game can be pretty awful; not only is the lag very bad at times but when you crash into a car it often sticks like glue to your car. In other games such as GTA you can just bulldoze cars out of the way, but not in this game.
Its a mix November 11, 2007
This game is good for its exceptional storyline, the graphics of the huge London setting and the controls (which include everything from grabbing human shields to using a doorway to gauge where the enemy is).
The problems lie in two areas. The directions - rather than a GTA style map, the car indicators will flicker instructing you to turn down roads. Its too easy to get very lost and very angry. Your sent into dead ends and told to turn where there is no road.
The other thing is the damage taken by cars, they are not very robust, and a few good hits mean your car is knackered/burning
But its all made up for in the mad action, the imaginative missions and being put in the heart of london!
 A GANGSTER MASTERPIECE September 5, 2007
Retired gangster Mark Hammond (Don Kembry) is jolted into action one morning when he hears a gun-shot from outside his home. He races outside to find his wife lying dying on the ground and his son being kidnapped. When his wife dies in his arms, he races off to chase those responsible and to get his son back, only to leave the murder weapon behind at the scene and for a witness to see him in a suspicious position. The chase leads him to the warehouse base of aging local crimelord Charlie Jolson (Ricky Hards) where he learns the reason behind his son's abduction- he is to visit a haunt owned by his former associates, The Collins Crew, and 'let them know they're no longer friends' if he wants his son returned safely. Fearful of the wrath of his former friends but hellbent on getting his son back, Mark agrees and does the job. But then he learns that this is to be just the first of a series of 'missions' that Charlie wants him to do in exchange for his son's life that will see him hitting all of the city's most feared crime gangs, including The Triads (14K) and the brutal Jamaican dope peddlers The Yardies, that by the end of the day will have him the most hunted man in London- on both sides of the law!
Meanwhile, Detective Frank Carter (Joe Rice) of London's Flying Squad, is on a stake-out with his partner, who ends up fighting for his life in hospital when him and Frank get involved in a shoot-out inside one of Charlie's badly run-down old brothels. This sets the loose-cannon Frank on a hellbent mission to bring Jolson down, only to encounter suspicious interference from some of his superior officers. By the end of the day, him and Mark Hammond's paths have crossed- and it all builds up to an explosive final showdown!
To be honest, I can't remember the last video game I managed to play all the way to the end and, in turn, really derive the most enjoyment out of, so The Getaway has been quite an experience for me. As many others have noted, it's as much an interactive movie as a video game with large 'break scenes' in between the levels which play just like a movie. This helps to move the story along nicely and doesn't interfere with the game in any way. The main objectives of the game seem to be chasing and shooting, and it's certainly quite a violent game. Indeed, as Mark Hammond, before I managed to complete each level as him I'd been killed in a variety of different ways, including being shot to death, run-over, burned alive, hacked to death, scorched, stabbed to death, poisoned, crushed by a crate and arrested! Although, to be fair, some levels do require a bit more than simple shooting. There's one or two 'evade detection' levels where you have to skillfully move around places without being spotted by any one as well as a couple of levels where you have to chase after another vehicle down a busy London street and ram it off the road. You must keep it in your sights or lose the game, as well as keeping on top of it and really slamming into it to achieve your objective. These levels are actually quite fun when you get the hang of them.
Yasmin (Anna Edwards), who is re-introduced into the game in Level 7 (though how she became separated from the rest of Charlie's thugs in the first place is a bit of a mystery) is a cool sidekick, sassy, feisty and hard as nails, but as a sidekick she can be a curse as well as a blessing sometimes, because with no way of removing her (and for a supposed professional killer?) she gets herself killed too easily in one or two levels and when you get out your car on chase segments of the game to shoot at rival crooks and cops who just will not get off your back, when you've finished shooting and get back in the car, you have to drive the passenger side of the car up so it's right by her before she'll get back in, when she's shot every crook/cop within a ten mile radius! Another frustration of the game is that there's no way of skipping past the break scenes on any of the levels, so when you've used a memory card to save the level you've reached on, and you're eager to get cracking and have another go at reaching the end of it, you always have to sit past it again and after a while it does grind you down a bit. The Frank Carter levels are just as exciting in their own right but after making it through Hammond's levels and getting to grips with the game, to be honest I found myself just breezing through them, only getting stuck on one or two levels and not for very long.
The 28 square miles of London that have been re-created are impressively done, really bringing the city to life in all it's gory glory, from it's glitzy promenades to it's iffy backs-streets. But one thing that bugged me were a few technical problems the game displayed (you seem to see the same people walking down the streets and shooting at you in the villain haunts that you did on every other level!) But what a minor complaint to make on what is generally an excellent game. I hear it's very similar to the Grand Theft Auto series but I've never played any of those games yet and so wouldn't be able to say. But as a game on it's own, it's great fun and a pleasure to play to the end. ****
Gripping stuff June 14, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this game for my 21st birthday in January 2004, and finished it in February this year. I got stuck in the mission inside Charlie Jolson's mansion but when I got some internet help, I finally completed it earlier this year. Graphics are brilliant, gameplay is realistic and, all in all, it is a truly absorbing game. Highly recommended.
Ever seen Lock, Stock and two smoking barrells? August 23, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
How many of us have sat and watched lock stock and two smoking barrells or four stolen hooves (The TV version) and have dreamt of a proper London gangster game. Probably everyone. Then team soho were the answers to or prayers, with the creation of the getaway.
For anyone who feels the same as me, play the damn game!! This is the true and gritty urban lfestyle of a retired Bethnal green gangster, who is forced into the bloody warfare of London gangs after being framed for his wifes murder. Follow the story as Mark Hammond, an unhinged cop killing gangster. Play him through 12 levels of pure blood and pain, leading Mark eventually toe-to-toe with his protagonists in one of the best endings to a game I have ever seen.
Or play as DC Nick Carter, a maverick east-end copper on the trail of one of the most dangerous families in London. Forge the reluctant alliance between Mark and DC Carter, and be blooming proud to be English!
The one thing that annoys me about Brittish games such as the getaway and fable (Albeit Fable 2 is being made in the U.S)
is that the damn Yanks aboslutley slate the games in magazines and reviews. Maybe the donut eating, cheeseburger devouring Americans cannot see the quality of a gangster game that does not involve rip offs of Marlon Brando, and some wierd Italian family.
For me the game is far better than the GTA series, but I do not want to over sell the game. If you are tempted even slightly by my review then get the game, however if you are not intersted in damn hard 3rd person shooters then do not waste your money.
P.S - God Save the Queen!!
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