A satisfying follow up (The Getaway - Black Monday (PS2))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	The Getaway - Black Monday (PS2)
Date:	06/09/09 (4 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb visuals, remedies a lot of bugs

Disadvantages: None

The Getaway: Black Monday is a solid sequel to a game that didn't quite deliver on its hype as a GTA beater, but was nevertheless a solid game with some inventive gameplay touches and a very genuine level of difficulty. For this sequel, things have been toned down a bit, but mostly for the better, making this a more accessible sequel that's still got some great gameplay nuances and superb graphics for its time.

As much as the first game was a marvel on release, as is this game - it effectively captures the London cityscape and from first glance is also rather accurate with its placement of major landmarks. This is a living, breathing city, where every car is immaculately modelled, and the humans are a little more animated than a lot of crowd-related games - they will swear at you and get angry if you bother them or, dare I say, try to run them over! The cut scenes are also immensely well presented - they have a superb cinematic feel, and help reinforce the urgency of each mission before you start it.

Unlike the previous game, this sees you swapping between characters quite regularly, both as a copper, and as a baddie with a heart of gold, and there are some branching narrative moments throughout, particularly at roughly the middle point, which gives the game greater replay value, as you may want to go through at least a second time to see how the other side turns out.

Much like the previous game, there are numerous missions, although I did find the game a lot more forgiving than the previous game thankfully, which got rather devious by the seventh or eighth mission. Instead, this is mostly do-able after two or three tries, and an autosave feature has also been added, meaning that if you die, you don't have to play through half an hour of stuff you breezed again, only to die at the same point. This very much focuses on gamer satisfaction, and mostly succeeds in this regard.

Summary: A more user-friendly outing this time around