The main selling point of The Getaway series the photo realistic representation of London is also it's main weakness. You see, the developers; Team Soho have invested thousands of man hours and huge amounts of Sony's money in creating this digital London, all with the correct shop signs etc etc, and so they are going to try and milk their little cash cow for as long as possible.
You would assume this would not be a problem for us consumers, HOWEVER, Team Soho's beautiful looking and seemingly ingenious cash cow is seriously flawed in that it is based upon a concept that was fresh in 1997 - with the the "Driver" series of games. Things have moved on greatly since then in terms of interactivity in digital metropolises think GTA San Andreas. It's not now enough to merely be able to drive through a city; you want to be able to interact with it, and be a part of it. In this respect The Getaway series fails utterly miserably.
In this game you soon become aware that you are merely driving through what are effectively a road system bordered by giant billboards with photo realistic shop fronts bitmapped onto them, like a series of tunnels ! The perspective is skewed so that no matter where you are, you can never see the roof of a single building. So immediately you know, that Team Soho can never update their baby to take San Andreas game mechanics because it would have to go and re-photo London's roof tops which would never be allowed in this current climate of fear. So we are stuck forever, or until people get wise, with them re-releasing the same game over and over.
Black Monday IS almost the same game as the original. Same map, just with different character locations for the plot added. The game now has three main playable characters, each with individual skills; Mitch the gun totting cop, Eddie the boxer; who has some nice combo punch moves, and Sam, a girl with Lara Croft like climbing abilities and a neat line in stealth.
The licensed car models are slightly improved, and they do look fantastic, and once you get used to their over-sensitive controls then they are fun to drive. The motorbikes however, are truly awful. They silently weave and lurch uncontrollably from once accident to the next. The character models also look fantastic, and have real time shadows as they run (or waddle to be precise).
THE most infuriating thing about the original game, and you would have thought it would have been resolved for this game, is that the abilities each character has especially the ability to jump over fences, would be implemented in "Free Roam Mode". But NO, it is not. The Millennium Wheel is still cut off, the Houses of Parliament are still inaccessible, ditto EVERYTHING of interest is inaccessible because in Free Roam Mode, you CAN'T jump over walls !!!! Eddie the boxer, can't even punch in Free Roam Mode !!
Free Roam Mode also has new game modes, Black Cab Driver, Chase, and Race, which are unlocked by finding key fobs on the floor in story mode. These enable to you to play Free Roam Mode as different non playable game characters. But all that really means is that you start on the map in a different location. Apparently there are also garages where you can store one vehicle dotted around the map.
As for the actual story mode, it is SO confusing, full of flashbacks and flash forwards, and seems to basically involve how the three main characters come to make enemies of stereotypical Russian arms dealer Viktor and his lock stock of movie cliché sidekicks Yuri and Dimitri. But it is SO SHORT !! I finished it in one sitting. And why is it called "The Getaway" ? The original game had a Getaway driver, but not this game ? They think consumers are stupid, truly they do. Another problem with the story mode is, as in the original, you often have absolutely no idea of what you are supposed to be doing, and countless times you will fail missions because you do not know what you are doing. In one mission where you are chasing a helicopter through the streets, a radio message comes over that says "stop the black Brabus". I had no idea what the heck a "Brabus" was it is a Mercedes car apparently, so on a road suddenly chock a block with black cars, how could I know what a Brabus looks like ?
So essentially Black Monday, is like a stereotypical supermodel; beautiful to look at, but ultimately shallow and un-involving once you get to know her. Time has moved on, and so having gaming expectations.
Rent, don't buy.
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