Official Website

Platform: Playstation 2

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

* Note to parents. The Getaway: Black Monday is DEFINITELY not a game for children. This game features scenes of explicit violence and many adult themes. There is a reason that this game has a mature rating. Those parents that insist on buying this for their children without looking into the games content have only themselves to blame for the images their child will witness during the course of playing this game. Do not place blame on either Team Soho or Sony. There is a reason there is a ratings system in place *

Everyone wants to mirror the success that Rockstar has found with the Grand Theft Auto, and when Sony prepared to release the first Getaway title, quite a few critics and gamers were convinced that this was going to be just another cheap imitation. However, what many gamers found was that The Getaway had a depth of gameplay that went beyond what GTA offered, and the mature rating on the back definitely was needed as the game served up profanities at a degree that console games had never seen in the past, and it really opened a lot of doors that games never had available, though I still see some irony in the fact that when The Getaway was released, Sony had just requested that nudity was removed from BMX XXX, and ironically enough you'll find that Black Monday has nudity included.

The Getaway 2, or Black Monday, puts fans back in London two years after the original game, but in three different roles. As the game begins, you will play as Sgt. Mitchell who is working in the organized crime division of the Metropolitan Police. Mitchell and his team being their work by raiding a housing development in search of illegal drug traffickers, but the story begins to escalate form there. Soon the police begin to find that although it appears that London has grow calmer since the days of the Collin's gang, something bigger has been brewing. New organizations have been gaining a foothold in the London underworld, and something big is coming that will turn London upside-down.

It isn't just the police that are getting tangled up with the mob however. Enter Eddie O'Connor, an amateur boxer who has is going to attempt to obtain some rather items from the criminal underworld to gain a few extra pounds for his wallet. But, their job goes horribly wrong and now Eddie and one of his accomplices, Sam Thompson, find themselves wanted by both the mob and police and it's going to take more than just their wits to stay alive.

If you played the original game, in many ways you will be looking at the same style of gameplay, but with a few differences added in. The three different characters first off are where some of these will lie. Mitchell, being an officer of the law, has some of the main advantages, but you aren't going to have the option to simply select him or any other character. The games story will dictate all of this. Mitchell of course has immediate access to weapons, and like a few other games, you will only have two weapons at your disposal. Should you run out of ammo, and he will let you know when you're getting close, you can grab another weapon that may be lying around, but in a way, he's particular. Generally he will grab pistols and semi-automatic weapons, never rifles or weapons that can be used to bludgeon. And, as an officer of the law, Mitchell can also arrest criminals by cuffing them (the O button) and may add in a good hit to the face for good measure.

Eddie on the other hand may use weapons, but since he does have some rather extensive training as a boxer, he's not bad in a fist-to-face confrontation. All of those rifles that you've been dying to pick up though will be something that Eddie is quite pleased to use, but he also might make use of a bit of pipe as well. Sam on the other hand, form what I've seen, is more into the stealth style of getting around. She can sneak with the best of them and is an expert at gaining access to those areas that others might find themselves quickly spotted in. For any of the characters though, you can use the good old fashioned human shield tactic, something that your foes will make ample use of from time to time.

There are some other differences as well. In driving missions, Mitchell can do anything that he wants. Running down pedestrians that get in your way and smashing up other motors isn't too much of an issue, but in the case of the other characters, you may find that the law is quickly on your tail. Also, with the team of Eddie and Sam, you will find a stage or two where Eddie can pop out of the sunroof while Sam drives, pull out his semi-automatic and begin taking out Russian gangsters that are quickly trying to put an end to their lives. There's also the concept of "borrowing" cars. For Sam and Eddie, it's theft regardless of their true intent, but for Mitchell, he's a man with a badge, so taking a car is under police authority, no penalty involved here at all.

All the characters do have stealth or sneaking, though Sam really is much better than the guys are. Mitchell relies once again on his police training, so you can expect to see some stealth that is very akin to our friend Snake in the Metal Gear series. Healing is more or less the same and you can lean against a wall to recover, but also keep your eyes open for health kits as well.

With the first Getaway, one of the major problems was the length of the missions. There was nothing more annoying than realizing just how close you were to finishing and then getting popped in the back by a gang member. Well, that's not going to be as much of a problem. Each of the stages has an autosave point, so should you find yourself dead, you will start again at another point, not necessarily the beginning, though if you restart the stage or start at a later time after shutting down the PS2, you will find that you have to start at the beginning of that particular stage. I've also heard a few people complain that with the first Getaway, you couldn't skip cutscenes, something that is annoying for anyone who is going through a stage once again for the twentieth time. While it seems to be the case with Black Monday, try your 3 buttons (L or R.) At first, I thought this was a rather pointless location, but then I thought about it. There have been many games where I've hit start during a cutscene and then missed it all together, so honestly, having these buttons as the option to skip scenes makes perfect sense and avoids that issue.

Team Soho has once again gone to a lot of trouble to recreate a good portion of London in the game, something that we would see later in True Crime when LA was recreated. Having played the first Getaway, London hasn't changed too much, and in some instances there are areas that I recall visiting before, so navigating the streets isn't too terribly difficult, but that London traffic is a killer. The Getaway also features over 20 different weapons, real cars and motorcycles. Black Monday however looks even better than the original in some regards, but I did run across a few issues during gameplay.

First off, there are times where the characters heads just look far too big for their bodies. Team Soho did take time to do some good rendering using real actors, but there did seem to be some points where the design could have been a little better. At one point there was a major graphical glitch and the background, while not falling apart at the seams, began to show their different color and texture layers for a few second. Another big problem was trying to steal a car and the entire game just froze. This wasn't a brief moment, but something that required me completely reset the PS2, and even the old all four-shoulder buttons plus start and select didn't save me. However, in the defense of Black Monday, these have been rare occurrences and while annoying, it doesn't necessarily take away from the game itself, though I keep wondering if Mitchell is a super-deformed character from the Gundam universe at times.

Outside of the game and the story itself, which is very well done to say the least, you will find a few other types of gameplay included. Race mode as well as Chase are exactly what they sounds like while Black Cab is a nod to the GTA series where you will drive around London looking for passengers and collecting fares. Free Roam on the other hand will allow you to drive around the streets as you please and get a little more accustomed to the layout of the city.

Despite a few minor glitches that are easily forgivable, The Getaway: Black Monday is an excellent follow-up to the original game with yet another very intense and gripping storyline that will keep you wanting to play, not simply to take a few lives and trash the streets, but to find out what happens next. The sudden change in direction a look more or less at what happened prior to some of the events that Mitchell has experienced is a very interesting approach and leaves you a few times thinking, "oh, so that's what happened." And let's get one last thing straight, no matter what others might tell you, while The Getaway does have some things in common with GTA, it is not a rip-off of the popular series and stand well enough on its own. So, have at it, mate, the streets of London are yours and this is a Getaway unlike any other.

-mike-