Creatively speaking, the fact that they used zero UI elements (except for subtitles) and built all of the gameplay around that idea deserves huge applause from me. It’s an amazing approach to increasing immersion, I very much appreciate.
To give another anecdote about how accurate the in-game London is; my dad is a black cab driver and was doing The Knowledge at the time this released. When he saw me playing and realised how accurate it was, he’d get me to steal a taxi and he would use the game to revise routes for his exams. He credits the game with helping him become a black cab driver, that’s how accurate it is.
@ Pretty much, especially the second one with extra freedom. Obviously it didn’t tell him if a road was one-way or had roadworks etc, but for general routes? Was there best thing there was outside of a road map and when Google Maps became a thing
I’ve spent 18 of my 21 years alive living in London and genuinely I’ve never seen such a realistic portrayal of a real city in an open world game let alone my home city. They nailed everything from real life streets to real shops and licensed cars from the time period. It’s just something that could never be created today and for that these games will always hold a special place in my heart
Exploring places in video games that you’ve been to in real life is always a cool experience, let alone for you to live in that city. The closest for me was playing Yakuza after I visited Tokyo, it was surreal how close they captured the “vibe” and feel of Tokyo.
The Getaway is the best portrayal of London in a game bar none. If you live or work in london and play this game, you'll be amazed to see all the little shops they put in this game. Curry's, WHSmith, Jessops, Mcdonalds, Pizza Hut, Boots etc, it's crazy. I don't think it would happen these days due to copyright
The fact Michael Cera's character (Evan) in Superbad was playing The Getaway Black Monday in that film, is cool enough. I remember watching it as a young kid, and thinking it was great, these games are Team Soho's masterpieces, even tho London Studio did develop Black Monday, and a remastered collection or remake would be dope, honestly, I'm glad to see more people talking about these games again, and thanks for doing this video Gman.
@@pointlessendeavors5653you mean driving on the side of the carriage way so you as a carriage driver could defend yourself with your right hand (sword hand) from highway men. Yeah we did shit real. Yanks just rode on the right to do with farming or some bullshit.
I remember the national gaming magazines praised the game for its accuracy but I didn't really believe that until I saw more and more londoners saying it's almost 1:1. Amazing games even if they're flawed, was just replaying Black monday last night
@@bigman88george3 He wanted to train Doug, then he discovered his PlayStation 2. He said that The Getaway was his favorite videogame. It was an episode of season 7.
Forgot to mention that Don Kembry (Mark Hammond) made the TINIEST cameo appearance in L.A. Noire. He plays a boxer who's last name is also Hammond. I got the BIGGEST dopamine rush when I saw his face and ESPECIALLY when I heard his voice 🥹🥹🥹🥹
One of this game's sequels (Gangs of London) was later adapted into a TV show produced by Gareth Evans, the guy who directed The Raid 1 and 2. Wildly violent stuff.
No, he means there was a true Getaway 3 being developed for the PS3 that was eventually scrapped for reasons I can't remember. I recall seeing a trailer for a much more graphically advanced London at E3 06 or 07 @@fruitylerlups530
Driving On The Wrong Side Of The Road While Committing Crime Simulator 1 and 2 hold a special, janky-ass place in my heart. Thanks for reviewing this one, Gman
The Getaway, Sleeping Dogs, Yakuza. So many games get falsely labeled GTA clones even though you can clearly tell they aren't if you actually play the game for more than 5 minutes.
That's just the way it is. GTA & R* are the daddy of open world crime games, anything similar is naturally going to be compared to it. Unfortunately, the less intelligent among us are going to write those games off as nothing more than a copy that isn't worth their time, but there's nothing we're going to do about that. I'm a huge GTA fan but I've always loved playing the games that are inspired by it. The first two Saints Row games were some of my favorites when I was younger & I absolutely loved Sleeping Dogs. I even had a lot of fun with the first two Watch Dogs games, just the list a few.
It's remarkable what this studio did with photograph based textures and baked liting. Back then this game looked photoreal especially if you'd ever seen England. It looks like GTA V just in low resolution.
Not being able to heal in BM is actually a weird intentional feature. You can only refill around 150 HP (I think) by resting, after that and you can't rest at all until the next mission or after dying and loading a checkpoint. (There is a health cheat, often mislabeled as double health that does actually allow you to rest forever like the first game.) This is why wall-mounted medkits exist since they allow you to heal without resting. (and annoyingly don't restore your resting health.) It's a mechanic I'm not a fan of, especially since on numerous instances Black Monday "silently" moves you from mission to mission (such as one mission ending inside a building and a new one starting as you exit) so it's never clear when your resting health is actually restored. (As well as some levels having nearly no medkits.)
Made by Brendan McNamara, the guy behind LA Noire, another technical miracle ahead of its time, featuring highly detailed, but devoid of activities recreation of a large city, a huge leap in actor scanning and motion capture for gaming, attention to detail and serious atmosphere, realistic, immersive gameplay and relative lack of humor. There is very little known about the man, and his career seems to have halted since then. 😟
According to some developers of Team Bondi, he's an asshole to work with. That's mostly the reason why LA Noire was dropped by Sony and bought by Rockstar. The team was bleeding talent like crazy and R* basically finalized the whole thing by bringing in their devs and managers and sidelining McNamara. Apparently his latest project was a sort of sequel of LA Noire called "Wh*re of the Orient" set in 1930s Shanghai and published by WB Games. The project got cancelled from what I've heard.
He founded Videogames Deluxe, who made the VR LA Noire game and the updated version of GTA Definitive Edition. They’re 4 years into developing an open world game for Rockstar as well.
Pushing the boundaries of what consoles were capable of and taking risks is what games used to be about. Sorry to get all ''back in my day'' on this, but it was better then and I am tired of pretending that it wasn't. There are high end PS3 games that still blow out of the water what the PS5 is doing today.
Totally agree, the same way that the VAST majority of xbox 360 games blow anything on the series x out of the water. To this day, there isnt a game that comes even remotely close to being as replayable as something like Left 4 Dead 2 for example.
And also, games actually worth playing dont come out nearly as often as back then. Nowadays, you wait 6 plus years for a game that just turns out to be broken at launch, missing promised features, or just straight up lied too through deceptive marketing.
It's always been a mystery why this game isn't widely heralded as a classic among general consensus, absolutely blew me away as a kid, especially one from south west England who'd never seen a big city before. Getting to experience such an exaggerated & heightened version of the capital through essentially lock, stock : the game, was an absolute blast and I'm genuinely surprised the IP has never been revived, especially with so much time between GTA games
By far one of my favorite games of that generation. But also the most frustrating game ever. Not being able to pan the camera around was the biggest gripe I had about it next to the bullet sponge enemies. But the driving wasn't too bad and the fact that everything was set in a realistic setting made it more immersive to me at the time. Yeah, it's a little like GTA but it's its own identity at the same time. The story of the game I did like and how both Hammond and Carter have a similar goal. I feel like the short comings that were in this game they sort of fixed in the second one. It took me a few years to finish the first game. I remember just getting so frustrated with it, it collected dust on my shelf when I was playing other games like Vice City and San Andreas. I think it's one of those games that is much more appreciated with age.
The licensed cars are still such an impressive part of these games. Most games like this can't pull that off, I still don't understand how they got manufacturers to agree to this. Most of them don't want to see their cars getting smashed or shot at. Seeing Mitsubishi in the second game made me so happy as well. Seeing the Evos & more importantly for me the 3000gts was just surreal in a game like this. I'm still driving a 3000gt VR4 to this day, I can't get over those cars lol.
That's crazy. Like five minutes ago I was watching a video about NFS Most Wanted and felt nostalgic as hell about it. Then I remembered The Getaway again, after five years trying to emulate it on my pc with HORRIBLE PERFORMANCE. It brings so much nostalgia, this, and the Black Monday game. Obviously, I just typed The Getaway analysis and stumbled upon this video made posted 7 hours ago.
The NPC environment in both Getaway games is definitely a whole new level from even GTA San Andreas. But chalk that up to two separate visions. I don't remember either Getaway games leaving town or letting you cheat spawn a Harrier jet!
I really wish they'd bring this series back. It was one of the best games ever made. 2 was ok. Hopefully with the show Gangs of London being successful one day we may see a remake.
I remember playing it on my PS2 and thinking it was the most realistic looking game I've ever seen 😮 funny how times change and graphics always improve 😂 I will never forget the getaway
I remember playing Final Fantasy 8 for the first time as a kid, and seeing the FMV for the first time, and I thought it was barely distinguishable from real life 😄 A few years later, I didn't think it could get much more realistic that MGS2. Man have things changed
The thing that I will always remember about this game was that British Telecom threatened to sue the developer for using its logo on the side of a van in the pre-release demo. Normally I wouldn't have much sympathy for a corporation crying over product placement, but said van was being used in an assassination mission so perhaps they had a point.
I think it's also because you go into a police station dressed a telecoms engineer and then murder a copper (Detective). I think that probably had more to do with it.
I remember playing this, ever time your dude started shooting at someone he would say, "ave some of dat" in a British accent over and over. It's still burned in my brain. Like Nam 67 and the Vietcong dudes saying, "Ima get you GI" in the most comical accent. Games from this era had the worst/best overused voice lines.
I absolutely loved this series. I bought a PS3 at launch because The Getaway 3 was supposed to be coming out soon after. I was so pissed when that game got canned.
I still have my PS2 and all the games I collected to play on it. It's hooked up along with my other systems. One of my favorite games on PS2 is 'Cold Winter', an FPS but as a lone infiltrator on a mission to take down a 'Deep State' organization, like the 'Enclave', but late-90's Cold War think. It's a really fun and interesting game, with excellent graphics, realistic guns, and good sound. I'm surprised it isn't better known as I've never seen it reviewed.
@@SnakeMyshkin Cool! You remember it. I was into 'BLACK' as well. That was a great FPS. I even had to copy the DVD because I wore out the original. The spindle hole started cracking away.
I was so hyped for The Getaway 3 (and Eight Days) that they were one of the primary reasons I even got my PS3 in 2008. Then both wound up getting canceled. You can still find some of the trailers on youtube. They made a VR game that was kinda sorta vaguely Getaway adjacent iirc, but not really a Getaway game.
The Getaway is an amazing piece of retro gaming (crazy to say it's retro but that's a fact). When I first played it I was 10 or 11 and it was a collision with a concrete wall compared to how simple and breeze GTA games are. No HUD, no map (only paper print) no hints, tutorial, nothing at all. You're just being thrown into the water and you gotta figure out how to swim yourself. Shame the driving physics was a bit funky but aside from that the game was amazing regardless. I decided to play it again couple of months ago on PS2 slim and it's still kicking my ass. It's difficult but gives a lot of joy. Shame they didn't decide to release third game, we only saw trailers. Rumors say Playstation Home was launched instead on the foundations of what was supposed to be the PS3 release of the new Getaway title.
It's wild how in that first game's clips there's almost no textures and very simple environmental design... barely above a PS1, and in just a few years time we're getting insane detail and depth... the early 2000s were definitely a time of very fast improvements in tech and graphics.
As someone who played this game for so long that I used to feel like I knew how to get anywhere like I do now in GTA I need to say this: This is not a GTA clone this is a Guy Ritchie Simulator
When you said you recover health by leaning against a wall, I thought you meant in a cool, “having a smoke break” way. Didn’t expect him doubled over on the wall fighting off a heart attack
I bear this back in the day on PS2, and while I liked the British crime setting and game overall, tons of fun exploring the virtual London, it was undoubtedly a test of frustration getting through. I haven't heard that game over tune in over 20 years, but instantly it unlocked some deep buried memories.
My God, finally someone did a good, long and very well explaining video about my beloved Getaway. The Getaway Black Monday is my whole childhood, I played like 10 hours a day until I remembered every corner of London :)
I loved the health regen system. You would allow your character to lean up on any wall to take a breath. I still have my old original and Black Monday copies.
I played the first game a lot as a kid and I was able to beat the game after many attempts and also with help from a PS2 magazine that came with a guide which saved me. I played a lot of Driver and Driver 2 so when this came out, I got used to more "realistic" driving and eventually I got a steering wheel and pedals to drive around London and try and follow the rules in free roam which was surprisingly really fun. I always thought for some reason that the game knew the weather cause when I'd do free roam, sometimes it was clear and sometimes cloudy as all hell. But turns out it's just London lol. I was stoked when the sequel came out. I read about it in PS2 magazines and eventually got it pre-owned at ebgames (could've been Electronics Boutique at that point!) and when I first booted up the game and noticed the frame rate went to shit it was like "oh damn". However I still played through all of it and enjoyed the upgrades and characters but ultimately I kept going back to the first game for some reason. Also I am under the impression that L.A Noire used the same engine that The Getaway was made on except heavily modified. Due to Brendan McNamara being the lead for all 3 games it kind of makes sense but I can't confirm this. Thanks for bringing back a bit of my childhood where I didn't understand half of what they all said :/ I enjoyed this video heaps. Keep em coming gman!
What a blast from the past! I remember playing this when it was released and was blown away by the graphics lol I remember it being really bloody hard! But I was a kid back then
Yeah there was a demo disc on the official PS2 mag. The demo version the bodies would disappear when shot and blood stains, while the real game the bodies would stay in their locations and the blood stains on the walls would stay around.
I have a friend who's Dad worked for Sony at the time, I think he was the Art director for them both. I distinctly remember seeing the framed platinum Discs in his office.
I legit had gotten these both recently for my ps2 bc I found them finally in good condition and for cheap Edit: such great games, both feel like a movie that is fully interactive Best way to advance through these games missions is by paying close attention to detail to what’s going on around you, mainly from other characters dialogue and if you’re struggling to advance due to the gun fights, in the second game, use the cover system to its full advantage, for instance you can heal while in cover, that has you kneel behind it, which as well will let you pre aim and fire a few rounds in between healing. Also healing on a wall is only available when you’re not in danger/combat zone and will only work if the wall is two times the height as you (both games are like this, I read that in the help menu), where kneeling behind cover will heal you regardless of the situation.
I've been realizing how much I miss this era of gaming! I miss having Xtreme sports games, Wacky sports games & Pure over the top insanity kind of video games. Can the industry PLEASE bring this back! I miss how unique gaming was thru 90's-00's. There's this obsession with realism now, & ray tracing, 4k resolution. Did they forget how important stuff like physics effects, rag doll effects, using creative art styles, satisfying movement, intriguing gameplay mechanics, unique damage effects and interactive environments. Having a game with a variety of different gameplay modes. Current games are way too focused on the wrong stuff and they forget they're making a game that is supposed to be fun & appealing. Did the industry forget what fun & visually appealing is? I wish we could see a massive improvement in the ways video games can be made. I swear the fact game development is so unintuitive it restricts a lot of creativity and limits how many people actually end up working on making video games..
Only played Black Monday back then and it was fun but the stealth parts were rough, but I never gave up on games tbh I made sure to play them to the ground with the few I got. Oh yeah SURPRISINGLY they dubbed it in Portugal and dare I say it wasn't bad at all for 2004, hearing them swear in my language back then felt refreshing lmao.
Very surprised to see you cover these games, glad to see they have been getting a lot of coverage lately. Visually and technically incredibly impressive for their time
I love this game! I waited years for it to come out while the screenshots shown pre-release looked photo realistic. Driving around in my Alfa Romeo 156 was really fun. The cars in this game are not "based" on real cars, they are licensed models.
I wrote a very similar comment but later in the video he does acknowledge that they are licensed cars. It was just poor wording on his part the first time it gets brought up.
One of my absolute favorite games of the era. I love the fact they used the real car names and emblems somehow. Also love there is no hud everything is displayed immersivly.
I discovered it on my Steam Deck this year and I loved it. The graphics, the fact there is no UI, the story that takes itself seriously. I find it very inspiring and it made want to do a clone of it of some sort.
Ahh yes… good ol’ getaway, the game that set my early open world standards high and forever scarred my 8 or so year old self for life thanks to the intro cinematic. I no longer own a ps2 but I still have this game (amongst other classics) in my collection because there that good
I agree in some aspects it's underappreciated, and I owned this game on release. The main issue I had with the original Getaway, was the pedestrians and bugs. Too many times when you had a car that had sirens on it, or if you were playing as Carter; the NPC's would stop, stare at your car speeding towards them, and side-step with pinpoint accuracy into your bonnet, just as mentioned in the video @ 18:06. Wrecking your car and potentially breaking certain missions with timers, which would be a lot of them. I think I played the free-roam option of the game more than the main story modes. Great memories. Shame it wasn't realised in another form on modern consoles. Too many games are Americanised or aren't set in the UK.
Well yeah, modern UK just isn't too pleasing to look at. People don't want to play in Livingston, they want to play in NY, Asian cities, exotics places, ect.
This series blew me away when I picked up 1 and 2 on sale and impulse. Just an amazing story, and too damn fun to play despite the drawbacks. The healing mechanics was a trip. This is one I’d like to see someone try to remake. It’s like a good Ritchie movie. Fits in right there with Lock Stock, Snatch, Rock n Rolla.
Both of these games need a proper remaster. Both titles were too taxing for PS2 emulation on a PS3, really. They run slow as snails. The voice acting of the german dubbing of the first titel is phenomenal, though.
No wonder Capcom was motivated to develop RE4, Ashley as Get away Black Monday , Sam. I wasn't allow to play those games under the age of 17 , good times watching one my elder brother played those getaways.
Was far too young to be playing this game when I was 9, I didn’t know that the indicator on the cars directed you to your missions and had to get my big sister to help me on the very first mission 😂 wish there were more gritty, violent and realistic games like this now. Sunk so many hours into these games. I’m originally from Scotland and moved to London when I was 17 the map is so accurate it is unbelievable. Way ahead of its time
I'm pretty sure it's tradition for everybody in the UK who grew up in the 2000s to have this and black Monday. definitely a Hidden gem internationally and I would love a remaster or a remake to come out now although given some of the themes I don't think they would
There's nothing wrong with any of the themes if you're a well-adjusted adult. We just need to stop listening to people who are chronically online complaining about everything. Things shouldn't have to be dumbed down & censored for an overly vocal minority of people.
what always amazed me about this game is that they used real shops in their real locations. Basically they just went around london and took photos of the shopfronts and used them in the game. Curry's, WHSmith, Jessops, Mcdonalds, Pizza Hut, Boots etc etc. It's really surreal if you live or work in London and played this game
Whoa, I've never heard of this game until now. But the animations, ploygonal and graphical fidelity on this game are almost like looking at a _very_ low settings PS3 title. Which don't get me wrong. For the PS2 hardware, that is high praise and a mighty impressive feat to have accomplished.
I guess The Getaway was like a hard UK gangster movie and the next near thing True Crime: SOLA was like a cheese B-Copmovie. Also with a real life City.
It’s amazing what they did with 480p and 16:9 and the Emotion engine. Now we’ve got 2160p, HDR10 and 120hz VRR displays being ran by GPUs that have more RAM than the PS2+PS3+360 combined and it’s an event when we get a halfway decent game from a AAA developer 😂. They missed a golden opportunity to include all the garbage cars British Leyland made and all the “Zombie knives” the BBC is always fear mongering about. It would have been cool if the Luty was an unlockable SMG.
I don't know why, but I seem to remember having my indicators break in the game leading me to ditch an otherwise perfectly good vehicle for some shitbox with working lights so I could know where the fuck I had to go. 🤷♂️
These two games have a special place in my heart. Seriously, I loved those games as a teenager and thought about replaying them. Edit: Too bad there was never a third game and Sony doesn't do anything with the IP.
I loved this game when it came out, it took me a lifetime of deaths to figure out that leaning against walls recovered your health
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I remember reading about both games in a magazine I used to collect back in the day, but I don't think I ever played any of them. I also remember an interview years later when someone who worked on the game mentioned that most people missed the lean against a wall to recover health mechanic, and thought the game was really hard because it "had no healing items". Anyway, seems like these would be great material for a modern remake.
Haha I'll never forget buying Black Monday and me and my mates playing it later that night while having a blaze and us having to stop playing it cos of how massive half of the characters heads were. I never finished that game. Played the living fuck outta the first one. Used to smoke a spliff and just drive around in free roam for hours. Also; we still call a forward roll a 'Hammond Roll'. You had to be there...
I played and competed this hole game not knowing you could stand against a wall and heal. Wasn't till I went to friends and saw him do it that I knew. It was near on impossible but 13 year old me got it done. This game is amazing for it's day
My lasting memory of the first game was struggling all the way through to the last mission on the boat, getting stuck and being on the brink of giving up, only to see my character rest up against the wall and heal his wounds. No idea how I managed to miss that mechanic for 95% of the game xD
Here's what you don't know: The Getaway 3 was in development for the PS3. There was even a tech demo from 2005. And not only would the game be sit in London, it would also be set in Amsterdam. To me, it would've been Snatch and Lock Stock meets Layer Cake. Two teaser trailers are still there. Months ago, some spokesperson from PlayStation said that they don't have enough IPs. Well, either they're stupid or forgot their old IPs, The Getaway was one of them. And with the death of London Studio, the third installment's chances are low. "In the quiet words of a Virgin Mary, come again?"
Absolutely adore the real storefronts used in this game really adds to the weird ps2 simulacrum of London that and the suicidal pedestrian London is just like that
I always found the True Crime series to be ahead of its time. Its like a hilariously over the top version of the early GTAs with a focus on hand to hand combat and maaaan I remember loving that shit on ps2
This was the FIRST game I played where I can remember the F bomb being dropped without being somewhat censored. I remember having my mouth drop at that point because it really did feel like things were going to change from then on when it came to swearing in games.
I’m glad you finally covered this game. I remember keeping track of it up until release and was excited to dive in. When I started playing it I thought at first it was awful but the more I played the more it sucked me in. The sequel was great too I loved the characters and the story in it more than the first one.
8:00 reverb fart
How? 1 day ago comment but the video is uploaded 2 mins ago??
Literally the only reason why i'm wathing his videos. Thank you soldier o7
You’re the hidden reverb fart finder in all of gmanlives videos lmao
@@Bwethhh Embrace Gobbins. Reject ActualPie
Day 18 of asking Gmanlives to play my FPS game: Death Delivery on steam
Creatively speaking, the fact that they used zero UI elements (except for subtitles) and built all of the gameplay around that idea deserves huge applause from me. It’s an amazing approach to increasing immersion, I very much appreciate.
To give another anecdote about how accurate the in-game London is; my dad is a black cab driver and was doing The Knowledge at the time this released. When he saw me playing and realised how accurate it was, he’d get me to steal a taxi and he would use the game to revise routes for his exams.
He credits the game with helping him become a black cab driver, that’s how accurate it is.
That's mad. So it became a taxi driver SIM for him.
@ Pretty much, especially the second one with extra freedom. Obviously it didn’t tell him if a road was one-way or had roadworks etc, but for general routes? Was there best thing there was outside of a road map and when Google Maps became a thing
I’ve spent 18 of my 21 years alive living in London and genuinely I’ve never seen such a realistic portrayal of a real city in an open world game let alone my home city. They nailed everything from real life streets to real shops and licensed cars from the time period. It’s just something that could never be created today and for that these games will always hold a special place in my heart
Exploring places in video games that you’ve been to in real life is always a cool experience, let alone for you to live in that city. The closest for me was playing Yakuza after I visited Tokyo, it was surreal how close they captured the “vibe” and feel of Tokyo.
Played this in my youth and loved it. Didnt even notice the jank. Just thought it was the best game ever. Especially that hospital mission
@@Bwethhh Every year I fight the urge to visit my grandparents near vegas and look at New Vegas locations
Have you tried Fallout: London?
The Getaway is the best portrayal of London in a game bar none. If you live or work in london and play this game, you'll be amazed to see all the little shops they put in this game. Curry's, WHSmith, Jessops, Mcdonalds, Pizza Hut, Boots etc, it's crazy. I don't think it would happen these days due to copyright
22 years later and I still randomly think about NPCs shouting “STOP! I NEED YOUR DETAILS!”
That line has been seared into my memory banks for so so long I am glad I'm not the only one who hears it 😅
The fact Michael Cera's character (Evan) in Superbad was playing The Getaway Black Monday in that film, is cool enough. I remember watching it as a young kid, and thinking it was great, these games are Team Soho's masterpieces, even tho London Studio did develop Black Monday, and a remastered collection or remake would be dope, honestly, I'm glad to see more people talking about these games again, and thanks for doing this video Gman.
This game really did nail the waking nightmare that is London driving.
IKR? They driving on the wrong side 😬 how absolutely insane is that?
@@pointlessendeavors5653you mean driving on the side of the carriage way so you as a carriage driver could defend yourself with your right hand (sword hand) from highway men. Yeah we did shit real. Yanks just rode on the right to do with farming or some bullshit.
When The Getaway first came out I used the included map to make my way around London for a day trip.
that is actually pretty dope, I wonder if the map is still usable now
@geekydiy5323 the city has changed massively since then, but the streets are all as they were. So I'd imagine it's still usable.
I remember the national gaming magazines praised the game for its accuracy but I didn't really believe that until I saw more and more londoners saying it's almost 1:1. Amazing games even if they're flawed, was just replaying Black monday last night
Never forget that this is Lou Ferrignos favorite game.
KOQ reference in the wild here. I forgot all about that scene. Legit top-tier sitcom
@@Housesider ikr.
I didn't expect to gain that many likes or even a reply because that sitcom is so underrated and almost forgotten.
That's what he said?
@@bigman88george3 He wanted to train Doug, then he discovered his PlayStation 2.
He said that The Getaway was his favorite videogame.
It was an episode of season 7.
I’ll probably forget that
Getaway Black Monday, Driver 3 and True Crime Streets of LA were my favorite games of that style on the PS2. I miss those times.
If there was ever a game that needs a remaster it's this one
Forgot to mention that Don Kembry (Mark Hammond) made the TINIEST cameo appearance in L.A. Noire.
He plays a boxer who's last name is also Hammond.
I got the BIGGEST dopamine rush when I saw his face and ESPECIALLY when I heard his voice 🥹🥹🥹🥹
One of this game's sequels (Gangs of London) was later adapted into a TV show produced by Gareth Evans, the guy who directed The Raid 1 and 2. Wildly violent stuff.
These games were TRULY ahead of their time. Its a shame we never got The Getaway 3! It had SO MUCH hype back in the day!
there was on PSP, its called Gangs of London!
No, he means there was a true Getaway 3 being developed for the PS3 that was eventually scrapped for reasons I can't remember. I recall seeing a trailer for a much more graphically advanced London at E3 06 or 07 @@fruitylerlups530
Driving On The Wrong Side Of The Road While Committing Crime Simulator 1 and 2 hold a special, janky-ass place in my heart. Thanks for reviewing this one, Gman
The Getaway, Sleeping Dogs, Yakuza. So many games get falsely labeled GTA clones even though you can clearly tell they aren't if you actually play the game for more than 5 minutes.
Especially Yakuza. It's closer to Dragon Quest than GTA
Those comparison was abysmal
Saints row too
That's just the way it is. GTA & R* are the daddy of open world crime games, anything similar is naturally going to be compared to it. Unfortunately, the less intelligent among us are going to write those games off as nothing more than a copy that isn't worth their time, but there's nothing we're going to do about that. I'm a huge GTA fan but I've always loved playing the games that are inspired by it. The first two Saints Row games were some of my favorites when I was younger & I absolutely loved Sleeping Dogs. I even had a lot of fun with the first two Watch Dogs games, just the list a few.
Sleeping dogs was generic open world
Brain dead pedestrians? Sorry Gman, it's just an average day in real-life London.
Those are some damn impressive visuals for a PS2 Open World game
It's remarkable what this studio did with photograph based textures and baked liting. Back then this game looked photoreal especially if you'd ever seen England. It looks like GTA V just in low resolution.
Not being able to heal in BM is actually a weird intentional feature.
You can only refill around 150 HP (I think) by resting, after that and you can't rest at all until the next mission or after dying and loading a checkpoint. (There is a health cheat, often mislabeled as double health that does actually allow you to rest forever like the first game.)
This is why wall-mounted medkits exist since they allow you to heal without resting. (and annoyingly don't restore your resting health.)
It's a mechanic I'm not a fan of, especially since on numerous instances Black Monday "silently" moves you from mission to mission (such as one mission ending inside a building and a new one starting as you exit) so it's never clear when your resting health is actually restored. (As well as some levels having nearly no medkits.)
Made by Brendan McNamara, the guy behind LA Noire, another technical miracle ahead of its time, featuring highly detailed, but devoid of activities recreation of a large city, a huge leap in actor scanning and motion capture for gaming, attention to detail and serious atmosphere, realistic, immersive gameplay and relative lack of humor. There is very little known about the man, and his career seems to have halted since then. 😟
According to some developers of Team Bondi, he's an asshole to work with. That's mostly the reason why LA Noire was dropped by Sony and bought by Rockstar. The team was bleeding talent like crazy and R* basically finalized the whole thing by bringing in their devs and managers and sidelining McNamara.
Apparently his latest project was a sort of sequel of LA Noire called "Wh*re of the Orient" set in 1930s Shanghai and published by WB Games. The project got cancelled from what I've heard.
He founded Videogames Deluxe, who made the VR LA Noire game and the updated version of GTA Definitive Edition. They’re 4 years into developing an open world game for Rockstar as well.
@@Erone Cancelled because it would offend snowflakes.
A technical marvel and a violently mediocre game.
@@Erone any game director must be an asshole of sorts, at least partially
Very surprised to see you upload a video about this series but I'm genuinely happy you did! I absolutely love both of these games.
Pushing the boundaries of what consoles were capable of and taking risks is what games used to be about. Sorry to get all ''back in my day'' on this, but it was better then and I am tired of pretending that it wasn't. There are high end PS3 games that still blow out of the water what the PS5 is doing today.
Totally agree, the same way that the VAST majority of xbox 360 games blow anything on the series x out of the water. To this day, there isnt a game that comes even remotely close to being as replayable as something like Left 4 Dead 2 for example.
And also, games actually worth playing dont come out nearly as often as back then. Nowadays, you wait 6 plus years for a game that just turns out to be broken at launch, missing promised features, or just straight up lied too through deceptive marketing.
The one thing that games are ‘about’ isn’t that.
@@citizen3000 You are the modern audience. Congratulations and enjoy Concord 2.
@@clearspira Games aren't defined by what you said lol. I have never played Concord, and I doubt you have either.
This game was very good. The fact that you're able to play it from both perspectives was an easy sell.
It's always been a mystery why this game isn't widely heralded as a classic among general consensus, absolutely blew me away as a kid, especially one from south west England who'd never seen a big city before.
Getting to experience such an exaggerated & heightened version of the capital through essentially lock, stock : the game, was an absolute blast and I'm genuinely surprised the IP has never been revived, especially with so much time between GTA games
By far one of my favorite games of that generation. But also the most frustrating game ever. Not being able to pan the camera around was the biggest gripe I had about it next to the bullet sponge enemies. But the driving wasn't too bad and the fact that everything was set in a realistic setting made it more immersive to me at the time. Yeah, it's a little like GTA but it's its own identity at the same time. The story of the game I did like and how both Hammond and Carter have a similar goal. I feel like the short comings that were in this game they sort of fixed in the second one. It took me a few years to finish the first game. I remember just getting so frustrated with it, it collected dust on my shelf when I was playing other games like Vice City and San Andreas. I think it's one of those games that is much more appreciated with age.
The licensed cars are still such an impressive part of these games. Most games like this can't pull that off, I still don't understand how they got manufacturers to agree to this. Most of them don't want to see their cars getting smashed or shot at. Seeing Mitsubishi in the second game made me so happy as well. Seeing the Evos & more importantly for me the 3000gts was just surreal in a game like this. I'm still driving a 3000gt VR4 to this day, I can't get over those cars lol.
beautiful car, enjoy it !
I almost died when he talked about Mitchells head and said get ahead of himself
That's crazy. Like five minutes ago I was watching a video about NFS Most Wanted and felt nostalgic as hell about it. Then I remembered The Getaway again, after five years trying to emulate it on my pc with HORRIBLE PERFORMANCE.
It brings so much nostalgia, this, and the Black Monday game. Obviously, I just typed The Getaway analysis and stumbled upon this video made posted 7 hours ago.
The NPC environment in both Getaway games is definitely a whole new level from even GTA San Andreas. But chalk that up to two separate visions. I don't remember either Getaway games leaving town or letting you cheat spawn a Harrier jet!
I really wish they'd bring this series back. It was one of the best games ever made. 2 was ok. Hopefully with the show Gangs of London being successful one day we may see a remake.
4:55 that zoom in made me spit out my coffee laughing and idk why
It may not have gotten the recognition it deserved, but it definitely seemed to help the genre going forward.
I remember playing it on my PS2 and thinking it was the most realistic looking game I've ever seen 😮 funny how times change and graphics always improve 😂 I will never forget the getaway
I remember playing Final Fantasy 8 for the first time as a kid, and seeing the FMV for the first time, and I thought it was barely distinguishable from real life 😄 A few years later, I didn't think it could get much more realistic that MGS2. Man have things changed
I’m so glad you finally covered this game. Huge in my childhood
The thing that I will always remember about this game was that British Telecom threatened to sue the developer for using its logo on the side of a van in the pre-release demo. Normally I wouldn't have much sympathy for a corporation crying over product placement, but said van was being used in an assassination mission so perhaps they had a point.
Yet I'm sure they wouldn't mind it in a movie. Violent movie good, violent videogame bad. I still have no sympathy for them.
It’s actually in v1 release of the game, my disk copy has a BT van when you infiltrate the police station. It was removed from future releases.
@@MeadeJ67 Proof?
I think it's also because you go into a police station dressed a telecoms engineer and then murder a copper (Detective). I think that probably had more to do with it.
The trailer for the cancelled 3rd game looks incredible.
Oh don’t remind me ;-;
The car using its indicators to find your objective is so peak
These cutscenes are actually impressive for 2002
I remember playing this, ever time your dude started shooting at someone he would say, "ave some of dat" in a British accent over and over. It's still burned in my brain. Like Nam 67 and the Vietcong dudes saying, "Ima get you GI" in the most comical accent. Games from this era had the worst/best overused voice lines.
I absolutely loved this series. I bought a PS3 at launch because The Getaway 3 was supposed to be coming out soon after. I was so pissed when that game got canned.
I still have my PS2 and all the games I collected to play on it. It's hooked up along with my other systems. One of my favorite games on PS2 is 'Cold Winter', an FPS but as a lone infiltrator on a mission to take down a 'Deep State' organization, like the 'Enclave', but late-90's Cold War think. It's a really fun and interesting game, with excellent graphics, realistic guns, and good sound. I'm surprised it isn't better known as I've never seen it reviewed.
Yeah, back in that era I was playing every FPS I could get my hands on and that one stood out to me as well.
@@SnakeMyshkin Cool! You remember it. I was into 'BLACK' as well. That was a great FPS. I even had to copy the DVD because I wore out the original. The spindle hole started cracking away.
One of my all time favorites, I've been hoping for a re release for many years but it probably wont happen.
I was so hyped for The Getaway 3 (and Eight Days) that they were one of the primary reasons I even got my PS3 in 2008. Then both wound up getting canceled. You can still find some of the trailers on youtube. They made a VR game that was kinda sorta vaguely Getaway adjacent iirc, but not really a Getaway game.
The Getaway is an amazing piece of retro gaming (crazy to say it's retro but that's a fact). When I first played it I was 10 or 11 and it was a collision with a concrete wall compared to how simple and breeze GTA games are. No HUD, no map (only paper print) no hints, tutorial, nothing at all. You're just being thrown into the water and you gotta figure out how to swim yourself. Shame the driving physics was a bit funky but aside from that the game was amazing regardless. I decided to play it again couple of months ago on PS2 slim and it's still kicking my ass. It's difficult but gives a lot of joy. Shame they didn't decide to release third game, we only saw trailers. Rumors say Playstation Home was launched instead on the foundations of what was supposed to be the PS3 release of the new Getaway title.
Man I loved the getaway it always felt like a movie like godfather casino, etc. but never beaten it because it was so damn hard
I beat it when I was 12 but man it was hard AF.
It's wild how in that first game's clips there's almost no textures and very simple environmental design... barely above a PS1, and in just a few years time we're getting insane detail and depth... the early 2000s were definitely a time of very fast improvements in tech and graphics.
As someone who played this game for so long that I used to feel like I knew how to get anywhere like I do now in GTA I need to say this: This is not a GTA clone this is a Guy Ritchie Simulator
I remember reviewers losing their minds over the lack of hud - they weren’t ready for this! It was a bit wonky in places, but so immersive
Also the secret regen health if you lean against a wall
Want to ride my bicycle
Want to ride my bike
Want to ride my bicycle
Want to ride it where I like
When you said you recover health by leaning against a wall, I thought you meant in a cool, “having a smoke break” way. Didn’t expect him doubled over on the wall fighting off a heart attack
I bear this back in the day on PS2, and while I liked the British crime setting and game overall, tons of fun exploring the virtual London, it was undoubtedly a test of frustration getting through. I haven't heard that game over tune in over 20 years, but instantly it unlocked some deep buried memories.
My God, finally someone did a good, long and very well explaining video about my beloved Getaway. The Getaway Black Monday is my whole childhood, I played like 10 hours a day until I remembered every corner of London :)
I loved the health regen system. You would allow your character to lean up on any wall to take a breath. I still have my old original and Black Monday copies.
I played the first game a lot as a kid and I was able to beat the game after many attempts and also with help from a PS2 magazine that came with a guide which saved me. I played a lot of Driver and Driver 2 so when this came out, I got used to more "realistic" driving and eventually I got a steering wheel and pedals to drive around London and try and follow the rules in free roam which was surprisingly really fun.
I always thought for some reason that the game knew the weather cause when I'd do free roam, sometimes it was clear and sometimes cloudy as all hell. But turns out it's just London lol.
I was stoked when the sequel came out. I read about it in PS2 magazines and eventually got it pre-owned at ebgames (could've been Electronics Boutique at that point!) and when I first booted up the game and noticed the frame rate went to shit it was like "oh damn". However I still played through all of it and enjoyed the upgrades and characters but ultimately I kept going back to the first game for some reason.
Also I am under the impression that L.A Noire used the same engine that The Getaway was made on except heavily modified. Due to Brendan McNamara being the lead for all 3 games it kind of makes sense but I can't confirm this.
Thanks for bringing back a bit of my childhood where I didn't understand half of what they all said :/
I enjoyed this video heaps. Keep em coming gman!
What a blast from the past! I remember playing this when it was released and was blown away by the graphics lol I remember it being really bloody hard! But I was a kid back then
I remember the Getaway as a Demo on PS2, it was fun
Yeah there was a demo disc on the official PS2 mag. The demo version the bodies would disappear when shot and blood stains, while the real game the bodies would stay in their locations and the blood stains on the walls would stay around.
YES YES YES I got so much nostalgia for this game :D There would be real fights when I was kid of Getaway vs Vice City
I have a friend who's Dad worked for Sony at the time, I think he was the Art director for them both. I distinctly remember seeing the framed platinum Discs in his office.
I legit had gotten these both recently for my ps2 bc I found them finally in good condition and for cheap
Edit: such great games, both feel like a movie that is fully interactive
Best way to advance through these games missions is by paying close attention to detail to what’s going on around you, mainly from other characters dialogue and if you’re struggling to advance due to the gun fights, in the second game, use the cover system to its full advantage, for instance you can heal while in cover, that has you kneel behind it, which as well will let you pre aim and fire a few rounds in between healing. Also healing on a wall is only available when you’re not in danger/combat zone and will only work if the wall is two times the height as you (both games are like this, I read that in the help menu), where kneeling behind cover will heal you regardless of the situation.
I wished I'd read that as a kid lol.
I've been realizing how much I miss this era of gaming! I miss having Xtreme sports games, Wacky sports games & Pure over the top insanity kind of video games. Can the industry PLEASE bring this back! I miss how unique gaming was thru 90's-00's. There's this obsession with realism now, & ray tracing, 4k resolution. Did they forget how important stuff like physics effects, rag doll effects, using creative art styles, satisfying movement, intriguing gameplay mechanics, unique damage effects and interactive environments. Having a game with a variety of different gameplay modes. Current games are way too focused on the wrong stuff and they forget they're making a game that is supposed to be fun & appealing. Did the industry forget what fun & visually appealing is?
I wish we could see a massive improvement in the ways video games can be made. I swear the fact game development is so unintuitive it restricts a lot of creativity and limits how many people actually end up working on making video games..
Only played Black Monday back then and it was fun but the stealth parts were rough, but I never gave up on games tbh I made sure to play them to the ground with the few I got.
Oh yeah SURPRISINGLY they dubbed it in Portugal and dare I say it wasn't bad at all for 2004, hearing them swear in my language back then felt refreshing lmao.
Very surprised to see you cover these games, glad to see they have been getting a lot of coverage lately. Visually and technically incredibly impressive for their time
I love this game! I waited years for it to come out while the screenshots shown pre-release looked photo realistic. Driving around in my Alfa Romeo 156 was really fun. The cars in this game are not "based" on real cars, they are licensed models.
I wrote a very similar comment but later in the video he does acknowledge that they are licensed cars. It was just poor wording on his part the first time it gets brought up.
Man I would love to see Gman review the Fatal Frame series.
One of my absolute favorite games of the era. I love the fact they used the real car names and emblems somehow. Also love there is no hud everything is displayed immersivly.
I discovered it on my Steam Deck this year and I loved it. The graphics, the fact there is no UI, the story that takes itself seriously.
I find it very inspiring and it made want to do a clone of it of some sort.
Fun fact - the TV show "Gangs of London" is in the same universe
Also a psp game called gangs of London
Ahh yes… good ol’ getaway, the game that set my early open world standards high and forever scarred my 8 or so year old self for life thanks to the intro cinematic. I no longer own a ps2 but I still have this game (amongst other classics) in my collection because there that good
I agree in some aspects it's underappreciated, and I owned this game on release. The main issue I had with the original Getaway, was the pedestrians and bugs. Too many times when you had a car that had sirens on it, or if you were playing as Carter; the NPC's would stop, stare at your car speeding towards them, and side-step with pinpoint accuracy into your bonnet, just as mentioned in the video @ 18:06. Wrecking your car and potentially breaking certain missions with timers, which would be a lot of them. I think I played the free-roam option of the game more than the main story modes. Great memories. Shame it wasn't realised in another form on modern consoles. Too many games are Americanised or aren't set in the UK.
Well yeah, modern UK just isn't too pleasing to look at. People don't want to play in Livingston, they want to play in NY, Asian cities, exotics places, ect.
This series blew me away when I picked up 1 and 2 on sale and impulse. Just an amazing story, and too damn fun to play despite the drawbacks. The healing mechanics was a trip. This is one I’d like to see someone try to remake.
It’s like a good Ritchie movie. Fits in right there with Lock Stock, Snatch, Rock n Rolla.
Both of these games need a proper remaster.
Both titles were too taxing for PS2 emulation on a PS3, really. They run slow as snails.
The voice acting of the german dubbing of the first titel is phenomenal, though.
No wonder Capcom was motivated to develop RE4, Ashley as Get away Black Monday , Sam.
I wasn't allow to play those games under the age of 17 , good times watching one my elder brother played those getaways.
The most underrated game on the ps2 for me is Urban reign such fantastic game
Back in the day the graphics absolutely blew my mind. Even to this day I'm still so impressed with it.
Was far too young to be playing this game when I was 9, I didn’t know that the indicator on the cars directed you to your missions and had to get my big sister to help me on the very first mission 😂 wish there were more gritty, violent and realistic games like this now. Sunk so many hours into these games. I’m originally from Scotland and moved to London when I was 17 the map is so accurate it is unbelievable. Way ahead of its time
I'm pretty sure it's tradition for everybody in the UK who grew up in the 2000s to have this and black Monday.
definitely a Hidden gem internationally and I would love a remaster or a remake to come out now although given some of the themes I don't think they would
There's nothing wrong with any of the themes if you're a well-adjusted adult. We just need to stop listening to people who are chronically online complaining about everything. Things shouldn't have to be dumbed down & censored for an overly vocal minority of people.
This game was so good back in the day. It was pushing the graphics of ps2 with graphics and cinematic feel.
Which tbf Sony has kept pushing. Spider-Man in 2018 blew me away.
what always amazed me about this game is that they used real shops in their real locations. Basically they just went around london and took photos of the shopfronts and used them in the game. Curry's, WHSmith, Jessops, Mcdonalds, Pizza Hut, Boots etc etc. It's really surreal if you live or work in London and played this game
Whoa, I've never heard of this game until now. But the animations, ploygonal and graphical fidelity on this game are almost like looking at a _very_ low settings PS3 title. Which don't get me wrong. For the PS2 hardware, that is high praise and a mighty impressive feat to have accomplished.
This game and FFX blew me away with character models. It was like watching PS1 FMV's but in actual gameplay.
Black Monday is one of the best PS2 games ever. Was absolutely transcendental playing it for the first time. Way ahead of it's time.
I guess The Getaway was like a hard UK gangster movie and the next near thing True Crime: SOLA was like a cheese B-Copmovie. Also with a real life City.
This game was my childhood, man, so happy to see you review it mate.
It’s amazing what they did with 480p and 16:9 and the Emotion engine. Now we’ve got 2160p, HDR10 and 120hz VRR displays being ran by GPUs that have more RAM than the PS2+PS3+360 combined and it’s an event when we get a halfway decent game from a AAA developer 😂. They missed a golden opportunity to include all the garbage cars British Leyland made and all the “Zombie knives” the BBC is always fear mongering about. It would have been cool if the Luty was an unlockable SMG.
The gateway is only half way decent tho.
I'm still annoyed Ford told the Devs to remove their cars. I wanted to ride around in a Capri so bad.
I don't know why, but I seem to remember having my indicators break in the game leading me to ditch an otherwise perfectly good vehicle for some shitbox with working lights so I could know where the fuck I had to go. 🤷♂️
These two games have a special place in my heart. Seriously, I loved those games as a teenager and thought about replaying them.
Edit: Too bad there was never a third game and Sony doesn't do anything with the IP.
I loved this game when it came out, it took me a lifetime of deaths to figure out that leaning against walls recovered your health
I remember reading about both games in a magazine I used to collect back in the day, but I don't think I ever played any of them. I also remember an interview years later when someone who worked on the game mentioned that most people missed the lean against a wall to recover health mechanic, and thought the game was really hard because it "had no healing items". Anyway, seems like these would be great material for a modern remake.
Haha I'll never forget buying Black Monday and me and my mates playing it later that night while having a blaze and us having to stop playing it cos of how massive half of the characters heads were.
I never finished that game.
Played the living fuck outta the first one. Used to smoke a spliff and just drive around in free roam for hours.
Also; we still call a forward roll a 'Hammond Roll'. You had to be there...
I would absolutely love to see you cover some Puppet Combo games G-Man. I think you would love them!
I'm a pussy and they scare me too much.
Not only this was released on the PS2, it was released on early PS2. Games got a little better over the years.
I played and competed this hole game not knowing you could stand against a wall and heal. Wasn't till I went to friends and saw him do it that I knew. It was near on impossible but 13 year old me got it done. This game is amazing for it's day
My lasting memory of the first game was struggling all the way through to the last mission on the boat, getting stuck and being on the brink of giving up, only to see my character rest up against the wall and heal his wounds.
No idea how I managed to miss that mechanic for 95% of the game xD
Here's what you don't know: The Getaway 3 was in development for the PS3. There was even a tech demo from 2005. And not only would the game be sit in London, it would also be set in Amsterdam. To me, it would've been Snatch and Lock Stock meets Layer Cake. Two teaser trailers are still there. Months ago, some spokesperson from PlayStation said that they don't have enough IPs. Well, either they're stupid or forgot their old IPs, The Getaway was one of them. And with the death of London Studio, the third installment's chances are low.
"In the quiet words of a Virgin Mary, come again?"
We all knew that, it was in the PlayStation 2 mag.
Absolutely adore the real storefronts used in this game really adds to the weird ps2 simulacrum of London that and the suicidal pedestrian London is just like that
I always found the True Crime series to be ahead of its time. Its like a hilariously over the top version of the early GTAs with a focus on hand to hand combat and maaaan I remember loving that shit on ps2
I mean we got peak true crime with sleeping dogs which was meant to be True Crime Hong Kong.
This was the FIRST game I played where I can remember the F bomb being dropped without being somewhat censored. I remember having my mouth drop at that point because it really did feel like things were going to change from then on when it came to swearing in games.
Must be nice returning to your ancestral homeland in game form.
I mean not all British convicted criminals became Australians though.
@@vladv5126 Nobody said that they did.
I’m glad you finally covered this game. I remember keeping track of it up until release and was excited to dive in. When I started playing it I thought at first it was awful but the more I played the more it sucked me in. The sequel was great too I loved the characters and the story in it more than the first one.
I was literally saying this game needs a remake the other day. Then G goes and drops this.
Honestly it would probably fail. A remaster would be more safe but chances are it would fail too.