Price: £39.99 Players: 1 Widescreen: Yes 60Hz: No DTS sound: No First things first. The Getaway, has been compared a lot to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, but while there are some similarities, such as driving round completing missions, it looks better while not being a free-roamer. Your name's Mark Hammond, you look like Michael Owen and your other half, Suzie, has just been murdered. Your kid..., er, kidnapped, leaving you to do some jobs for a nasty piece of work in the form of a big, bald fat bastard (and it's not Alexei Sayle) named Charlie Jolson, who instructs you through interesting cut scenes, the idea being that once your done with your chores you can toddle off home with your lad. However, that would mean the game's over, so you'll have plenty to do before bedtime, such as kill all your mates early on and then wiping out the Triads. Yes, you'll really make friends fast(!)

As I said, the graphics do look better than GTA:VC on the surface, but there is the same jagged-line problem that the Gamecube's Die Hard: Vendetta suffered from, as well as a drop in the frame-rate when too much is onscreen at once. Picture-wise, there's also a setting for PAL, NTSC and Progressive Scan TVs. Don't worry if you pick the wrong one and the picture disappears as there's an "Are You Sure?" option. Press "Triangle" to quit out of this and back to where you were. Sound is bog-standard spot-FX for gunfire, plus the usual noises a car and police siren make and this makes you wish for DTS plus in-car sonic entertainment. The controls aren't as easy to used to. You can't look around, apart from when manually aiming your gun. There is an auto-aim option, although while this does feel like cheating, sometimes it's the only way to get the job done when there's several people shooting at you. I could do with rear- and side-view options in the car while driving too. However, there is a nice touch with being able to hide round the corner to wait for someone and then pump them full of lead to surprise them.

The Getaway is an entertaining game and one that's worth a look, even if it's just a rental for a couple of days to see if it stands up, but it doesn't feel as satisfying as GTA:VC, so perhaps someone choosing between the two should get that one, play it until the end, by which time this will be out on Platinum. It's also quite a difficult game (but note, you can replenish your energy by pressing X to stand against a totally flat wall, then doing it again to rest up for a while. The BBFC require that all games featuring video footage (in this case, it looks like motion-captured faces, etc), but the 18-certificate applies to the violence and colourful language within.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.