Three thugs sitting in a car are plotting something that is certainly sinister and undoubtedly illegal.  After a bit of arguing liberally sprinkled with expletives they make their move and you learn that kidnapping is on their mind.  Enter one Mark Hammond, a former bank robber gone straight and the father of the intended victim.  Things soon go horribly awry, and before he knows it Hammond is holding his dying wife in his arms and watching his son being sped away by the hoodlums.  Hammond jumps into his car and a high-speed chase through the traffic of London's streets ensues...

The opening of a new British crime film along the lines of Get Carter or Snatch?  No, it's the opening cinematic from Sony's upcoming realistic crime game, The Getaway.  Sony recently sent us a preview of the game's first levels, and we got a chance to have a little sneak preview of the game.

I'll take that car, thank you.

The game is very story driven, with Mark Hammond dragged back into the London underworld by a gangster bent on controlling the seedy underside of the city.  Extended cinematics such as the one that opens the game drive the story along and set up the two main aspects of gameplay, car chases and gun battles.

The first thing you'll notice about the game from the very first car chase is that the developers went through a lot of trouble to create a convincing depiction of London.  The streets and buildings of the city are photorealistic and filled with car and foot traffic.  The game is played from a third person view to give you the impression that you are watching a movie, except this is a movie that you can control.  Further enhancing this feeling is the absence of standard game devices such as radars, directional arrows, or damage meters.  When chasing someone by car you are helped along in a more subtle way by the turn signals on the car you are driving.

Not only is the traffic realistically modeled, after a few collisions you'll find that damage is as well.  Your car will reflect the damage received realistically thanks to the game's location-based damage model, and the car's handling will be affected as well.  You'll get a lot of opportunity to test this damage model out as you get used to driving on the left-hand side of London's streets.  Should you take too much damage, you can hop out of your car and commandeer a new one from a 'volunteer'.  Take care which vehicle you carjack, though, as each one handles like its real-life counterpart.  Don't expect to catch a Jag with a Mini...

Once you reach your destination you can continue on foot on the streets or into buildings.  The photorealistic look of the game extends to building interiors as well.  In the demo, you find yourself in a gun battle in a warehouse.  Palettes and cartons of everything from sodas and beers to cigarettes are piled around the building.  The labels and cans look so realistic, that you'll have to be careful not to get caught reading the labels when the shooting starts.

Busted!

As when driving, there are no health meters or other onscreen indicators when you are on foot.  You'll have to gauge your health level by watching Hammond himself.  Bloodstains might appear on his clothes, or he might limp or have trouble moving an arm.  It's an interesting feature that further gives the game an interactive movie feel.  If you are injured, don't expect to find health packs lying around.  The best way to heal is to lean up against a wall and take a breather, something that is not easy to do with all the thugs around.

One last thing that should be mentioned is that all of this high-speed driving and gunplay does not go unnoticed.  Londoners are quick to react to a gun-toting man running down the streets, and a call to the police will shortly follow.  Driving down the sidewalk or the wrong side of the road also gets the police's attention.  The police in The Getaway will pursue you relentlessly, but will also know when they are outmatched and in need of a strategic withdrawal to wait for back-up.  The police won't approve of your methods to get your son back, so be prepared to try and outrun the police or to bust through their roadblocks.

The Getaway should be an interesting game, a kind of realistic version of Grand Theft Auto.  The game will be released in mid-January of 2003 and we'll take a good look at the final product then.