The Getaway was unfairly snubbed by the critics, this did not stop Sony to put a sequel in the works. Taking place once again in the English capital, Black Monday does not seek to take off the formula of its predecessor and takes rather all that made the success of the first episode. In parallel, the gameplay suffers a slight redesign, new patterns are emerging and the script decides to be more mature through dialogues raw and straightforward. Everything is in place for the second segment erases imperfections of its big brother in order to induce a greater pleasure fun. Unfortunately it is not since Black Monday is almost less than The Getaway first name, which will surely surprise many, myself included.
While the game has evolved since the preview, in other words that the final version is far from free of defects, the latter taking precedence over the intrinsic qualities of this episode. But start with the good ideas of this album. First English atmosphere of the game is still meeting. It is for me the most important aspect of this series that owes as much to a film like Snatch and a series such as Dempsey and Makepeace. More mature appearance does not skimp on the violent situations through dialogue or situations making no concession. We find again the two playable characters that share fairly the Adventure mode. You will start with Mitch, a cop neurotic and ill at ease, which will be entitled to the first 8 chapters, the following 14 are in the care of Eddie, a boxer trained more or less against his will in a history of gang war in which Russian mafia acts as prime contractor. While writing the synopsis is savored slowly even if he tends to approach that of the first game In fact, you can experience the history of both sides of the fence, the split between the two characters making through d a meeting between the two men, the story of Eddie beginner then a step backwards. Also be noted that Eddie will often team up with Sam, a young woman enamored of computers, which will have the knack for getting into embarrassing situations. The teenager will indeed be playable missions in three small seepage (when Eddie O'Connor scenario), which are also completely missed, but we will.
Race mode offers quite unusual vehicles.
Outside the main mode, the player will get three challenges unpublished, the fourth being the Walk mode, already present in The Getaway once we finished the adventure, and that you can freely visit London. The Hunt, as its implies, you will be asked to play as a cop and catch the crooks in cars in the allotted time, while the race will offer to drive a racing car and overpowered face several competitors in three rounds of circuits improvised in the streets of London. Finally, the Black Taxi is a kind of Crazy Taxi as you will need to go to a specific point on the map to search for a client and carry out safely before the countdown time stops. The intention is laudable, but these challenges further give the impression of being there to hide the low life of the single player mode is strangely smaller than the first episode. Yet the building does not move one iota.
Stages of infiltration are missed, and that's it.
Team Soho so we tightens phases on foot and in cars, which alternate continuously and without originality. Can then be satisfied with the number of vehicles or fast-paced action but nothing happens, the game ends quickly (you can count on a small day) and can not carry us. Far from criticizing the system of checkpoints that you do not to start a mission completely, we quickly notice that Team Soho has not really learned from the mistakes of the first game of this, very long drive phases are still in the spotlight and if most of them to buckle up in record time, while others are winded. It is also ironic that the few more or less original misiones (where Eddie will snipe his pursuers while Sam driving a car) is not conclusive, all of which are also blowing the scene similar to Enter The Matrix is to say! This is especially true for the phases on foot, often catastrophic, without interest and taking over the clay pigeon shooting than anything else. In fact this is largely due to the catastrophic IA opponents. Your enemies are an absolute nonsense and merely come your way without protection. In return, you will often be entitled to be held opponents to two meters away without you shoot or let your teammates move on as if nothing had happened. I even saw a goalie fight without two of his friends intervene, preferring to turn back and wait until I hit my turn so that they appear. In addition, it would take too long to dwell on all the glitches that have not been corrected, the ubiquitous fog over the car chases to hide the clipping or large slowdowns occurring in places where there is at priori not much to display.
Opt for the auto-aim, this will save you big disappointment.
Question gameplay, the handling of vehicles is quite pleasant and driving a London bus, a R5, a Mercedes or a motorcycle will mean serious changes in terms of power. You will also need to change vehicle, when you have suffered too much damage after you are shot or a result of too many collisions, and it will always rely on your turn signal, it is automatically put on for you information on the road to take. Note that a map is also available at any time, a yellow warning you your goal. If you can not remove these passages an undeniable fun, walking phases are of a different ilk.
Some passages (optional) boost phase of conduct.
Apart from the slowdown that I mentioned earlier, you can already prepare for the bloody insult copiously camera keeps twirling in every direction and crashes all the time. This concern also leads to the notion of unwanted surprises characterized by guards who come behind you and you shoot at close range before you have time to go to to sort them out. Fortunately, you can regain some of your energy as you relax a few times against a wall (or recovering care kits) and collect the ammo left behind by your enemies. In this regard, I note that if Eddie can take any weapon, the fighter also has a preference for keeping a gun in each hand, Mitch, as a representative of the law, shall not use his gun or his service gun, a little annoying especially stupid. And yes, I do not know about you but personally if I was in the middle of urban guerrilla warfare, I'd not take up arms to pray for my enemies. Anyway, you are entitled to juggle between two arms (by pressing the R3 button).
If several graphical effects are very well made, it is unfortunate that the design of the software did not benefit from more care.
In terms of movement, it's a bit in the wilderness. Your character can jump over railings, rolling to avoid gunfire, taking people hostage to use as a shield or take cover behind an obstacle to take cover. Then you can focus your vision through the right stick and shoot or make a roll by the combination of two keys. Then Eddie and Mitch each have specific movement available. The first can nab his opponent and administer punches, knee or head while the second will handcuff the gangsters. Finally, if you have two modes of sight, you deal falsely, mainly that the automatic mode, manual mode is very precise and requires you to camp on your position to fire. As for Sam, she will have no weapon and can only walk in the dark to infiltrate without the knowledge of his enemies and go in places reduced to squatting. Too bad this has not been more studied, some movements novel (where Sam is based on objects to jump and reach high places) is making a semi-automatic. Besides forget phases of infiltration, the latter summarizing not to walk on broken glass or distract your opponents by doing one or two specific actions. But as these are automatic when your character approaches the point where action must be done, I do not see the point!
Eddie second to none to molest the guards.
In terms of technique, it is not joy. Of clipping, collision bugs and slowdowns share the limelight. Thus, modeling of London is impressive (except for the huge fog too far, even as a London fog) as the vehicle but the character design is ugly without a name. One has the impression of attending a meeting of hydrocephalic head as the characters is disproportionate to the rest of the body. The cutscenes are made fairly and character animations are sometimes very strange, Eddie and Mitch as staggering a gibbon when they are seriously affected. As against the soundtrack is impeccable. The music is delightful, the beautiful intro theme to the compositions "In Game", the sound effects are realistic (although sometimes a little deaf) and finally dubbing sound very good to the ear.
Very Enter the Matrix right? And I assure you, it's just as uninteresting to play.
Black Monday was a disappointment, neither more nor less. Fan of the first episode, I found myself constantly pester against the gameplay, bugs of any kind, or AI lamentable fact that the mistakes of the first The Getaway were not erased. Sony caught with an excess of confidence, the amateur will end up disillusioned at a product that looks more like a finalized version of 70% to a full game. Too bad all that there is room for a great series. The material is there and it is therefore sufficient to shape it to sculpt a piece of the PlayStation software library. Hopefully the Team Soho will not stop there and a new episode will quickly fix this sequel too wobbly and without much flavor.
