| The Italian Job Review |
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| Overall |
7.0/10 |
| Gameplay |
6.0 |
| Presentation |
6.0 |
| Value |
6.0 |
| Graphics |
8.0 |
| Sound |
5.0 |
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All Media (4)
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By Lonnie Bruton on June 6th, 2002
Introduction Chances are unless your at least 35 years old you won’t remember the cult classic film where a hugely successful British Crime Caper about a Bullion Heist in Turin by some Cockney Gangsters. The movie stared Michael Caine and is being re-shot in L.A. [Going to fail im sure. Re-makes always do. well, unless its Titanic.] I know most of you are thinking, yet another movie to game to movie again media flop. However, The Italian Job may be the Playstation’s last Huzzah. Presentation I guess first off i want to say that this is obviously a clone of "Driver", Even the main menu is a direct rip off. Thank god Driver was such a great game. Loading times are not a major issue either, They are a little longer on the original console than my umber powerful Playstation 2. Overall the game is pretty polished for a Playstation title. A Playstation 2 version is exactly what the Dr. Ordered, however, not everyone owns a PS2 and i guess you poor saps deserve a final helping. Between The Italian Job, and Arc the Lad Collection I’ve found myself actually playing my good ol’ Playstation. [Yeah, the ones from the original launch] Graphics & Sound Graphically the game is pretty good looking for 32 bit. There is some minor pop up and blurry areas but nothing to complain about. The game does not look as good as Driver or even Driver 2 but it has enough character to do the trick. For the sound you have what is in my opinion the worse voice acting ever. The actual voices aren’t particularly bad, however, the script appears to have been written by 10th grade creative writing students. It does bring back that B-movie feeling tho. Also, the music seems to have been ripped out of some late 70’s porn. It’s really not bad porn music either. Gameplay This would have to be where the game takes the Driver formula and improves upon it, well, for the most part anyway. The roads are no longer straight for one thing. Another thing is there are a hell of a lot more stuff to do. Jumping ramps, flipping your car, driving on the opposite side of the road and running from the cops is the basic theme of the game. There are a few other modes of play that i didn’t really find too interesting. Besides the main game there is a Party Play, Challenge Mode, Free Ride, Checkpoint Mode, and Destructor Mode. In party play you can play up to 7 opponents in a sort of "horse" game. Challenge mode is pretty much to test your skills once you have completed the main game. Free ride lets you take on the city. Where the cops chase you no matter what. I don’t think it was meant to be that way but oh well, gives you a thrill.. Checkpoint Mode, nuff said. Probably the coolest of them all is Destructor mode. where you try to do as much damage as you possibly can.
The game is far from perfect. The controls are horribly laggy, but not a major problem once you get used to them. The other cars on the road move in what is plainly a pre-programmed half-ass routine. If you knock one of those double stacked busses sideways and back up he magically gets put right back into place. Reminds me of those cars with the spinning wheels in the center that could turn in place. It’s really pathetic. But for some reason when you are doing about 85 down a stretch of road they always wait till you get beside them or really close before deciding to change lanes. Occasionally we noticed where a car would get into the wrong lane just to wreak us. While these are some pretty major problems the games pure fun factor more than makes up for them. I mean C’mon people how much do you expect out of the Playstation One? Lasting Appeal Well, if you are one of the millions of fans of the original movie that i still to this day have not finished. You will probably fall in love with this game. If not you might enjoy its unique style. It almost reminds me of Austin Powers with a more serious tone. Fans of driver will probably enjoy the game also. Chances are if you like games at all you will at least find The Italian Job fun for a little while. Conclusion Having said all that, i guess its time to mention the games price tag. It’s only 10 bucks, and it’s one of the best PSone games we have played in a long time. If you own a PSone i suggest you pick this game up. But don’t expect too much. The game has its novelty factor and its high moments. I found it to get boring after a week or so of non-stop addiction. You must have this game in your collection. |
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