Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> The Italian Job: LA Heist

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Review:

9th September 2003:
The Italian Job: LA Heist
Yes, you get to race around LA in Minis. But is this film tie-in just a cash-in? Read on to find out...
Posted by Chris Barnett - Xbox,GameCube,PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

As you have probably gathered from the 'LA Heist' part of the game's title, this is not the same game as that released by SCi. This is an entirely new game based on the new movie. The game is not inspired by the movie either; it is, essentially, the same as the movie. That does not mean that you do anything other than drive, but the driving that you do is all based around events from the new movie. Having not seen the new movie though, it is difficult to say how faithful the game remains to the film's plot, but the plot that is here is pretty good.

You see, with most movie tie-ins the plot is just a gimmick to get you to buy the game. And that is true for LA Heist, except it works better than most attempts. The missions are all based around the modern streets of LA with actual traffic flowing. Whilst that is not original at all, it never claims to be; in fact it is the familiarity with games such as Midtown Madness and Crazy Taxi that makes it look interesting. In those games there is no real atmosphere to the missions or events, they are just enjoyable without the need for any additional plots or tricks. But in LA Heist you have the atmosphere of a movie (as we have said, we have not seen the movie on which the game is based, but the game just feels cinematic) due mainly to the voice acted mission briefings accompanied by a suitably grainy introduction briefing. The atmosphere is continued in game where you have a voiceover every so often to let you know what to do, as well as the movie like physics. As in arcade racers there are no realistic physics to worry about, the physics present actually feel as though they were deliberately kept away from realism. This means that handbrake turns are easy to pull of and that reverse manoeuvres require no thought at all.

Whilst the above description of the physics may make the game sound basically the same as the games to which we compared LA Heist to, this would be false. For reasons that are difficult to explain in words, the game definitely feels different. But in a good way. Nothing feels random when you are driving, every mistake is usually your own, which is quite satisfying in a 'I'm not that bad at games' kind of way. As the LA traffic flows, it can usually be avoided by careful driving and knowledge of the traffic directions (remember fools, the traffic drives on the right in LA, got it?).

So far in and yet we have failed to mention what you actually do in the game, and that is not through bad reviewing, just through the fact that it would make a boring review if we just came right out and said: You just drive around. But that is the truth, nothing more, and nothing less. The basis for the game's missions is an objective to drive to places on the map within a set time, sometimes avoiding the cops, sometimes avoiding detection by another person. That does sound pretty boring as it stands, but it is slightly worse than that; you usually have to drive to the same place more than once, sometimes actually in the same mission. In one instance you must drive three Minis to a warehouse, one at a time. Once you drive one you go onto the other and then to the other. Each of the three drives is essentially the same, and if you fail on the very last part you must repeat the other two. This structure it the same for all missions, repeat everything upon failure.

It all sounds very pessimistic, but the truth is that the game is actually enjoyable. This is due to a variety of vehicles on offer, which you are given control of for missions rather than being able to select. These vary from vans to station wagon style cars, all which handle differently, albeit in an arcade type way. But as the original film was famous for its Minis, the new film shall be too. And the game emphasises the importance of the Mini as a getaway vehicle. There is a very good narration on one mission where the main character (Charlie Croker) comes to the conclusion that Minis are ideal for pavement driving and police evasion due to their size. This is good as the next time you control a Mini in a mission you are subconsciously thinking about what he said and it really makes sense when you compare the handling to that of the other vehicles. In fact, we would compare the ability to control a Mini to the pickup of a favourite weapon in a FPS due to that fact that it feels as you are at the pinnacle of your game when you are driving one.

The arcade gameplay and physics also allow shortcuts to be used (often involving jumping or dropping close to 100 feet), which can be learnt in time. This gives the game a little bit of extra life as it allows missions to be completed in faster times if certain shortcuts are used. The faster times add to a better score at the end of a stage, as a marking scheme grades your performance based on speed, damage and stunts (as well as a few other smaller factors). But even this cannot extend the life of the game much as it is only 15 missions long, and all the missions are essentially the same.

A small mention must go to the graphics, as they are faithful to the feel of the game. They are not going to impress too many people, but they are consistent throughout and the car models are very good, especially the Minis. There are also some nice graphical effects such as water splashes (on the lens of the camera no less) and scenery flight that give the game a slight feel of originality in terms of graphical style. Not the best graphics on the Xbox, but did you expect them to be?

Attempts to extend the life of the game are offered in the form of circuit racing (which can be done in multiplayer too) and obstacle modes, but neither of these offers anything new to even the most casual racing fan. In fact, these modes serve to show that the game does not work as a racing game at all; it is only successful as a mission based game.

Whilst the game is enjoyable on the whole, it is far too repetitive for a game of its size and offers little to the mission based driving game genre. The little that is does offer is the use of a licence to improve what would have otherwise been a below average game to one that is slightly above average.

Chris Barnett

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Review Summary:

An enjoyable game that is over all too quickly. Simple mission based gameplay gives it the feel of a movie, and fans of the actual film will no doubt buy it. Not as good as Midtown Madness 3, but if you like mission based car games, you could do worse than to pick this up as well as Microsoft's effort.

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The Italian Job: LA Heist
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