The Italian Job
Take 2/Rockstar Games
Genre:
Racing/Action
Players:
1 (1 - 7 Alternating)
Type/#:
CD
/
1
Overall Rating
78
%
Graphics and Sound
In the world of the PSOne, The Italian Job's graphics probably fair
halfway decent, but are still pretty ugly. Unfortunately, the characters in
the game are extremely pixilated. The vehicles and cities themselves have a
good balance of graphical power and game performance, but there are a lot of
noticeable pop-ups when driving through the cityscape. Playing The
Italian Job on the PS2 doesn't seem to add anything to the game
graphics-wise either.
With the exception of the game's music, the sound
in the game is horrible. Character voices are very washed out and it's
extremely hard to understand them at times. Thankfully, there is also text
posted on the screen when these characters are giving you information about
the story line. A lot more work could have gone into the graphics and sound
of The Italian Job, but you do get what you pay for (since this is a
10 dollar game).
Gameplay
If you've played Driver, then you know exactly what to expect from
The Italian Job's main game. If not, the brief rundown goes like
this: You must become the wheelman in a variety of vehicle types, and must
complete a wide selection of missions. These missions range from driving
people from one spot to another, to flooring it around town so that you can
disable security cameras, among doing other objectives.
The one major
gripe I have with The Italian Job is that the physics engine is
horrific. Although the many different makes of vehicles have their own
attributes (i.e. the bus is very slow and hard to turn), there is one common
difficulty throughout them all. No matter which vehicle you are driving,
the steering is extremely sensitive, and all little bumps and scrapes seem
to be amplified and send you out of control. On the bigger picture, this
difficult control is more than annoying, but also makes a couple of the
missions extremely difficult to complete. The Italian Job's
variety of cars are all ready for you to stick your lead-foot into them. In
fact, you'll have control over 14 different vehicles, from tiny 'two-door
Specs' to full-sized passenger buses. Throw that together with the even
greater variety of mini-games, and The Italian Job poses a decent
amount of replay value. There are 3 types of mini-game: Checkpoint,
Destructor, and Challenge. Checkpoint is exactly as it sounds. You must
drive through each checkpoint in the allotted amount of time. In
Destructor, the course is set up with a number of orange cones. Each time
you hit one, one second is added to your time. The goal is actually not to
hit all cones, but to have time remaining as you cross the finish line. And
finally, the Challenge Stages offer a variety of tasks, including jumping
and icy road conditions during the challenges. Best of all in The
Italian Job is that, using a single controller, up to seven people can
play the Party Play games together. You will get to choose the number of
players, the number of events (up to 10), and finally, you will get to
choose which types of events you will play with from any of the events
currently unlocked in the single-player mini-games. In Party Play,
completing the courses in the shortest amount of time will award you with
the most points. But if nobody completes the course, points are awarded
based on the progress a player reaches. For example, if nobody finishes the
course in Destructor, the player that knocks over the most cones gets first
place. A running total is kept throughout Party Play, declaring a winner at
the end.
Difficulty Level
For the most part, playing in Italian Job mode is actually very easy. There
are a couple of missions that will most likely give you all kinds of
trouble, but with a little persistence, you will probably clear the game in
no time. Where the real challenge comes into play is within the mini-games
and Party Play. Here you will be faced with various degrees of difficulty,
where there is a fine line between being totally frustrated or totally
engulfed in the gameplay. (I vote for the latter.)
Game Mechanics
The controls of The Italian Job are very straightforward and basic,
and anyone should be able to jump right in and become a professional
wheelman. The driving physics in the game can get frustrating though, as
you tend to spin out and lose control very easily. Other than that, the
gameplay here is pretty fluid.
I do have a huge beef with the menu
system. Selling a game at the bargain price of 10 bucks is no excuse for
having a shoddy interface. It is utterly ridiculous that you need to
backtrack all of the way to the Main Menu, and then work your way back into
the Options Menu just to save the game. Not only is this time consuming in
its own right, but the extremely long load times (not noticeably improved on
the PS2) also make it even more annoying. Another annoyance is that you
can't skip the cut-scenes that happen immediately before you get into your
car. So each time you have to re-play a mission, you have to sit and watch
the same scenes over and over. But the burning question on everyone's
mind is simple. Is The Italian Job worth spending 10 dollars
on? The answer: Without a doubt. In fact, it's like getting a
copycat Driver with the added enjoyment of many mini-games and
challenges. Spend the 10 USD. You really can't go wrong with The
Italian Job.
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