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The Italian Job (PS1)

The Italian Job PSX
Genre: Racing / Driving
Perspective: Behind view
Gameplay: Vehicle Simulator
Vehicular: Street Racing
Narrative: Crime
Published by: Rockstar Games
Developed by: Pixelogic Limited
Released: 2002
Platform: PlayStation (PSX, PS1)

The Italian Job (hereinafter TIJ) is another attempt to virtualize a motion picture. There is nothing surprising here, except that it's a little hard to remember any other game for PS1, made on the English gangster comedy of thirty years ago. The British company SCI and the studio Pixelogic Limited worked on the creation of this curious specimen. The most vindictive can remember that the same guys bungled madly fast and insanely empty race-shooter Crime Killer. What, they'll be fooling again? Yes no, the developers seem to have settled down, they got impudent, scraped along the bays of their genius and announced at once two versions of Italian Job - for PS2 and PS1 ... Then something strange began to happen in the Western press. When articles began to appear in specialized gaming publications, often with poorly concealed enthusiastic intonations, that was not far off, but when men's magazines began to strongly recommend it to their readers, it was already curious ...

The essence of the game is perfectly conveyed in the intro: charming glossy machines, without slowing down on corners, rush through the sunny London jungle, flying to the oncoming lane, easily violating not only the Rules of the Road Movement, but elementary laws of physics. Mountain serpentine, trampolines, ladders, roofs, pipes of some collector ... Something explodes, the brakes squeal, the sun shines, happiness - full-zneye-what. His mission was remarkable for the introductory video - I really want to play. Go!

The developers offer us 5 modes, each of which is interesting in its own way. You can start with Free Ride, which gives you the opportunity to just stare at the sides and in passing to get acquainted with the game. No tasks are set: choose an auto and drive for your pleasure on the long London straights. The main thing is to endure a long pause loading, characteristic for the whole game. As soon as you pick up the gamepad and start "steer", it becomes clear that the management is impeccable: responsive, toned, obedient, simple - no complaints. Only I at first could not understand in any way: from which hangover all the cars rush on the opposite lane? Where does their British traffic police look? And it dawned on me that in England the movement was right-handed ... It would be necessary to get used to it.

With what you can not get used to, but you can only accept, so this is with the complete absence of any visible damage. No matter how hard you roll, neither your car nor the other car will ever change, unless the polygons fall, but the modest strip in the upper corner of the screen turns green, then turns yellow, turns red and eventually completely claws at the words: "You're Wrecked ". But before that you can confidently drive, just knowing that even a head-on collision with a brick wall at a speed of 100 miles per hour does not affect the way you drive. Not at all! It's not that I'm a fan of Destruction Derby, but I'm just annoyed by this disregard for reality. No less irritating pedestrians, which, in principle, can not be crushed. You can drive through them, they can be pushed, they can be scared, so they run and bustle, but you can not crush it. No, I'm not some kind of beast, and in general, Carmageddon I can not stand, but why so stupid? Lamp pillars can be knocked down, garbage cans can be turned, buses (red, two-storeyed) can be laid on one side, and ladies and gentlemen - it's impossible. This, in fact, a disgrace!

After Free Ride there are two very similar to each other: Checkpoint and Party Play. The name of the first speaks for itself: in a limited period of time you need to get to a certain place and so on. The entertainment is incendiary, but even better, Party Play, in which up to 8 people can participate. There is no Slyl script, everyone will have to take a "checkpoint" route in turn for a specified number of levels.

The next mode, Destructor, is ideal for training in front of the "big" case: over 20 levels (10 London and 10 Turin), the player along with the new machine is given a new driver's task, the complexity of which increases exponentially. The goal is to test the speed of reaction and stunt dexterity.

But the gist of the whole game is the regime of The Italian Job: 16 missions (8 London, 6 Turin and 2 Alpine), united by a common plot, which is an adaptation of the script of the film. Between the tasks - cool videos, incomparably voiced by Michael Kane himself, broadcasting with a unique London nose prognosis. Describe the content of missions is useless: most of them fit into a simple scheme "to get to the point A in N seconds," but what in words sounds wretched and primitive, in fact turns into a source of many hours of adrenaline entertainment. Perfectly thought out, very large, just huge cities are the ideal arena for dizzying races for both a luxury limousine and a postal van, and for sports torpedoes and a shuttle bus.

The process of driving in the Italian Job is physically pleasing, and not only thanks to the above management, but also because the represented cities are almost real. Get to the right point in dozens of ways - the player is not constrained, he is given full freedom of choice. But it is unlikely that the gameplay TIJ would cause so many positive emotions, if not for the graphic design of the game. Yes, I do not care that people are crooked-square - they are not happy! On the sides, look, on the sides! Look, as the sun breaks through the branches of trees ... Look, it's Trafalgar Square! Parliament - just like a cigarette pack ... What's this - Beat Ben? He is! Well, just like in school they taught ... Somehow it so happened that the guys from the studio with the strange name Pixelogic reproduced the textbook London images and the Italian charm of Turin with more than impressive detail for PS1. More "Sonka" will not squeeze, it's a fact. But more is no longer necessary: ​​the effect is achieved - a sense of presence in these cities, the feeling of participating in the race through the streets described in the guidebooks has already been transferred.

P.S. Do not go to the fortune-teller - there are experts who will refer TIJ to the family of "driver's". This will be accompanied by active gesticulation and loud cries of the foreign word "clone." Do not wait until they poke their finger at the charts and shout that Driver is our everything. "The Italian Job bribes with its frivolity, some comedy, it is not done so that the player jumps on a chair from a "terrible" surprise, but simply spent an hour or two for unobtrusive one hundred percent British racing / action.