Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: The Italian Job

Written by Tony Kennetz on July 31, 2003

Full Review: This uninspired game gets my uninspired opening comment: Bleh.

The Italian Job, like just about every other big action or adventure movie lately, was a pretty big theatrical success. Netting over ninety million dollars, the all-star cast and over-the-top driving action obviously drew theater goers everywhere into the seats. Therefore, The Italian Job also managed to do what most action or adventure movie licenses did: become video games. A few years ago this game would have certainly been blown off as just a movie cash-in that had no merit as a game. More recently however, movie-to-video-game conversions have been given a bit more of a chance at the bargaining table thanks to games like Spider-Man: The Movie Game and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (the EA version, of course). The problem is though, The Italian Job managed to do little more than work towards reserving the progress made by the aforementioned titles.

If you haven't seen the movie, I suggest you make a point of it before playing this game (although, it would probably be better that you just see the excellent movie and skip this game) because The Italian Job does a terrible job of shelling out the plot points as you play. For the sake of continuity we'll lay the basics on the table and move forward. After a successful job in Venice, Charlie (Marky Mark in this movie, not found in the game) and his crew of specialized criminals move out to get home and start spending their cuts of the thirty million dollars worth of gold they just stole. Enter Steve, the double crossing partner who kills Charlie's safe-cracking mentor and leave the rest of the team for dead after taking the gold. He's got the money, and he's not giving it back. The rest of the story follows the team as the work towards stealing back what they rightfully stole.

As a game, the Italian Job's story mode reminds me a lot of a fond childhood activity I used to take part in a lot: connect the dots. Except when it is a driving game based on an action-packed blockbuster film, the idea is just plain boring. Think about playing Driver these days and you'll realize that even though it was fun a few years back, it doesn't cut it these days. Not to mention the game's oddball scoring system. You're rewarded for taking shortcuts and for covering a lot of ground. Points for insane driving tactics and crashing into certain things, but penalties for hitting others? And since when was driving to pick up a laptop such a time-critical affair? Most of the situations are boring (much like the rest of the game) and the scoring method (which is important in terms of unlocking bonuses) is idiotic, to say the least. Not to mention the cops that appear impossible to shake, who ruin just about any sense of being a true wheelman by being too good.

In the other game modes The Italian Job does its best to make up for Story mode's inability to perform, and while doing a bit better in each mode, they don't recover the ground that was lost. In the Stunt mode, gamers must navigate their way through a series of high-risk turns and jumps to make it to the ultimate goal. Obtain an B or better and advance to the next level. The further you get the more challenging it is to unlock the next map, but unfortunately there are only five places to drive and none of them allow you to flex your creativity, so the ride is done pretty quickly. The other big mode is the Circuit race, where you can drive in a race around town a la Midtown Madness. The problem is that this is just a boring checkpoint racer with little depth. The developers clearly didn't skimp on making game modes, what they didn't do was make any of their features strong in terms of longevity or entertainment. Things might have actually been better had Circuit been thrown out to give the Story mode more development time, but that just wasn't the case.

All of this is very unfortunate because in terms of raw gameplay, TIJ has a very solid driving game engine on its hands. While it doesn't break the mold or open up any new avenues for games to come, everything you could want from an action game is present in the control. Pulling off a doughnut to evade oncoming traffic and make your mark on time is easy and highly effective, the controls are responsive and well placed, and there are no big flaws with the basics of the total package. However, one huge problem with the gameplay engine is that even though you can blast through one rather solid looking objects, others (like chain-link fences) can completely stop your car's movement. That much boggles the mind.

Action movies rely on slick looking stunts and special effects, and for a lot of the game The Italian Job really manages to match its theater counterpart. If you take a look at the cars as they drive, you'll certainly notice all the fine details that make this game pretty strong in the visual department. They shimmer in the sun, leave skid marks and smoke after they have taken a certain amount of damage. On the negative side, other than the smoke, visible vehicular damage is sorely missing and background are rather bland and unappealing. Running at or close to 60 frames per second is usually a pretty good indication that the developers made the rest of the visuals strong as well, but that isnСt what happened here. They're great on paper, but just good in execution.

Unfortunately, the audio doesn't take advantage of the solid graphics to provide a fully exciting racing experience. The soundtrack is on the dull and lackluster side, giving little sense of urgency to your missions or races. Sound effects are also on the quiet side, who would have though that burning so much rubber would make so little noise? To top all that off, none of the movie's true actors were included in the game, so everything is spoken by a one man playing Charlie Croker, the head man. This would be alright if his voice wasnСt desperately monotone and tiring. I used to think that studios were hiring professionals to do this stuff these days, but apparently the old days are still the present in some office building.