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I’ve been watching a lot of Soprano’s lately. Watching a show about criminals really makes me want to play a game about being a criminal. So when they sent me a review copy of the Italian Job, I dived right into it. Programmed by some of the same people who brought us the great bloody-fest auto-crash fest known as Carmageddon, I expected this to be a pretty good little diversion. For the most part it’s a good ride, but not with out its fair share of shortfalls along the way.

Based on the 1969 heist film of the same name (starring Michael Caine and the late great Benny Hill) the Italian Job is distinctively European in nature. The voices and the humor, everything has a European flair to it. Your main man is one Charlie Croker, recently released from jail and happy to jump right back into a life of crime. The game follows you from the beginning, in which you gather your crew, all the way to the getaway. Is this one worth the shot at pilfering 4 million big ones or better off gathering dust on the shelf?

Graphics:

All things considered, since this was originally a Playstation game things look pretty good. The car graphics are pretty nice; there are big bustling cities in which you can drive through complete with people to running amok. If anything it's really just the lack of polish that stops everything blending together into something really great. All around, parts of the game seemed rushed or just left rough. A little more spit and shine and this game would of really jumped up a few notches. The game doesn’t seem to strive for too much. It does remind me a little of Crazy Taxi for the Dreamcast, and that’s not such a bad thing.

Gameplay:

With driving missions making up all of the gameplay they use a lot of cut scenes and dialogue to push along the storyline. The driving engine is really skewed for an arcade style of gameplay. It’s a mix of GTA3 and Crazy Taxi style of driving, just don’t forget to drive on the other side of the road, as you are across the pond in this one. There’s eight cars at your disposal, and each one handles differently to add a little more depth to the game, which to be honest this game needs. Good players will have it beat in a day since there's only sixteen missions. Replay value falters a bit, as once you’ve beaten it a few times, really there’s not much else to do. What’s there is fun, and I really enjoyed my first time through.

Other than the main story the game features a few other game modes. Destructor mode has you racing to knock over orange cones, whereas Checkpoint has you racing from checkpoint to checkpoint in a time trial. There’s a Free-ride mode where you can sit back and enjoy driving through the city. Lastly, Party Mode lets you and a few friends race for bragging rights through various checkpoints, but it is hot seat only. Most of these modes are after thoughts but they don’t add to the value of the product giving something to do after you’ve beat the game a few times.

On a side note, you can’t remap the keys, so you’re stuck with UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT. They really should have offered some kind of controller support for this one, being it was originally a console title to begin with. Also between every mission the game switched to my XP desktop before switching back to the game. I'm not sure if this was just my set-up or not, but it did get a tad bit annoying.

Sound:

A game that uses voice acting to push its story along must have good voice actors. They really pulled it off; the quirky voiceovers really make me laugh (which may be unintentional at points). Whoever voiced Charlie Croker did an outstanding job of sounding like a slick criminal. The music is good enough and keeps up with the nice pace of the missions. Car sounds are decent and I love when the pedestrians yell back at me. Thus everything’s great in the sound department.

Overall Impressions:

In the end I really wished for more out of this game, then I remembered that this game could be found for about $20 bucks. I could make a list of games that cost at least twice as much, wherein you wouldn’t get near the fun you can squeeze out of the Italian Job. It’s not long on gameplay and if you don’t “try” and beat it all in one day it will provide a few good days entertainment. I should also mention you can pick up the PSX version for about $10 bucks and from what I’ve heard it offers pretty much the same experience. If you’re looking for a cheap game to try out and have some fun with I can recommend the Italian Job. Just don’t expect anything spectacular.