The first game, The Getaway, follows former Soho gangster Mark Hammond as he is blackmailed back into the life by a ruthless crime boss who has kidnapped his son. Parallel to this the game follows Frank Carter and his vendetta against the underworld.
The sequel, The Getaway: Black Monday, was released in 2004 and follows the parallel stories of SO19 officer Ben Mitchell and underworld connected amateur boxer Eddie O'Connor as a new underworld war breaks out.
A third game was intended, but is currently in Development Hell as Sony's European branch is concentrating on developing/publishing other properties. Recent statements have suggested that they will move it to the Playstation 4 instead. However, Sony announced that the game is not in development and instead, the game known as Blood & Truth was shown recently compatible with the Playstation VR, which was released in 2019.
The third game, as of 2019, was cancelled.
Additionally, the PSP game Gangs Of London may qualify as a spinoff, having been made by the same team and also set in the London underworld. It has a TV adaptation in the works, and is to be directed by Gareth Hew Evans.
The series currently spans the following games:
- The Getaway
- The Getaway: Black Monday
- Gangs Of London
- Cancelled Getaway 3
- Blood & Truth
Not to be confused with the Sam Peckinpah film The Getaway or its 1994 remake, or the pinball game The Getaway: High Speed II.
Distinct tropes from the games:
- All There in the Manual: Some specific details on the characters/events in the two games are better detailed in the Prima-published strategy guides.
- Another Side, Another Story: The two games have you switch between protagonist once a character's arc is complete.
- Anyone Can Die: In both games, especially the first.
- By the end of the first game, almost every named character in Frank and Mark's storylines are dead except Mark, Yasmin, and Alex from Mark's storyline, and Frank Carter and Joe Fielding from Frank's storyline.
- The second game isn't as bad. The only notable character who dies from Mitchell's storyline is Munroe (and depending on your actions, Jackie and/or Mitchell himself). Eddie's storyline, on the other hand, kills off damn near every character he knows or runs into except for Sam, and even she can die if you don't drive her to the bank.
- Artificial Stupidity: A rare invoked version, during the free roam options of both games, the police are significantly less competent than during missions.
- Crapsack World: London in the game certainly feels like this, everything is dark and gloomy thanks to the overcast English weather.
- Critical Existence Failure: Averted. Cars that take enough damage will have handling and performance problems, and taking too much damage will cause your character to start limping.
- Crowd Panic: People will freak out and run during the first half of the game if you were seen with a gun in public, and just like they would in real life, at least some of them call the cops. Less of an issue in the second half, as you're playing a plainclothes police officer and usually accompanied by some uniformed colleagues. Reversed by the same game.
- Diegetic Interface: The games doesn't have any kind of HUD to try and make the game more cinematic and immersible. Rather than a health bar, your character develops bloodstains and a limp the more they get hurt. Rather than floating health kits, leaning against a wall recovers you health (and removes bloodstains). And rather than a minimap or GPS arrow pointing you to your destination, your cars indicators will blink when you should turn, and both will flash when you reach your destination. The game did come with an actual map of London to help you find your way around though.
- Elite Mooks: SO 19 members for the criminal protagonists, They only show up once for Hammond but they're a well armed threat for Eddie both in mission locations and randomly in the streets of London they can show up, while Eddie can force most enemies (even some bosses) to be unarmed by knocking them down, S019 Officers will not drop their weapons.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Averted. The cars don't even explode when they take too much damage; they just burn to a crisp.
- Fauxrrari: Heroically averted for an open world crime game, as all the cars are from real brands.
- Guns Akimbo: Mark Hammond, Eddie O'Connor and Frank Carter can do this with handguns and submachine guns. Some enemies and bosses do too.
- Heal Thyself: The main character heals by... leaning against walls for a few seconds.
- Human Shield: Mark Hammond and Eddie O' Connor can grab anyone as a hostage if he is close enough, and if you grab a gang member or PC their faction will cease fire and plead for you not to shoot - until you start picking them off like a coward. Once the hostage has outlived their usefulness you can choose to shoot them, snap their neck, or let them go.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight in the first game, but averted in the sequel.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Team Soho used motion capture (aka Serkis Folk) that led to the characters resembling their actors.
- London Gangster: Technically most of the cast, but the Bethnal Green Mob (led by the bald, cigar chomping Charlie Jolson) and the Soho based Collins Crew fit the archetype. Averted in that a multiracial London underworld is portrayed with Triads, Yardies and Russian Mafiya taking major roles.
- One-Hit Kill: Police (and Mitchell in the second game.) can grab anyone to arrest them for what is functionally an instant kill grab for both the player and other AI that cannot be escaped.
- Optional Traffic Laws: The series enforces strict driving rules — correct side of the road, stopping at red lights, etc. This is useful at the beginning of the game, but as you engage in more and more criminal activity as the plot demands, the police will come after you no matter what you do.
- Put on a Bus: Everyone who wasn't confirmed dead by the end of the first game (except for Nick Collins and Liam Spencer) aren't even mentioned in the sequel. And given how the first game ended, they may have suffered from a Bus Crash.
- Real-Place Background: A lot of effort was put into replicating London. You can find the restaurant you burn down in real life; the screenshots are as similar as the page image.
- Regenerating Health: You can recover lost health by leaning against a wall and resting.
- Resting Recovery: Propping yourself against a wall will gradually restore your health, depicted as the characters catching their breath. And bloodstains on their clothes will magically fade away.
- Rubber-Band A.I.: In the two games, where any gang starts chasing you, they'll always be faster than even the only sports car in the game, and only a crash will stop them from going to your side and empty their guns on your current car.
- Take Cover!: The games uses a cover system where you can use the walls, vehicles or hard structures to take cover and blind fire or lean on in order to recover health.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Subverted. It seems the creators of the series knew players would be asking what happened to the minor characters, but instead of giving a straight answer, they just dropped bridges on them.
- Except for Grievous and Mr. Lee, who fates were never revealed. Although The Other Wiki claims that they died on board the Sol Vita.
- Worst Aid: You've been shot multiple times? No problem! Just lean on this wall for a bit. It even launders clothes.
