The Getaway is a PlayStation 2 game developed by Team Soho. It was first released in 2002 in Europe and Australia/New Zealand before it would be released in North America and Japan in 2003 and later in 2004 in South Korea. The game was released by Sony Computer Entertainment's various branches except for Japan, which was handled by Capcom Japan.
The game takes place in 2002 in the Greater London Area. Mark Hammond, an ex-member of a British firmnote known as the Collins Gang, was released for good behavior after serving time for being involved in a CG-led armed robbery incident. He had settled down to get married to raise a family. However, the leader of the Bethnal Green gang, Charlie Jolson, has big plans for London. And that involves kidnapping Mark's only son Alex...
Meanwhile, Detective Constable Frank Carter of the plainclothes Metropolitan Police unit "Flying Squad"note has long wanted to take down Jolson and the BGs with it. However, he's been accused publicly of being a Cowboy Cop in his work and his antics in taking down the gangs have forced Detective Chief Inspector Clive McCormack to temporarily remove him from the case. Of course, that doesn't stop him and he later learns that his superior is a Dirty Cop with links to Jolson and later on, his assassination is just the beginning of something bigger with Jolson's plans to reshape organized crime.
The game is followed by a sequel known as The Getaway: Black Monday.
The Getaway provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: Most of the story details are either seen in the instruction manual and/or strategy guides.
- Another Side, Another Story: Finishing Mark Hammond's story allows players to play through Frank Carter's arc.
- Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: An egregious example. As Mark runs out into the street to find his wife shot, he drops his own gun only to paw the dropped murder weapon for a second. This results in law enforcement hunting him down since his fingerprints were all over it.
- Bittersweet Ending/No Ending: Mark is alive, but his wife is dead, and he can never return to London. Yasmin and Alex also get off the boat just moments before it blows, but we don't know if they managed to get out of London before the cops or other gangs found and killed Mark and Yasmin. Frank Carter also escapes by diving into the harbor, but we don't know if he survived the fall.
- Cop Killer: Mark is assigned the task of infiltrating a police station and killing the corrupt head of the Flying Squad.
- Creator Cameo:
- The game's writer Katie Ellwood makes a cameo in the first mission as Mark's wife Suzie.
- Director Brendan McNamara makes a cameo role in the second mission as the voice of the Republic Bartender, who can be killed if the player wishes.
- Programmer Chun Wah Kong voices one of the Triad 49ers going after Mark after Mr. Chai's body was "returned".
- Crowd Panic: People freak out and run during the first half of the game if you're 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.
- Delivery Guy Infiltration: Mark enters a police station by impersonating a telephone repairman so he can kill McCormack.
- Didn't Think This Through: After Mark's wife is shot, he runs outside and instinctively picks up one of the two guns on the sidewalk and then drops it. After she dies, Mark picks up the other gun and runs off, carelessly leaving the one he already touched on the ground.
- Downer Beginning: The game starts with Hammond's son getting kidnapped and his wife being shot and killed.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The game could be considered this for the 3D Open-World Crime Sandbox genre as a whole, which was still in its infancy back in 2002 - while GTA III was released the previous year, it had yet to fully exert its influence. It exists in a very distinct grey area between GTA and earlier open-world driving games like Driver - the story is a series of missions performed in a strict linear order and said missions alternate between driving and shooting with only minor variations. Furthermore, the action takes place in a real city instead of a No Communities Were Harmed counterpart, it averts Fauxrrari by using real vehicles (which even get name-dropped by the police) and the villains throw racial slurs left and right - something that even early GTA tended to avoid; there are experimental features like Regenerating Health and the total absence of a HUD (instead, your health is measured by how bad the wounds on your body are, and you're directed around the map by your car's indicators). Most glaringly, however, there's no free roam, at least not at first - you have to unlock it by beating the story. For this reason it only really qualifies as a 'Sandbox' by the loosest possible definition, and it's often classified instead as an Action-Adventure game in light of this - regardless, it still serves as a snapshot in the transition period between simple open-world driving games and modern crime sandboxes, not really fitting neatly into either genre.
- Electric Torture: Sparky tortures captured Triad member Johnny Chai with a car batteries. He warns Jake not to attack him because he's still wired up.
- Enemy Civil War: Charlie plans to cause one by having Mark hit the Collins crew, the Triads and the Yardies and then watch the fireworks.
- Flashed-Badge Hijack: As he is a police officer, Frank Carter is able to use this as an excuse to steal cars. Oddly, he doesn't get into trouble for stealing cars when he is suspended.
- Get It Over With: Charlie has Mark and Yasmin at his mercy. The reason he doesn't kill them is because they're part of his plan.Mark: Get on with it, Jolson. You've always been a drama queen. Why haven't you just clipped us?Yasmin: Yeah, Charlie. The suspense is killing me.Charlie: Really, children. There's nothing that would give me more pleasure. However, I've got bigger fish to fry.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: While meeting with Charlie in a pub, Mark pulls a gun on him and demands to see his son. The landlord simply cracks a bottle over his head.
- Hate Sink: Charlie Jolson was already hated in-universe before the plot of the game even starts because he was THE drug lord of London. The game manual explains that he wants to go back to the glory days when he was one. It ends just as you would expect, only worse, because in order to force him to smuggle drugs and fight against the rival drug lords he kidnaps Mark's son and kills his wife.
- Hide Your Children: Alex Hammond appears to be the only child in the whole Greater London area.
- Hot Pursuit: Justified; occasionally you'll hear someone on a police radio mention that they've recognised Mark Hammond, who becomes wanted for murdering his wife (which he didn't actually do) in the opening cutscene and has been roaming the streets of London single-handedly causing enough mayhem to rival the 2011 riots.
- I Have Your Wife: The plot involves Mark Hammond's son getting kidnapped by the BGs and make him do things that he can't do anymore, from forcing him to kill his best friends in his favorite bar to dealing in drugs. Hilariously parodied by the Unskippable crew
:Charlie Jolson: I ring you, you do the job. You don't do what I tell you, the kid dies. You don't do it where I tell you, the kid dies. You don't do it when I tell you, the kid dies! Are you getting my drift? Now you want to see your kid again, you do exactly what I say. You talk to anyone, you're late, or you let me down, your kid dies! Do I make myself clear?Paul Saunders (as Mark): But what if I go skydiving?Graham Stark (as Charlie): Your kid dies!Paul: What if I forget to bathe?Graham: Your kid dies!Paul: But what if I kill my kid?Graham: Your ki—touché. - It's Personal with the Dragon: Both Mark Hammond and Frank Carter want to see Charlie Jolson taken down, but both their final boss fights are with his underlings - Mark against Harry (who has a hatred of him, possibly over his wife) and Frank against Jake (who shot his partner).
- Killed Offscreen: Eyebrows, one of Charlie's goons, is killed by Yasmin offscreen during the shoot-out on the Sol Vita.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Charlie has a taste for the finer things in life like classic Bentleys, Savile Row suits and fat Cuban cigars.
- Playing Both Sides: McCormack is the head of the Flying Squad and in Charlie Jolson's pocket, but he's also selling guns to the Yardies that were stolen from them in the first place. This ultimately leads to Charlie having him killed.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Charlie Jolson is an aging white London Gangster who resents the multiculturalism of modern London's organized crime community. Not only are he and his nephew Jake casually racist, constantly throwing racial slurs at The Yardies and The Triads, his entire evil plot is to lure all his rivals into a trap so he can blow them up and 'bring things back to how they used to be'. As if to remove all doubt, at the end of the game he rants about the "mixing of the fucking races", and says "you give these people a little bit of space, and what do you get? Fucking disorder!" He is contrasted by the more cosmopolitan Collins Crew, one of whose members (who happens to be black) refers to Jolson as a 'National Frontnote geezer', and their leader Nick lampshades his attitudes by calling him "a bad hangover from a different era". While downplayed compared to their racism, Jolson and his underlings are also casually misogynistic as well - one particular goon nonchalantly objectifies women who have just been violently killed and sends Mark Hammond off to essentially kidnap a 'dancing slut' for Jolson.
- Real-Place Background: A lot of effort was put into replicating London. You can find the pub you burn down in real life; the screenshots are as similar as the page image.
- Regenerating Health: As your character takes damage, they'll start to bleed and limp. Leaning against a wall for a few seconds will cause the blood to disappear, and they'll be back in fighting shape.
- Sawn-Off Shotgun: This is Harry's weapon of choice. It is not a usable weapon option, however.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Right after being suspended, Frank heads off to rescue a pair of captured rookie officers.WPC: What about all that screaming? I thought you were suspended?Frank: Fuck him. He can arrest me later.
- Shout-Out: One of the main characters is a Flying Squad detective named Carter. Or he could be named after Get Carter.
- SWAT Team: The SO19 is seen when they go with Frank during his missions. They're seen with police checkered caps worn in reverse with respirators.
- Too Dumb to Live: In the last level of the first game, most of the Mooks seems to ignore that there's a Time Bomb on the ship and decide to kill each other instead of running for safety.Frank Carter: "Half the waterfront's about to go up and you're STILL arguing!"
- The Triads and the Tongs: The London wing of the real life 14K Triad controls the city's heroin trade. Their standing by the time of the second game is left ambiguous, but it's suggested that like the other gangs, they've become weak.
- Turn in Your Badge: Following Jake's bust-out, McCormack is outraged with Frank and blames him for the loss of the dead police officers and asks why he didn't call for backup. Frank accuses McCormack of failing to inform him about the automatic weapons and M79 grenade launcher used by Jake and claims the entire escort was a setup. McCormack shouts at Frank once again and suspends him from duty. Frank however states that the operation stinks and vows to find out why. He leaves McCormack's office and slams the door behind him.You are an amateur, Carter. You run around this town like some kind of vigilante with a badge. Thinking that you're special, that you're outside the law. It's over, hero. You're suspended. I'm having you on charges. You were walking on thin ice and now you've just cracked it. Get Out!. You're off the fucking case, do you hear me?
- Villainous Breakdown: Charlie Jolson decides to pull a Taking You with Me after his plans are foiled and activates a bomb while he and all his enemies are still on board the Sol Vita. He then proceeds to sing Land of Hope and Glory, making no attempts to leave.
- While You Were in Diapers: During Charlie's rant:I was running this town back when you were still being smacked by your dad for wetting the bed.
- The Yardies: The Yardie crew run by Jamahl are an important faction in both games, controlling London's crack trade in the first and moving into arms trafficking with the Skobel Group in Black Monday.
- You Do Not Want To Know: Right before heading off to kill McCormack, Mark says this to Liam before he hangs up:Mark: I've got to go, mate, there's something I've gotta do right now.Liam: Oh, no, what are you up to now?Mark: You don't want to know, Liam. You definitely don't want to know about this one.
