YMMV / The Getaway

• Anti-Climax Boss: Arguably both Jake and Harry from a story perspective. Both are given a large amount of screen time, with Jake in particular built up as a dangerous psychopath. However aside from a couple of easy-to-miss voice lines, it's easy to not even realise that you're fighting Jake. He has a greater HP pool than the average mook but otherwise is unremarkable, dying quickly if you're carrying an AK or dual pistols. Harry is a little more distinctive and has a few more voice lines, but the encounter is still pretty generic. This isn't helped by the abrupt cut to the final cutscene without any specific death scene for the bosses.
• Complete Monster: Charlie Jolson is the brutish, bigoted head of the Bethnal Green mob. Desiring a return to the old days, Charlie orders the kidnapping of Mark Hammond's wife Suzie and son Alex, leading to Suzie being fatally shot. Threatening to kill Alex if Mark doesn't do as Charlie says, Charlie sends Mark on a series of jobs that throw London into chaos, including torching a Collins restaurant; shooting up a Triad art gallery; assisting in the violent breakout of Charlie's nephew "Crazy" Jake from a police convoy; leading the Triads and Yardies into a bloody gunfight with each other; killing dozens of cops at a police station in order to silence DCI Clive McCormack and Yasmin; and "procuring" a dancer named Layla from a Collins club who gets shot in the crossfire. All of these jobs leave dozens of rival gangsters and police dead, and civilians caught in the middle. Charlie then invites the other gang bosses to a sitdown on the ship Sol Vita for the purpose of handing over Mark, but in reality to blow up the ship and wipe out the other gangs, leaving London solely for himself. When this is discovered, Charlie attempts to escape the ship even though Jake and dozens of his own men are still onboard, and then proceeds to arm the bomb when caught in a final act of spite, resulting in dozens more deaths, including the rest of the Bethnal mob itself.
• Demonic Spiders: Any mook carrying a shotgun (which can kill you with three shots, sometimes two) or a Molotov cocktail (which will kill you instantly).
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: While critics and fans praise the game for its story and gameplay, many have also noted that the only downside is that the first (and second) games are short and can be beaten in a day or two.
• Magnificent Bastard: Yasmin is a no-nonsense hitwoman working for Charlie Jolson. Tasked with kidnapping Mark Hammond's wife, Suzie, and son, Alex, Yasmin and her companions successfully kidnap Alex so Charlie can hold him hostage and force Mark into taking out the other gangs in London. Although Yasmin is arrested by DCI McCormack, she remains silent during her interrogation before being confronted by Mark himself. Knowing Charlie wants her dead and that Mark wants his son back, Yasmin offers to help Mark rescue Alex, and the two of them shoot their way out of a police station before Yasmin poses as a dancer so she can infiltrate Charlie's mansion. Even after the rescue attempt is botched, Yasmin continues assisting Mark and going after Charlie, killing several of his minions before she and Mark talk their way out of being killed by the other gangs.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Charlie Jolson when he initiates the kidnapping of the Hammonds which sets the games events and chaos into motion.
  • Harry when he murders Suzie
  • Jake Jolson when he shoots police officer Joe Fielding
  • Sparky when he tortures and electrocutes a young member of the Triads
  • McCormack when he orders the assassination of the hospitalised Joe Fielding
  • Eyebrows gleefully crosses this when he murders a group of defenceless police officers
• That One Level:
  • "Out of the Frying Pan." You basically find yourself stuck between a huge gunfight between several Yardies and Triads. The number of enemies in the stage is no less than fifty, and they all must be killed before you can finish the stage. And then there's the Yardie mooks who carry Molotov cocktails, which you probably won't see until it's too late.
  • "Filthy Business", mostly because of how long it is. First you have to drive to a van that's WAY on the other side of London, and the entire time you'll have to deal with Yardies and cops chasing after you. Then you have to drive the van and destroy the real repair van before it reaches the police station (and make sure not to lose the van in the process). Then once you reach the police station, you have to kill McCormack, and in order to do so without dying, you pretty much have to follow him all the way to the interview room without being seen (if you try and kill him beforehand he won't die regardless of how many times you shoot him) then you and Yasmin have to fight your way out of the police station through dozens of cops, some of which shoot tear gas which can stun you, and if you get too close to the cops, they can stun and arrest you, forcing you to restart the last checkpoint. Then once you go out the backdoor, you have to shoot a box to prevent the automatic gate from closing, which is easier said then done, considering you cannot lock onto the box, you have to use free-aiming mode to hit it (and hitting anything in free-aiming mode takes some serious getting used to). If you don't hit the box before the gate closes, then you have to back into the station and fight your way through more cops while escaping through the front door.
  • "Aboard the Sol Vita." You have to battle your way through the Sol Vita, taking down several Bethnal Green mobsters along the way. The level's very large and hard to navigate, enemies are everywhere, and when you finally reach the end, you'll find yourself facing Harry Preston and his sawed-off shotgun.
  • "Land of Hope and Glory." Imagine playing the ship section of "Aboard the Sol Vita" again, but increase the amount of mooks you have to fight your way through. Now try to finish the level in under three minutes, and you'll see just why the level's so difficult.
  • "The Prodigal Son." Charlie's mansion is filled with shotgun equipped mooks and annoying laser beams. Mark has to avoid triggering these using clunky controls that aren't used much in the rest of the game. Triggering a laser trap usually results in restarting the entire level, thanks to a particularly egregious case of Checkpoint Starvation.

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