For the uninitiated, this 3D rendition of the classic-which was one of only three games to be inducted into the Smithsonian Institute's Hall of Fame-follows the bumbling albeit brave Dirk the Daring, a chivalrous dork bent on saving the imperiled Princess Daphne (after 20 years her figure is still intact-must be all those ab crunches). The game's antagonist is the wily wizard Mordroc, his army of spell-summoned minions, and the mighty, monstrous dragon Singe.
Trekking through some 250 chambers primed with traps, puzzles, and oodles of enemies, you'll eventually make your way to ultimate victory. On your path, though, unlike the dated original, you'll learn nifty, knightly tricks like temporary flight and 360-degree sword slashes. That's in addition to your already nimble range of movements, from evasive rolls to rope-climbing aptitude.
However, even with all the added physical perks, the monotony of going from one room to the next, solving conundrums that even the most inept gamer would laugh at, and hacking away at ham-fisted baddies makes the game less than scintillating-just like the '83 version. After a while, even with fairly competitive graphics (mimicking Bluth's animation with decent success), the game simply turns stale. Itchy controls don't help things either.
No doubt there's plenty of nostalgia to be had by jamming with Dragon's Lair 3D, but that's about all you'll get for 50 bucks.-JMG
The Getaway
Console: PlayStation 2
Publisher: SCEA
Hot: This sure is an interactive movie
Not: It's just far from Oscar-worthy
Score: 0 0 0
You are Mark Hammond, an ex-con coerced into running a bloody underworld filled with murder, arson, and thievery by local London kingpin Charlie Jolson, a feisty piranha of a crime boss. He had his goons shoot your wife outside of your apartment and then snag your son; to get the kid back, you're chained to a cell phone to do Charlie's every bidding, no matter how dirty the deed.
That's The Getaway, a remarkably bold stab at transforming a plain ol' video game into an interactive movie. Propelled by a thick screenplay, a handful of live actors rattling off lines in heavy cockney, and nearly 20 square miles of London streets meticulously rendered for your driving pleasure, it's a caper like no other. After playing through 12 mission-based levels as the Armani-clad Hammond, the adventure will switch into a copper-versus-robber mode, wherein you'll take the reins of Frank Carter (of London's Flying Squad), trailing closely behind the gangster happenings. It's a welcome change-up, bringing some variety to gameplay that tends to get stifled by redundancy. Once you've wailed through the game as both characters, the city streets open up for your free-roaming pleasure, whether you enjoy playing chicken with the local bobbies or simply shooting up crowds of pedestrians.
The development team even went as far as snapping over 30,000 digital photos, admittedly burning out several cameras in the process, to capture the intricate details of each and every building, sidewalk, and bus stop. On a whim, as a digital litmus test of sorts, I tried to find the hotel I stayed at during my last trip to England. Lo and behold, it was there, along with the local theater across the street and the McDonald's down the road.
It all sounds visually striking but the PlayStation 2 isn't capable of realizing the vast vision of this game. Were it on Xbox, with hundreds of cool technical quirks to spruce up the graphics, it'd definitely be a more dazzling experience. As is, The Getaway isn't photo-realistic, it's merely photo-inspired. The world you mosey through in Grand Theft Auto fashion, by either running or jacking over 50 various licensed cars (from Minis to double-decker buses), is dreary and flat, lacking the hi-res specs that the stealthy Splinter Cell has proven is entirely possible on Microsoft's beefy console. In short, it's mediocre.