This GTA clone is so old its 2002 depiction of London feels nostalgic

Brits are feeling nostalgic for a 20+ twelvemonth aged GTA clone, not truthful overmuch for the crippled but its close recreation of 2002 epoch London precocious streets.

It’s a shame 2002’s The Getaway ne'er took off. While it undoubtedly borrowed much than a fewer things from Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series, it was neat having a London-based equivalent that tried to faithfully recreate the captial city.

Over 20 years later, its dedication to authenticity besides makes it rather the relic. After all, the London seen successful The Getaway is markedly antithetic to the London of today.

As such, it’s go a unusual model into the past that’s bound to marque anyone who grew up astatine the crook of millennium consciousness positively ancient.

Andy Kelly, PR manager astatine Devolver Digital, drew attraction to this precocious on X, describing The Getaway arsenic ‘an explorable 3D clip capsule of the British precocious thoroughfare astatine the crook of the millennium.’

It’s an apt description, with his screenshots already making america consciousness old. Thanks to licensing, The Getaway’s London streets are afloat of shops that portion commonplace past person mostly disappeared now.

Topshop, for instance, went into medication successful 2020, shutting each 500+ UK stores, and portion it did find a caller owner, it’s a purely online retailer nowadays. We besides can’t retrieve the past clip we saw an Orange Shop successful public, and a speedy Google hunt brings up wholly unrelated stores.

The Getaway’s London isn’t wholly unrecognisable, though. Odeon is inactive around, but the cinema seen in-game looks distinctly 2000s compared to its existent appearance.

We besides got a footwear retired of each the aged in-game advertising. The poster for the Mamma Mia signifier philharmonic connected the broadside of a autobus someway feels epoch appropriate, contempt the information the show’s inactive moving to this day.

Plus, arsenic Kelly points out, The Getaway technically features the lone video crippled quality of histrion Michael Ball, who tin beryllium seen connected a poster extracurricular The Dominion Theatre.

With however overmuch The Getaway licensed successful bid to recreate London (including each the vehicles you could drive), it’ll apt ne'er spot a remaster oregon re-release of immoderate kind.

Renegotiating each these licenses would astir apt beryllium excessively overmuch of a hassle and immoderate would person to beryllium replaced with generic made-up brands.

In fact, Sony were forced to region BT vans from the game, aft they complained astir them being utilized successful convulsive gameplay scenes.

What is The Getaway?

Developed by British workplace Team Soho and published by Sony for the PlayStation 2, The Getaway was fundamentally a GTA clone acceptable successful London, that had you play 2 abstracted storylines: 1 arsenic an ex-convict and 1 arsenic a constabulary officer.

It was undeniably ambitious and did good capable to warrant a sequel successful 2004, and past a PlayStation Portable spin-off, Gangs Of London, successful 2006. There were plans for different game, but they coiled up being cancelled.

Strangely, the Gangs Of London spin-off went connected to service arsenic the ground for the 2020 Gangs Of London TV show connected Sky. It’s connected way for a 3rd season, but it surely hasn’t revitalised The Getaway brand. We ideate astir fans of the amusement aren’t adjacent alert it’s based connected a video game.

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