Reservoir Dogs is the newest movie-to-game adaptation to hit the
current generation of consoles (and in this case, the PC as well). The
movie from 1992, directed by Questin Tarantino, is a violent tale of a
group of bank robbers who get into all sorts of conflicts, from gun
fights to internal power struggles. It sort of received a loyal fan
base over the years, and it turned into somewhat of a cult movie.
I, for one, never seen the movie nor enjoy Quentin Tarantino's movies a
whole lot, so I thought it would be good for me to review this, being
completely transparent and not take any sides in it.
The game somewhat follows the movie's plot and does some background
story all at once: movie scenes are presented in game engine movies and
the background story tracks the missions in which the player will
interact with the game. Missions only vary from being on foot and in
car. Sounds familiar? Yes. This game plays a lot like Driv3r, which
isn't saying much. The driving is almost a carbon copy of the action in
the third iteration of Driver: twitchy, slow and unfeeling of speed.
The player goes to point A to point B while avoiding police cars and
being able to fire a gun or boosting using nitrous oxide. On foot
missions are bare to the bone: the movie's characters are controlled,
being able to use a narrow range of guns, such as 9mm's, shotguns and
rifles. None of which are very precise, since the shooting is mostly a
hectic and tiring affair thanks to the weak hit detection system that
takes the whole game to get used to it. The distance between the target
and the shooter has to be really close for him to get any shots off.
And enemy characters have no problem in hitting the player. The real
deal with the on foot missions is to pick up hostages and exploiting
the heck out of the game's unimpressive A.I: the player approaches the
victim's back and guides them through the level trying to convince cops
and SWAT members to surrender, beating the snot out of the poor
person's head. After some smacks, the intended surrender candidates
crouch to the floor and cease to be a threat to the robber: the robber
can then release his current hostage, since there is a sort of a
'cooperation meter' that gets drained as this hostage is abused, and
then pick up a fresh person from the crowd. Rinse and repeat 'til the
end of the mission. As far as the replay value of the game goes,
missions can be replayed so that the player rating can go up. This
rating depends on how the game is played: so if a lot of people are
killed, the rating goes down a bad path and it ends up being closer to
the psychopath level. If the game is played in a calculating manner,
taking hostages and not killing anyone, the rating goes up all the way
to the professional rating. These ratings don't interfere in the story,
but will net the player different endings. Other than that, there are
blueprints laying around the levels that can be collected for bonus
content like rough drafts for the levels and stills.
The visual presentation of Reservoir Dogs is a mixed bag: player models
look bland and somehow not convincing, not looking at all like the
actors from the movies - the scenery looks bland during on foot
missions, and during driving levels, it tends to repeat itself. The
menus kind of have their own personality and would be considered good
if a movie wasn't always playing in the background, with the same lines
over and over again being spoken by the characters, like Mr. Blonde's
"are you gonna bark?" line playing every time you reload the game.
Sound-wise, the soundtrack manages to be good, bringing back a lot of
classic 70-80's songs, none of which the names can be recalled. Michael
Madsen, one of the movie's actors lends his voice to his character and
was supposed to have his likeness in the game. All of the other actors'
imitators sound alright, cursing a lot and acting out their lines like
bad guys in movies do: angry and annoyed, though they don't look
anything like the real actors. Random characters found on levels sound
like random characters that are normally found on levels in games like
this: bland, repetitive and fake. Cops talk tough and nice at the same
time, civilians act like they couldn't walk out the door in fear and
bystanders just talk gibberish all the time.
The whole hype around the game's violence is well deserved: heads do
blow up when shot, blood sprouts from everywhere when someone is shot
and the cops are plentiful in the game to be shot. None of which is
really a surprise given the source material, and it would be surprising
if it wasn't there. On the other hand, comparing the game with the rest
of its kind, it doesn't stand out as being more violent than anything
else. GTA takes it even further with the kills, not to mention Manhunt
in the grittiness department.
Countries and U.S states won't have to worry about banning this game.
It does the job all by itself: horrible game play, repetitive scenarios
and bland graphics make it a tough choice for players to take when
there are much better alternatives around from which to choose from,
whatever system it intended for. If you are a fan of the movie, give it
a rent, but nothing else. Doing so gives incentive for game-makers to
keep serving this kind of presentation to the market.
