Customer Reviews

The Italian Job

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Now that I have finally found the time to sit down and finish the Italian Job, I feel that I can give it a fair review. I would have given it 4 1/2 stars if I could have, but because it has such a great price..., I decided to go ahead and give it five stars. This may very well be the best [$$] I have ever spent.

If you enjoyed the movie The Italian Job, then you will definitely enjoy this game. It follows the movie almost exactly. You get to play through some of the best scenes in the movie, including the crazy Mini Cooper car chase through Turin, Italy.

This is a mission-based driving game, sort of like the Driver series or Grand Theft Auto III. You begin as a guy who just got out of prison and takes a job that involves stealing gold from the mafia in Italy. There are 16 missions: 8 in London, 6 in Italy, and the 2 escape missions through the Alps. There is a good variety in the mission objectives, although it mostly boils down to driving around trying to complete your objective while avoiding the cops. If the cops see you, they take chase and you have to shake them before reaching your objective. If you destroy your vehicle, run out of time, or if the cops get close enough to get your entire license plate number, then you fail the mission. The difficulty level is just about right. There are a few missions that will cause some frustration but they are not impossible.

In addition to the story mode, there are several extra games to mess around with. You can take a ride around London or Italy to get to know the area using your choice of vehicle. Then there are several mini games, like checkpoint races and stunt tests.

The graphics are not fantastic but they are okay for a PS One game. My major complaint about the game is the difficulty of controlling the car. If you are used to the tight control of PS2 games like Gran Turismo and the aforementioned GTA III, you may have some trouble getting used to the sluggish control here.

With all the bad games for the PS One that are coming out now, seemingly rushed just to make a quick buck, this is probably the best PS One game to come out since the PS2. Rockstar did a great job of recreating the scenes from the movie, especially on the getaway mission. All of the coolest segments of the movie chase are here. You get to drive through the subway, up the big dome building, across the river, and through the sewers. Overall, you could do much, much worse for [$$].

...I think this game is highly entertaining & good fun to play.
While I do agree with the graphics looking a little shoddy on the ps1 & yes, there isn't a rear view angle - This somewhat adds to the excitement of the chase with the law & doesn't spoil the game at all.
The Italian Job plays just like the cult film -Yeah we all know the ending -but getting there is enjoyable & does want you to go back for more.
If you are somewhat put off by graphics of the ps1 version I have personally seen a PC version of The Italian Job which is coming out very soon & I can tell you that it looks as sharp as a sharp thing in a very sharp shop!!
Driving several different cars that handle well is a challenge & getting in your Mini Cooper & having to handbrake around the various levels to the excellent soundtrack of the film has you coming back for more.
The Italian Job game isn't as classic as the film is,how could it be!But it sticks to the storyline very well.
The several different modes are great fun & a game that isn't quite as demanding as the Driver series makes a nice change & is overall a game that is as enjoyable as picking up a good book or watching a favorite film again.
Also it has a party mode that when you come back in from the pub with your mates is a laugh in itself.
It's a shame that the last review didn't give this game the justice it deserved - After all is was number 1 in the Playstation charts in the UK for 5 weeks & how many games can claim that?
I would recommend this game not as an essential for the collection -But at the budget price is a MUST!
I can assure you - You'll have fun playing it & it'll make you want to watch the film again soon after!

Well, I can't believe you Americans still haven't got The Italian Job yet. Here in Australia we have had it for about a year, and I have to say it is the best driving simulator out there, next to Gran Turismo 2. The game consists of 16 challenges based in Turin, the Alps and London (Why the movie was even called The ITALIAN Job I think is a mystery) where you must drive through a certain area without getting arrested, chase another car or deliver a car or other item to another place in a set period of time. However, the handling on all the cars except for the Bus is legendary, and abosultely rocks using a Thrustmaster Ferrari Challenge Racing Wheel. The multiplayer games are very cool, with the ability to play 8 player (2 multi-taps) versions of the side games, including Checkpoint (where the driver must reach certain checkpoints in a set period of time). Unfortunately, this game is nearly impossible to find on the shelves here, with the last copy I saw being in Christimas 2001. If this game is to go Platinum, we will have to rely on sales in countries other than Australia. ...

i am a ps2 owner and i love this game.i have also played this game on the ps2 version and i still think the ps1 version is better. although the graphis are horrid the gameplay is sweet.i love the free ride mode.i also know a cheat that works for getting every level and all cars.it is circle,circle,triangle,square,square.

Those still holding on to their PS1's should definitely give this game a look. Based on the 1969 film of the same name (which starred Michael Caine and late comedian Benny Hill), you get to put the pedal to the medal in different free roaming areas including London and Turin. Your transportation consists of 14 classic cars including the Mini Cooper that was in the film as you drive through the mission-based, traffic congested areas. While The Italian Job is a fun ride, it is not without it's flaws: the graphics are overly blocky and polygon dropout is present aplenty (then again, this is a PS1 game and all that is more noticable now more than ever) and the controls are overly clunky and no matter how fast the game says your driving, it always seems like your going much, much slower than you should. All that aside The Italian Job isn't necessarily a bad game, but newer gamers used to more powerful systems should avoid, but then again, PS1 owners looking for some actual half decent bargain basement priced fun should give this a whirl.

'The Italian Job' is loads of fun. While Driver sets the bench-mark for this type of driving game, TIJ is not far behind.

In TIJ you can see some of the elements that made Driver so cool; the nice cut-scenes, large environments, smooth scenery and the fact that you can bomb around towns in cool cars.The voices are hilarious and add to a colourful, humourous tone of the game.

The graphics are colourful and great to look at. Gameplay is smooth; cars drive nicely. The sound is good.

With persistence you can get it completed in one go, and it doesn't take too long. The Getaway level is surely one of the most fun, most exhiliarating, and at the same time, most fustrating levels in any PS game - excellent fun. And there's plenty more to do, with extra challenges and cars to use to race around London and Turin like a maniac.

All round a superb game,no wounder it has sold over 200,000 copiies since its launch in Sept 2001 and was No 1 in the charts for 4 weeks.It deserves to go Platinum.

This is a review of this product: The Italian Job (PlayStation video game). Amazon may display this review on the page of another version of this product, for which this review may not apply. After reading this review, please click on the link so that you can be assured that the product this review applies to is the same one you thought it was for.

(This is a review that I originally wrote on 07/27/2002)
--------------------------------------------------

The Italian Job is based on the 1969 movie starring Michael Caine (as Charlie Croker), Noel Coward (as Mr. Bridger), and Benny Hill (as Professor Simon Peach). Interestingly, the movie is being remade for a 2003 release with Mark Wahlberg (in the Michael Caine role), Edward Norton, Charlize Theron, Seth Green, and Donald Sutherland.

The plot of the movie and the game is very simple: A gang of crooks steal four million dollars through a traffic jam, while avoiding the police and mafia. HOW they do it is the fun part!

The game contain 16 missions across three different locales. Eight are in London, six are in Turin, and the final two are in the Alps.

I'd like to preface these next few paragraphs by telling you that I saw the film in it's original widescreen format (aka letterbox) on the Speedvision cable channel. Although this is a commercial channel, I presume the film was not edited. If it WAS edited, some of what I'm about to write may be incorrect.

Out of the eight London missions, only two are directly based on the film: "The Ambassador's Car" is implied in the film (they don't explicitly show you driving from the prison directly to the garage to pick up your car). "Peaches For Peaches" is also implied in the film (we see the h-o-o-k-e-r-s outside in Charlie's car while at Peach's place, but we never see him actually pick them up and take them there). The other six missions are completely made up using characters from the film.

The first mission in Turin is completely made up. It's just there to help you locate the places that you'll be visiting in later missions. I don't know why they make you visit the police station, since it is never visited in the game (or the film). The other five missions are directly based on the film (although the game maker's had to take a few minor liberties to make them work in the context of the game). Both Alps missions come directly from the film.

This is the only game that I can think of based on a film (or TV) license that makes PERFECT use of that license. To have a game this faithful to it's license is extremely rare.

GAMEPLAY

Before you even get to play any missions you have to deal with an extremely long loading time of about 30 seconds for each mission. This could be enough to turn some people off, and make them turn off the game, but I had enough patience to wait out each of these loadings.

Some of the missions are extremely fun, some are downright annoying, and one or two are hard as heck. Since I couldn't pass a few of the missions, I had to use the in-game cheat code to unlock all of the missions. This was great because it allowed me to play all of the missions (or at least attempt all of them) and I could keep playing my favorite ones.

"The Getaway" mission in Turin is one of my favorites even though I could never pass it. The reason why I couldn't pass it is one of the game's few faults: the cops. They are completely annoying, but are a lot better than the cops in Driver 2. As you get their attention, they (of course) pursue you. The only way to get the cops off your butt is to drive fast enough and take enough turns so as to lose them. When you have a timer counting down and a mission objective to take care of, this is a major annoyance. As if that wasn't bad enough, while they're chasing you, the cops are trying to write down your license plate number. If they get your whole number, you're busted (or "nicked" as the game calls it). Although this is a major improvement over the way the cops deal with you in Driver 2, it has one major flaw. Logically, and in real life, even when the cops get your entire license plate number, you can still drive away and have them chase you. For the game to simply have your mission end because the cops got your entire license plate number is ridiculous. Most often the cops are the reason why you'll fail missions (such as why I couldn't pass "The Getaway").

Using a walkthrough found at GameFaqs, I went into Free Ride mode and tried to recreate the path of "The Getaway." Although it didn't have the thrill and excitement of the actual mission, for the most part, I was able get a sense of what that mission is like ... and that was a lot of fun. It was because of that that I got interested in seeing the film (I first played the game without having seen the film). I wanted to see if the cool getaway in the game was just as cool in the movie. I never thought I'd say this about a game based based on a film, but the game's getaway was BETTER! The film cuts back and forth between the getaway chase and scenes that take place elsewhere at the same time. This completely throws off the continuity and excitement of the getaway. Still, a game that will make you want to see the movie it's based on is a good thing indeed (especially for the studio that owns the film and the license).

AUDIO/VIDEO

The music is a top-notch mixing of an instrumental of Quincy Jones' "Get A Bloomin' Move On" (aka The Self Preservation Society theme) from the film, bits of "Rule Britannia" (a traditional song also used in the film), and quirky background music that fits the setting perfectly. I enjoyed the Quincy Jones theme so much that I put the game CD in my computer's CD-Rom drive and extracted the short song to my hard drive for later recording onto a music CD so that I could listed to it with my regular music collection. How often do you want to do that with video game music?!?

The graphics are standard Playstation 1 graphics, though they're actually pretty good. There's nothing graphics-wise that stood out as being really bad or exceptionally good, so there's not much to say.

REPLAYABILITY

After finishing the main game ("The Italian Job" mode) you will have access to the Challenge mode, which consists of short missions with tough times where you will test your skills in braking, turning and jumping. There are five jump tests, but since all five use the same course, this gets boring real fast. There is one break test, but it isn't as hard as it initially seems. A checkpoint race on an icy road, a survival lap around the city, and two destructor races (one on an icy road and another viewed from overhead) round out the rest of the challenges.

Along with "The Italian Job," there are other modes that are unlocked from the start. They are:

-- Checkpoint - You have to reach all of the checkpoints in the allotted time. Each checkpoint you reach gives you a little extra time to make it to the next one.

-- Destructor - Here your mission is to destroy the line of cones in the sequence before the
time runs out.

-- Party Play - This is the multiplayer mode in which you can play with up to 8 people in different Checkpoint, Destructor and Challenge mode stages.

-- Free Ride - Here you can cruise around London and (if you unlocked it) Turin in any car (you start off with one unlocked). You can use this mode to familiarize yourself with the cities, but be aware of the cops. You'll even find some secrets within this mode. Check the walkthrough here are GameFaqs for more info.

As you complete the missions in "The Italian Job" mode, you will unlock extra cars and tracks for these other modes.

The problem with all these extras is that they get boring after a while because it's just the same thing over and over again. At first it's fun, then it's just tedious.

TO BUY OR TO RENT?

Rent. The game is just too darn short to have as a permanent part of your collection, even with the unlockable extras.

If you are a player who likes challenges and racing down streets, this game has it!

The precursor to grand theft auto.

Get good at this game and GTA series driving will be snap.

Slowness is an advantage, but if you are an emulator fan, try that after you finished ps1. However, if you are not GTA hardened, be prepared to get lost until you get a sense of direction.

Try driving without specific goal when too challenged by a scenario. This will keep you from giving up.

As you earn cars and locality, try each car in free ride mode, they arevery different. Enjoyed driving on other side of road
and young
but talented kids loved this game in free ride.

In my opinion TIJ( The Italian Job) is by far the best driving game on playstation 1. It sorta reminded me of rockstar's GTA series except u can't go shooting ppl. I think that the time limit on the missions helps make the game go by faster.
Some of the missions in the game althought seeming pointless r funny none the less. If i had a choice between this game and all the other ps1 driving games i'd definitely choose this. It's funny, action packed, and it's something u can play with u'r friends.

Great adaptation to a cult movie. Although not the graphics of Driver, superb gameplay. Very addictive, with some brilliant levels. Can't beat racing through the center of Turin. Across the stadium roof.

So frustrating trying to outrun those police cars. The bonus for me was the arrow showing the direction to aim for. Was such a relief not to have to keep flicking up the map as in so many games these days.

I thought the mini handled excellent. On the whole well worth this price.