L
ook at the paper map of London folded
into the front of The Getaway’s DVD box,
and you’ll be struck by two things. First,
just how incredibly faithful it is. And
second, the uneven street density. Where
most of the city is a condensed network of main roads
that take you round the back of Buckhingham Palace
and across Hyde Park, that changes as you cruise
through Covent Garden into Soho – the game world
becoming a close crosshatch of squares and side
streets. It’s the natural focus of a team that lived and
worked in the area – Team Soho, as they were then.
The same core staff that would end up founding Team
Bondi, and making LA Noire.The Getaway has a lot in common with the game Team
Soho’s key members would go on to create. For one
thing, it took a long time to come together – first
conceptualised during the PS1 era, and releasing just
after Vice City. Unusually for the time, it shone a
spotlight on its non-celebrity actors – using photo images
of the cast in promotion, recreating their faces and
performances in cutscenes, and putting their names front
and centre of its credit sequence.
Although it took place in an open city, The Getaway
didn’t adopt the free-roaming structure that GTA was just
then popularising. Instead, its London was the backdrop
to a bleak riff on Guy Ritchie’s cockney capers – the linear
story of a helpless tough “running all over town”
committing bucket-list crimes on behalf of the ageing
gang boss who had kidnapped his child.RHYMING GANG
Once the player arrived at the scene of their next
shootout, Team Soho would whip out the magnifying
glass, drawing interiors in intense detail. Witness theReptilian Gallery, home to an art exhibit filled with
dozens of unique paintings and sculptures, not to mention
information boards, leaflet stands and a receptionist who
asks the protagonist if she can be of any assistance (“Nah I
don’t fink you can babe. I’m just browsin’, awight?”).
It might be thought of as unnecessary set dressing for a
mission that quickly descends into clunky cover shooting,
and concludes with a car chase at breakneck speed. But
you can’t argue with the sense of place and authenticity
that results from it. The Getaway is that rare game
enhanced by its product placement; where Grand Theft
Auto leaned into parody, this competitor offered the
uncanny realness of passing a Pizza Hut in a Lexus – the
car brands fitting for a studio that first found its wheels
with the PS1’s Porsche Challenge.
After critical acclaim and commercial success, the core
Getaway team followed writer-director Brendan
McNamara to Sydney, where they set up Team Bondi –
initially with the continued backing of Sony. Swapping out
Snatch for LA Confidential, they envisioned another open
world city, this time taking in Hollywood and the
backyard of the Black Dahlia killer. Again, the blocks and
blocks of meticulously remembered urban land were
purely peripheral, left out of focus in favour of the main
event: small-scale crime scenes which players would
investigate, turning over discarded coffee cups with their
hands, rummaging through handbags and bins in search
of clues. Again, the team sought to rival cinema, investing
in cutting-edge performance capture tech – asking players
to analyse the expressions of actors in close-up, in order
to determine whether suspects were telling the truth.HEAVY PRICE
It remains an irresistible premise, but it was a costly one.
In fact, LA Noire became the most expensive game project
in Australian history. Before long, Sony backed out – and
in a twist of irony, Team Bondi found a partner in
Rockstar, which picked up the financial baton and carried
it through to the bitter end.THE LONG GOODBYE
How TEAM BONDI built LA Noire on the back of The Getaway
BELOW: Look past the
hostage situation to
the exit sign. Delicious
attention to detail.
GET OUT
The lengths put into capturing London1
The team took
over 500,
images of the
bustling capital to
work from.2
One artist was
banned from
planning offices for
looking at too much
reference material.3
A photoshoot
around Soho led
to a real-life chase
as bouncers pursued
the art team.NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT