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Heist is an easy game to be sceptical about. From the moment you see the first screens and character art from Codemasters’ new bank robbery romp it’s all too tempting to dismiss it as another Grand Theft Auto clone. And it’s not just that Heist concentrates its energies on providing a huge, free-roaming cityscape filled with criminals, back alleys and a heavily armed police force.
There’s also the posters and promotional art, presented in a style we’ve all seen before in too many Guy Ritchie films. There’s the characters that reek of cliché, the 60s themed soundtrack and the general feel of a violent game designed to get Daily Mail readers sharpening their pencils.
In essence, on the surface it is a stereotypical example of a game that relies almost solely on overused stereotypes. But before you mull over completely disregarding Heist, consider this; almost every game we have ever played depends heavily on stereotype.
If Heist is guilty of plundering a toy box of clichés, then surely Call of Duty 3 is too. After all, the superb WWII shooter is filled with soldiers and tanks and all the cultural pointers of the world’s most horrific conflict.
Perhaps it is just that Heist bombards with so many references to movies and alternative American culture in the 1960s that it overwhelms, but one thing seems certain. Every stereotype it hammers gets hit right on the head. Bank job movies are clearly the biggest influence and, where most games miss the mark, Heist creates such a strong feel for some films you almost feel you are watching them.
The biggest influence appears to be the greatest bank job flick of all time, Dog Day Afternoon, but if you aren’t lucky enough to have seen Al Pacino’s incredible performance then think Reservoir Dogs, The Italian Job, Point Break, Ocean’s 11 or any other heist film you care to remember.
Set in the Mecca for dangerous stunt driving that is San Francisco, Heist is filled with classic American muscle cars, so of course there’s more than a touch of car chase movie Bullit and, daring for a moment to make a comparison to another video game instead of a hip length of celluloid, the sense of returning to the original Driver is undeniable.
It seems shallow to dwell on the influences and style of Heist, but the game is a clear attempt at taking all of the cool and rebellious chic that characterises the best robbery scenes in cinema’s history, and shoehorning them into a game. Of course, those moments are always defined by the leading roles, and one of the biggest tests for Heist will be proving that its protagonists can replicate the personalities played by some of Hollywood’s greatest. This might seem a little ambitious for a humble console release, but Hotel Dusk has already demonstrated that sharp, witty dialogue that oozes cool is well within the reach of the video game.
So what of the gameplay onto which all of Heist’s style will be pinned? Well, an expensive suit doesn’t make a man a decent bank robber anymore than good graphics make a bad game a pleasure to play. However, from the early build demonstrated it appears that the guys at developer Inxile Entertainment at least have some very nice ideas to distinguish their current project from all the other ill-conceived free-roaming titles that pollute the disc trays of consoles worldwide.
The focus is certainly on the individual bank robberies, and though this is no simulator, there’s a great deal you can do as you prepare to strike. For example, you can negotiate deals with the Garbage Workers’ Union so that their vehicles will defend you during your rubber-burning getaways. You can befriend radical hippies and encourage them to stage protests at convenient times to help your escape. You can of course scope banks as a casual ‘customer’ to get a feel for what you are tackling, noting security cameras and guards. The bold can even cause trouble elsewhere by cutting power to the bank and its security systems, and the cautious can take advice from the game’s mentor character, Uncle Sal.
When you’ve selected one of the numerous banks and made your preparations, the big moment must come. Just before you strike you can check what is best described as a Top-Trumps card for the finance world. Each details a specific bank’s statistics, from the number of cameras to the strength of the vault.
Once inside the walls of the bank and committed, you must assign roles to your specialised crew-members, who can work crowd control or get on with cracking the safe. Though they are obedient, they will not always resist their character traits, and will act alone on occasion. Sometimes they may be excessively violent or incredibly helpful, giving you the option of dishing out a rewarding compliment or a punishment, which they will remember for future jobs. The dynamic of having your accomplices make rogue acts is a brilliant inclusion, as the concept is also a core part of the atmosphere and drama of most of the game’s filmic influences.
Controlling trigger happy guards, defending your lock picker and seeking out hidden customers is all part of the task in hand, and keeping the situation from boiling over looks to make for a tense gaming experience. Though in theory you can pull off the perfect, bullet-free heist, of course things can go badly wrong, with civilian deaths and violent chaos breaking out. Either way, once you leave the bank you will then have to evade the police, though the reputation you develop will affect the way they deal with you.
Once you have leapt into your getaway car then you must evade a fairly punishing police pursuit, though interactive scenery such as billboards you can shoot down to block the road behind you should help a great deal. It seems you will be able to car-hop just like in GTA, but with the option to tune and improve you motor, loosing a car is not something you will want to make a habit of.
With the simple graphics currently at 30%, and multiplayer and online modes confirmed but not detailed, Heist still has some way to go, but if it can juggle its grand ambitions of style and substance, and escape the looming and pitch black shadow of the mighty Grand Theft Auto 4, then there is no doubt that it will be one of the most exciting crime titles of the year. It is probably best to reserve judgement for now though, as no game on Codemasters’ list of titles announced so far for 2007 and 2008 has so much potential to go either way. It might just be the worst free-roamer in some time or a fantastic new direction for a genre stifled by its own clichés.
