Reader Reviews

The Italian Job: LA Heist (Cube)

by DDevil

Another year, another set of (late) summer blockbuster films, and unfortunately another set of uninspired cash in games. So far so pessimistic, but will The Italian Job change my mind?

Well, no to be honest, this is a game with a few nice touches but fails to inspire me on any level. Let's look at the game structure to begin with; you have your standard story mode which consists of many "get to x place and pick up y" with the occasional "dodge the police/bad guys" task working its way in. It's alright in its own little way, but it's also very samey and boring as you might expect.

Then there is checkpoint mode, one or two players in a checkpoint race. SNORE... Next! Stunt mode is better, playing like a cut down version of Stuntman right down to the mess-up/restart game play. Stunt mode is probably the best part of the game showing off the quite nice physics in the game. Finally the free roam mode does exactly what is says on the tin, nothing special at all. Top it all off with all sorts of extras like film stills and concept art as "rewards" and you've got the entirety of the game.

The graphics are reasonable and do their job, but like the rest of the game fail to inspire. The sound on the other hand is terrible with a boring narration and the world's worst engine noises grating rapidly. Play a CD in the background instead, you'll be glad you did.