14 DAY TRIAL // 
Watch Tarantino at work! "Reservoir Dogs", the 1992 movie hit will take the fans for a spin in the sick world of criminals. It all began with a discussion about the song "Like a Virgin" and this: Joe: "Here are your names: Mister White, Mister Blonde, Mister Pink. Mister Pink: Why am I Mister Pink? Mister White: Who cares what the name is? Mister Pink: It's easy for you to say, you're Mister White. You have a cool sounding name." SCi and Volatile Games decided to revive the classic by giving it a shot in the gaming world. Is this the birth of a new star? Another cop-killing massacre? Just another mobster game? It's certainly a return of a king, Quentin Tarantino's first film. The main characters from the movie are all playable, offering the fans the possibility to find answers for some of the questions that the movie left us with.
Story "What happens if the manager won't give you the diamonds? I'll cut one of his fingers... the little one." Basically, it's a diamond heist gone bad. A bunch of guys wanted to rob jewelry and joined forces to make a quick buck. That involved guns, hostages and extreme manners. Cops? Hmm... cops. Never forget about that, but who cares when the sleazy gang packs so much firepower? You can really say that you're playing the movie. Six men that have nothing in common will take part in a complicated story of a robbery gone crazy. They might just fear each other, as the cops are no massive threat. One of them is a psycho, one of them is a cop, and all of them are greedy and ruthless.
Finding the stones is all they want and they'll try that even if they get shot in the stomach like Mister Orange while hijacking a car from a lady. The response? A bullet through the young miss from Mister White. A controversial movie generated a controversial game, and be cautious, because the game is not for the faint-hearted and will plug you into a violent and bloody reality. All the original scenes from the movie are there, but the game will be entertaining even for those that haven't seen the picture (if any). How did Mister Blue survive? Who is the cop? Will they all die? Reservoir Dogs answers all of these.
Concept "Are you to bark all day little doggie or are you going to bite?" It's the first in-game line you'll hear in the menu told by the acid Michael Madsen. Reservoir Dogs is a modern third person shooter and an action driving game that will provide the same experience as Tarantino's shock movie did. The action is not linear as the plot unfolds through alternate episodes from the timeline. You might play the end of it now, and wake up doing what started it all. However the producers said that you can finish this game without firing a bullet, using hostages and quick escapes. There will be ranking for your actions, ranging from psycho to professional. Keep quiet and stealth and take hostages, you're a pro, go berserk and kill everyone, you're a psycho!
One thing is for sure: hell broke loose for the cops. There will be lots of hostage situations, where you'll threaten the victims and policemen by pressing the R2 button. Make your way through the game by using the tutorial at the beginning. It'll be a fun lesson including a paintball simulation of a robbery and hostage situations. The way the guys fake that they are victims will make you laugh for sure. Mister Pink is the best: "Help I am hostage, oh God I am sooo afraid!" said with a bored voice and a face that doesn't quite look like the Mister Pink we expected. Taking hostages and shooting your way out of the dangerous situations will be followed by car chases and cutscenes built after the own flesh and blood of the original production.
Gameplay "Ever listened to K-Billy's "Super Sounds of the Seventies"? The game is divided into chapters like the ones of a DVD and the player can go through them at any time. Quite a pleasant cinematic experience! There will be lots of blood shedding thanks to the various weapons you'll be able to use. Big shotguns, classy snipers, comfortable guns, they're all there ready to pay the Reaper a tribute. Use a riot shield to protect from damage or throw a Molotov cocktail to light things up for the men in blue. Perhaps you'll want to throw a smoke grenade and vanish. Or shoot gas cans and blow the whole place up. Or maybe snipe the SWAT team. There is also physical violence when you'll use the force to scare away the cops by hitting the hostage in the head with the gun or banging his skull on a wall nearby. But don't kill all of the innocent people, because some of them are useful when opening a safe, a door or a lock. There's so much blood in the game that you'll leave red marks on the floor when you walk.
The game is not difficult at all, although a little bit stressful at times. Usually a man with a gun will lower the weapon and kneel, the same will a cop, but don't expect that from a SWAT team member with a riot shield on. Car chases are great, and you'll feel the adrenaline pumping when the car jumps, the trunk opens, a body falls out, cops everywhere, the road's blocked, you partner is dying and the engine is on fire. Above your own health indicator you'll notice a hostage life meter that drops quite quickly even if you don't hit the unlucky citizen. They can faint in your hands, specially the old ones and the women. Usually after you hit them three of four times they die.
The character can enter some sort of bullet time when you press the analog stick and the shooting gets slower but more precise thanks to a bigger crosshair. Not having enough fun? Not enough liters of blood? Press the triangle button to go psycho after the blue meter is filled by some really violent piece of action and you'll be able to make some fine movie-like scene, including slow-motion shooting, bullet time, cool ways for the cops to die. I was frustrated by the fact that I can only carry two weapons at the same time, and one type of grenade. The AI is pretty good for like 30 percent of the game, the rest are...just cops. You'll notice a big difference between SWAT team members and regular policemen, and it's not about different clothing styles. Blood on the walls and corpses on the floor. That's how the room will look when you'll leave the premises, no matter which Color of Mister you are.
Video The menu is cleverly built containing punchlines from the film converted to the game's graphical style. That's the main menu from the start, and the in-game one is well-designed as well. They planned this according to the movie keeping an accurate design of characters, except for Mister Pink that is older and has a bigger mustache and Mister Orange has a few extra pounds in the game. In the first driving mission you'll witness a superb animation of a train passing by and generally the driving experience has good graphics and the cars look OK, taking damage and interacting with the environments.
A problem would be the fact that all cops look the same, and so do most of the NPC-s you'll take as hostages. The backgrounds are urban, industrial and drawn with style suiting the places that appeared in the movie. The problems appear when the character enters bullet time: a bit of foggy graphics and some problems with the camera. The grenade effects do the job perfectly, when the smoke blinds the camera view, or the flash bang confuses the player. They producers tried to make this look real, and the fierce gunmen will carry the weapons on their backs or in their pockets leaving no room for spare change.
Sound Head against the wall! Mister Pink seemed to have troubled the producers as he does not sound or look like Steve Buscemi. The only voice of an original actor from the '92 blockbuster is Michael Madsen's. But the others are worth mentioning, as the superb dialog got me laughing in my room by myself. I was driving a car on the highway while some guy babbled about a girl that he had taken to his room or a prison joke. You'll hear the whole soundtrack, it's all there, the songs you adored or hated from the movie.
The shooting and glass breaking sounds are pretty realistic as is the distance of the music played on stereos. Enter a room and hear a distant tune of some 70's song. Walk a bit and you'll hear the music louder or shut it up by shooting the stereo. I must admit that I'm pretty obsessed with the song "Little Green Bag" by George Baker and any other fan of the film would be, although i shot the stereo (I didn't shoot the DJ).
Who would expect to hear the dirty stories of an ex-con having Blue Suede's "Hooked on a feeling" in the background, while driving on the freeway, on the wrong side of the road? You'll even hear an annoying low-frequency sound when the flash-bang grenade kicks in. Reality at work, boys!
Conclusion You MUST see the ads for this game. I mean it. Those are the funniest clips made for a console game ever. I won't spoil the fun by telling you that they're reenactments of Reservoir Dog's (the film) final scene. I think I'll play this game again, especially the first driving episode for fun only, because Mister Orange's and Mister White's comments worth all the effort and the music is some fine piece of work. Even camera was good, considering it's a console game. The producers did well; they must have had Tarantino up their sleeve giving the needed indications and suggestions.
