If the names Mr. Pink, Mr. Orange, Mr. White or Mr. Blonde bring to mind images of characters in a children’s television show, you have not seen Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic film, Reservoir Dogs. The film, which was produced in 1992, revolved around a jewelry heist gone horribly wrong. Reservoir Dogs was noted for its gritty dialogue, intense colorful (pun not intended) characters and violent scenes. Now, years later, the big screen movie will be transitioning to the small screen with Reservoir Dogs, the video game.
One major attraction for connoisseurs of the film will be the chance to tie up several loose ends in the movie, such as how Mr. White escaped, where Mr. Pink hid the diamonds, what really happened to Mr. Orange and other details that all loyal Tarantino followers will want to know more about.
The game allows you to play as each character in the film and follows the non-linear approach of the movie in revealing the storyline. While the game will be a shooter, it will also include some novel elements such as a Psycho/Professional rating system. This feature of the game tracks your playing style and rates your moral or immoral decisions and choices during gameplay. (Many of us in the GamerNode offices exhibited some rather guilty looks upon hearing about this aspect of the game.)
In addition, there will be a Threat System where you can cajole and harass civilians, hostages and police through force or more peaceful means. There is high speed driving action, and an element called Bullet Festival, which is not an event for the admiration and display of ammunition, but allows your characters to manage their adrenaline levels to release destructive "crowd control" measures. We’ll leave it up to your imagination what this means.
The game breaks down into ten shooting assignments in which you take over a different character identity for each stage, and six driving missions. The intensity of each level ramps up as you get closer to achieving your goals, so maintaining your cool is essential in beating the game. As one memorable line in the movie goes, "I need you cool. Are you cool?"
The game lets you take hostages at will, and there will be plenty of that. You’ll use them as shields, as a way to threaten others into doing tasks for you, and perhaps, just for the joy of being a bad guy. Hostages who give you any trouble can be quickly taken care of by banging them into walls, or anything else that happens to be available. Of course, if you have a soft heart you’ll release these victims after your goals are accomplished. In the event that you take on an extremely incorrigible hostage, you have the option of pumping some lead into them. But this will affect your Psycho/Professional rating, and you may want to think twice before you dispatch your quarry into the netherworld.
The game will give you plenty of opportunities to wield a good selection of weapons in your adventure which will aid you on your journey to pull off the jewel heist, repel the cops, or shoot anyone that tries to get in your way. The game will hold true to the original storyline of the film, and offers a good way for fans of the movie to experience, first-hand, the events which unfolded in the movie and more.
The graphics look good and mimic the camera angles, cuts, and starkness of the original film. Familiar locations such as the hideout are done picture perfect and give a nice overall ambiance to the game. In addition, the characters in the game move fluidly and really take on the tough guy walk — slow and deliberate. The movie had a strong violent theme, and the video game takes over from where the movie left off and much more. Whether you’ll be able to take this level of violence or not depends on how familiar you are with the movie. If the film didn’t bother you, the game shouldn’t either. But in saying this, Reservoir Dogs the video game is already gathering its share of controversy, and has already been placed on the banned list in Australia for overt violence.
As far as sound, the title has your standard fare of sound effects and gun shots. What RD fans will like is the inclusion of the full movie soundtrack from the film. Hit tunes such as "Little Green Bag" and the memorable "Stuck in the Middle With You," should bring back memories for film fans and those who grew up in the 70’s listening to these familiar tunes.
As it stands now, the game looks to be a good experience for Reservoir Dog fans, and may introduce the movie, via the game, to new fans as well. Stay tuned to GamerNode for more info on the game, and our eventual review.
