Reservoir Dogs (Xbox, 2006)

Quentin Tarantino's classic film Reservoir Dogs is one of the latest movies to be turned into a video game. I don't know about you, but I never wanted to be Spiderman, Superman or The Incredible Hulk. But to be one of Tarantino's gangsters like Mr. White, Mr. Blue, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Orange, or even Steve Buscemi's hilarious Mr. Pink, now that looked like fun. When I saw the movie had been turned into a game, I decided to take a chance and try it out. Let's face it, most movies to video games don't work too well.

First, what made Tarantino's first movie such a hit? Gratuitous violence? From a brutal scene of ear cutting to the tune of Steeler's Wheel - Stuck in the Middle with You to the various shooting, Tarantino's first movie had plenty of blood and violence.

Humor? Despite the violence in Tarantino films, many scenes make you laugh because they are funny! He intersperses scenes that make you laugh with scenes that make you wince.

Dialogue? Thanks to the talents of Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Lawrence Tierney, and Steve Buscemi delivering the very non cliched dialogue written by Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs delivered an adult swear filled, but funny dialogue that defied the usual cliche ridden scripts of caper films. Any one who has seen the movie will remember for example, Mr. Pink's (Steve Buscemi) objection to tipping waitresses.

Soundtrack? Tarantino always seems to find the coolest songs to be in the soundtrack for his movies. Monotone voiced comedian Stephen Wright did the voice of the DJ for a classic 70's rock station in Reservoir Dogs and provided songs that would not be forgotten thanks to the context in which they were heard. (refer again to the ear scene mentioned under violence, gratuitous.)

Story? Tarantino definitely told an interesting story of a heist gone wrong. Most of the film focused on the aftermath of a jewelry store robbery gone wrong with flashbacks to the planning and execution.

So for the video game to truly work, we need these Tarantino trade marks.

1) Violence, and lots of it. Most video games deliver plenty of violence, it's practically a staple requirement of the whole video game industry. Reservoir Dogs is no exception. Lots of beatings, shootings, reckless driving and taking of hostages are incorporated into the game. The game is divided into chapters. In each chapter you take control of one of the film's protagonists. Some are 3rd person shooting, in which you can take cover, shoot security guards and police and take hostages. With hostages, you can get guards and the police to drop their weapons by threatening or beating your hostage. If you accidentally kill your hostage, or if he gets shot by the cops, you will be shot at. Other chapters you are in charge of driving at high speeds down the city streets. You can also shoot people as you drive.

2) Humor. From the opening training scene in which you practice with paint guns, to the non stop banter between the characters, this game does indeed capture the humor of the film. I don't think the humor would be funny on replay, but the first time I heard the characters deliver various lines, it made me laugh and think fondly of the original film. Trouble is, when you replay a scene, they deliver the same stories.

3) Dialogue Except for Michael Madsen, none of the original voice actors are in this game, but I have to say that the likenesses and impersonations of the original actors are as good as those on South Park. They truly capture the tone of each character from the harsh grown of Lawrence Tierney's Joe Cabot, to the wisecracking sarcasm of Buscemi's Mr. Pink. I thought the voice acting in the movie was well done. If you are offended by the F word, or a non stop barrage of swearing, you may not like the game, it is true to the curse filled dialogue of the movie.

4) Soundtrack Although Stephen Wright isn't there as the D.J. the game is loaded with the Super Sounds of the 70s soundtrack. Oh yeah!

5) The Story The game really excels at the story too, it fills in all the scenes from the movie that we didn't see. I thought that was a very interesting idea. You get to play a lot more scenes from the actual jewelry store heist, the getaway and shootouts from the viewpoints of the various characters. I liked the concept a lot. You play the various characters in each chapter of the game. If you play it smart, you get a rating of professional, but if you just shoot every one up, you get a rating of psycho, kind of like the characters in Tarantino's movie, a mix of pros and psyhcos.

Summary This is a five star game that truly captures the look, feel and sound of Tarantino's movie. Oh wait, we need to actually look at the GAME PLAY before we give a rating!

Something went wrong with this game, perhaps there was a plant from rival studio Rockstar. Someone sold it out! The game had a perfect plan of execution, character acting, plot, dialogue, even soundtrack. What went wrong! I tied up the games developer to a chair, and tuned to my favorite classic rock station as I "persuaded" the developer to find out what happened. Here are some excerpts!

Me What happened to the GRAPHICS!?
Developer I dunno, they were good, real good
Me SMACK NO THEY WEREN'T, They looked like PS 1 Graphics! WACK
Aughh, stop hitting me, okay the graphics sort of sucked, we could have done better, we just wanted to get the game out, and thought the title alone would sell it! We could have done a lot better

Me How about the control scheme?
DeveloperThe controls worked great, you could take hostages by pressing B, and yell orders by pressing Y, or rough the hostage up by pressing A, owwhh owwwww owww
M It didn't feel intuitive to press all those at once, and people didn't always listen!
D Sometimes, you just have to get used to the controls, that's all
M Oooh Steeler's Wheel, I love this song!
[edited out for epinions family readers]
D oh God, Oh God, aaaguuh, okay okay, there were bugs, we didn't work them out, we didn't work them out, sometimes the AI doesn't work like it should and cops just keep appearing, and hostages don't always do like they should. The controls for the car were also done very poorly, Oh I'm sorry I'm sorry, the cars steered worse than in Grand Theft Auto. Please please, get me a bandage for my ear, oh it's bleeding really bad
[I may have pushed a little on his broken nose here]
M and what else?
D uugghh, okay okay, we took shortcuts on the graphics and the control scheme, and rushed the game to the market. It only takes about 15 hours to play through, and after you've heard all the funny dialogue, the game play is mediocre at best, the controls are not intuitive, camera angles suck and they get in the way of targeting, and many times leave you open to cheap deaths. We could have made this a five star game, but but we didn't , it gets only 4 star.. owwwww ouwwwhw, okay barely 3 stars and that's only cause the dialogue was funny and the voice acting was pretty cool. and .... if you didn't like the movie, as a game it really only deserves 2 stars

[at this point the interview ended, because Mr. Pink, and Mr. Orange came in at the same time as the police, and we were all killed in the ensuing shootout]


Recommend this product? Yes