Whenever I get a new movie on DVD, the bonus feature that intrigues me the most is always the deleted scenes. I can't wait to watch the movie again and then watch all the deleted scenes to see what things have been removed. After all, who can resist the siren song of additional scenes to a movie you already know you like? Reservoir Dogs for Xbox is essentially deleted scenes from the movie of the same name.
Reservoir Dogs revolves around a group of criminals who botch a jewel heist. Basically, everything that can go wrong does. Some of the criminals are injured or killed during the heist, and the group begins to fracture under the pressure. While the movie focuses on the aftermath of the jewel heist, the game tosses you right into the middle of the action, leaving you to escape from the jewelry store and make it back to the hideout where the movie takes place.
Reservoir Dogs is a third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter. Throughout the game, you play as a number of different criminals, who all have such colorful names as Mr. Brown, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, Mr. White and Mr. Blonde. Each of the characters plays the same; they just represent the various characters from the movie.
As you attempt to make your escape, you have two options as to how you can play: psychopath or professional. When playing as a psychopath, you use your weapons to solve all of your problems. Everything is a shootout, and you leave a trail of bodies behind you as you blast your way to freedom. As a professional, you take hostages and use them to protect yourself while you escape. How often you act like a psychopath and how often you act like a professional is tracked throughout the game, resulting in different rewards on completion.
I found the "crowd control" aspect of the game to be a very interesting and innovative addition. By pointing a gun at someone, you can order them around, getting them to open locked doors or stopping them from triggering an alarm, and so forth. It's a very simple process, requiring a single button press. You then use one control stick to move your character and the other to move the hostage. If I had to pick one feature that really set Reservoir Dogs apart, this would be it.
The police are unwilling to shoot at you while you have a hostage. To force the police into putting their weapons down or make a stubborn hostage compliant, you have to rough up the hostages a bit. Do it too often, though, and your hostage will pass out, leaving you exposed. I actually managed to complete some levels without killing a single person. I consider that to be quite the accomplishment considering the movie the game is based on.
Reservoir Dogs also contains driving portions. These are fairly standard driving games that essentially require you to get from point A to point B without destroying the car. Sometimes, there will be the additional caveat of a time limit or some other restriction. A prime example of this is after the scene in which Mr. Orange gets shot. You put him in the backseat and drive him to the hideout. The amount of time you have is limited, as he is bleeding out in the backseat. In addition, every time you hit another car, wall or other obstruction, he loses a little more blood. High speed must be coupled with careful driving in order to succeed. Unfortunately, Reservoir Dogs suffers from the same problem I have with every non-driving game with a driving sequence. The controls are always too loose and squishy for my tastes. Taking a curve always results in a huge arc that sends me spinning out or smashing into other drivers or walls. Personally, I would prefer sticking with a straight-up shooter.
It's obvious from the name that Reservoir Dogs is based on a movie, and it follows in the same vein. Swearing and violence run rampant throughout. Unfortunately, Reservoir Dogs is also very heavily based on other games. There has been a glut of games in the last few years that follow the third-person shooter, open-environment game. If you are a huge Reservoir Dogs fan, then this is the game for you. If not, there are plenty of other games that have done it better, despite the additions mentioned above.
As I said, whenever I get a new DVD I head straight to the deleted scenes. But after watching them, nine times out of 10, I can see why they were deleted. They add quantity, but they don't really add any substance. While Reservoir Dogs adds in the previously unseen parts of the movie, it doesn't really add much to the narrative, and it's few innovations aren't enough to really propel it to the level of a must have game.
Sometimes, it's best to just let sleeping dogs lie.
I’ve always loved video games. I don’t know why, but they’ve always fascinated me. When I was younger, if I visited someone who had an Atari, that was all I wanted to do. It was a glorious day when I finally got my very own Nintendo.
I like a wide variety of games. I’m great at action and rpg games. I tend to be too much of a perfectionist with first person shooters and stealth games. I’ll spend 20 minutes in a level, only to reset it the first time a guard sees me. Platformers aren’t really my thing, I think the technology has better things to offer than that now. And I don’t do sports games.
I love games with a good story. I’ll play for hours just trying to get to the next plot twist. In a perfect world, I’d be writing my own video games someday
