Hei$t: Previews, Reviews, News, And Screenshots

[Raider1one]

HEI$T allows gamers to become the leader of a group of renegade criminals as they rob and steal their way throughout San Francisco. In addition to robbing banks, players are motivated to pull off other jobs, including knocking off bars, restaurants, strip clubs, armored cars, and more in order to acquire bigger and better tools needed to penetrate increasingly more difficult banks. The goal? To one day be able to pull off the biggest heist of all: robbing the Mint.

from ign.com

Set a game in 1960s San Fransisco and it's likely to conjure up images of a mind-bending rhythm actioner with psychedelic visuals guaranteed to pop your eyeballs in an explosion of colour. This is Hei$st however, a brutal bank-robbing game which involves car-jacking, hold-ups and vicious shootouts. So much for 1969's Summer of Love.

While the hippies got high and the cool cats lapped up the city's new-found open-mindedness, Johnny Sutton enjoyed his first day out of the slammer. The latest in a long line of high-profile thieves, Johnny was banged up for following in the family's footsteps and pulling off a small-time robbery. Thing is, being inside didn't put him off a life of crime; instead it gave a thirst for the major league, an ambition to become known as the greatest bank robber of all time.


We've only seen snippets of the city but hope it's busier in the final game.


So begins Hei$t, a shooting 'n' stealing epic set in an open-world recreation of '60s San Francisco. It's a cross between Grand Theft Auto and a squad-based shooter like Ghost Recon, with players stepping into the no-doubt-stolen shoes of Johnny, out to make a name for himself.

It's not quite that simple, however - you can't simply walk into the first bank you see, empty the vault and then sit back and watch the credits roll. Every job needs to be meticulously planned otherwise you'll be back behind bars in a flash. That's where Uncle Sal comes in; he's the brains behind the outfit, the guy you go to when you need blueprints for the bank, details of the vault, the locations of the cameras - whatever you want, he'll get it for you, providing you give him time.

Pulling off a successful robbery is still not easy though, even if you're armed with every last piece of info on your target. Learning from experience is the only way you'll get the skills needed to tackle the bigger jobs, so it's best to start off small. Thankfully, Sal can help out here too, by highlighting the smaller local banks whose security isn't quite so tight. Once you've picked a target it's into the car and off around the city.

It's worth noting at this point that much of the city we explored in this very early build of the code looked desolate and sorely lacked detail. Compared to the bustling streets in the GTA IV trailer, Hei$t's city looks like a ghost town, with few cars and even fewer people trawling the streets. While we have no doubt the game will be considerably more populated and detailed by the time it's released in October, it was certainly the weakest part of the game so far.

Back to the mission, Johnny isn't stupid enough to attempt to rob a bank single-handed so he enrols the help of some hired hands, namely the cereal-sounding trio of Crumb, Cracker and Kid. Each of the three guys joins Johnny on every missions and all have their own specialities: Crumb is the muscle and won't think twice about shoving both barrels of his shotgun in the mouth of some innocent bank teller. Kid is the getaway driver and lastly there's Cracker who, unsurprisingly, is a dab hand at breaking into safes.


Keep everyone under control or risk the cops turning up early.


Once they've scoped out a joint and formed a basic plan, it's time to get the show on the road. Pulling up outside, players have direct control over Johnny, who leads the rest of the team into the bank. For a moment all is normal: patient customers queue quietly to see a teller, security guards keep an eye out for potential trouble and a handful of other clerks busy themselves behind desks. The serenity doesn't last long, as Johnny pulls out his .357 Magnum and shouts, "This is a robbery!"

And when we say shout, we mean it. Hei$t has a voice-control feature that enables players to order people around by barking commands into a microphone. If you want Crumb to keep watch on the guards simply yell, "Crumb, don't take your eyes off the filth." Need Cracker to start work on the safe? Then tell him to. It's a feature that really adds another dimension to the game and, because you don't have to worry about pressing buttons to issue orders, you can focus on carrying out the plan. What's more, all of the commands are completely customisable, so instead of simply shouting "It's a stick up" to get the attention of the bank, you can go all Pulp Fiction by screaming, "If any of you ¿$%& pricks move I'll execute every !*&¿$ last one of you!". Nice.

Once you start, the hold-up the clock is ticking. Depending how you play the mission, you have anything from two to 10 minutes to get in and out with the loot. For example, if you cover every eventuality - keep the clerks and security guards in check, ensure there's no gunfire to raise the alarm and crack the safe in good time - there's no reason why you can't be driving off into the horizon before the boys in blue turn up on the doorstep.

It's never that simple though, especially when you've only just started out. If you don't round up all the customers and clerks, one could easily escape and raise the alarm - either by scooting through the front doors or hitting an alarm button behind the cashier's desk. Alternatively, one of the guards might pluck up the courage to pull his gun, which could end in a bloody mess with gunshots alerting passers-by outside, again resulting in the police arriving at the scene of the crime much faster.


Not all levels take place in banks. This involves you stealing the cargo of a ship.


Even your own guys could buckle under the pressure of pulling of a big job so you need to keep an eye on them too. If Crumb starts getting a bit too rough with one of the customers then step in and kick his backside to show him who's boss. If he handles a situation well though, praise him, because he'll remember and act the same way in a future job. Admittedly there wasn't a great deal of evidence to suggest how well this reprimand-and-reward system works in the version of the game we saw, but it's certainly a great idea and really gives each character their own personality.

If you do make a mistake, you really will feel it later into the robbery. When one thing goes wrong it often creates a domino effect, meaning disaster if you're not quick to control it. Frightened customers will scarper given the opportunity and, if they're halfway to the door by the time you spot them, the only way to stop them is to put a slug in their head. Thing is, this will bring the cops flying in and the police in Hei$t are highly-trained and armed to the teeth, so much so that if a robbery gets to the point of a gunfight, chances are you'll be leaving the bank in a body bag.

Get it right and the getaway begins. Bundling into your Cadillac - or one of the many other cars you can collect in the game - you've got to speed through the streets of San Francisco, avoiding police road blocks and steering your guys to safety. Although we didn't actually see this part of the game in action, developer inXile Entertainment promises that the chase will mimic those from classic action flicks and that the cops with do everything they can to stop you, while keeping civilian casualties to a minimum.


Meet afro-haired Crumb and getaway driver Kid, two members of your team.


With one bank robbery under your belt it's time to start planning the next. There are other side-missions to complete between jobs too, such as robbing diners to get cash or forging alliances with gangs to make future robberies easier. These additional objectives also reward players with vital gear needed to successfully execute some of the tougher robberies later in the game.

From the little we've seen of Hei$t we love the idea of what the game's attempting to do, but we're not so convinced about the execution - at least at the moment. Visually it's neat enough but nothing exceptional and the code we saw was a bit jerky. The order system needs to be tightened too and, without actually seeing the chase sequences in action, it's impossible to give an indication of whether they really will deliver the intense ride Codies is promising. And with just six months to go before the game is scheduled to come out, there really is a lot to do if Hei$t is going to meet our expectations. If Codies pull it off though, it's certainly could be a game to get our alarm bells ringing with excitement.

[Raider1one]

from gamespot.com

Developer inXile is in Britain to show off its new crime sim, Hei$t, for the first time. We've just sat through a presentation detailing the game's major features and, eager to find out more, we cornered the American developer for a chat. Far from revealing any juicy new details about Hei$t, though, the representative seemed more concerned about how we Brits found the voice acting in their first game, A Bard's Tale. Concerns about nailing the atmosphere in its games seems to have led the American developer to set its latest game much closer to home, in swinging-'60s San Francisco.


Hei$t is all about planning robberies, pulling off the job, and making a swift getaway.


You play Johnny Sutton, a man whose father was gunned down during a robbery gone wrong. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, it seems, and you join the game with a fresh-out-of-jail Johnny planning a series of elaborate robberies all across San Francisco. You can't do this all on your own, though, so you put together a team of the best criminals in the city to help you out. Cracker is the appropriately named vault opener; The Kid acts as your getaway driver; and the muscles for each job is called Crumb. The final member of the team is Uncle Sal, who feeds you intel about each of the banks and helps you plan each one of them down to a tee.
While you can spend hours poring over each of Hei$t's finer details, the demo that we saw was an example of how you can just go in there guns blazing. After driving up to a bank with his team of crooks, Johnny climbs onto a table and announces that a robbery is taking place. From this moment, a clock begins to indicate how much time you've spent holding up the bank, because as time passes more people will begin to figure out what's going on. From here, you have to organise your men, keep an eye on what's happening around you, and, most importantly, make it out with as much cash as possible.
It's easy to pull off a robbery in Hei$t thanks to a simple, intuitive interface. Your team members are intelligent enough to go about their own business, but there's a carrot-and-stick approach to forming their behavior patterns during the game. If one of your team knocks out a guard and you like it, you can give him verbal encouragement. If, however, you don't want him to do that again, you can smack him around the head and tell him to cut it out. These decisions are very important to the success of each job--kill a guard and people might hear the gunfire, but knock him out and he may wake up again.


Joining the main character of Johnny is vault expert Cracker and muscles of the operation Crumb


While the current communication system is based on button presses, the team is promising to implement a very cool voice-controlled system as well. Using a standard microphone, you will be able to record your own sayings for various situations and then use them in-game to perform those actions. For example, you can record yourself saying, "Stick your hands up, this is a robbery!" and then use that phrase in-game to start off a robbery. We've seen this system implemented in a couple of games before, but hopefully it will still add to the feeling of starring in your own heist movie.
Speaking of movies and the whole '60s San Francisco setting, Hei$t looks to have captured the period setting with élan. The characters boast cool afro haircuts and huge sunglasses, while the famously hilly roads of the city are re-created perfectly. One important aspect of the game will undoubtedly be the music, and while the soundtrack hasn't been finalised yet, we did hear "Break on Through (to the Other Side)" by the Doors on the menu screen. When asked about this, the designer said that it would love to include obscure Jimi Hendrix tracks on the soundtrack for people who really love the music of the period, but whether this will come to fruition remains to be seen.
While we didn't get to see the planning or getaway stages of the game, the developer did hint as to how these two elements will work. Uncle Sal will scope out each branch in advance and let you know the locations of cameras, how many guards there are, and what security measures are in the vaults. This last bit of info will determine what explosives you need for the safe, as well as what skill level you need to crack it before the cops turn up. inXile likens the cops to the agents from the Matrix films, meaning that if they're going to turn up, you want to be getting out of there pretty quickly. On the getaway side, you'll take the position of The Kid and do the driving yourself, but you'll occasionally have to perform Starsky & Hutch-style shooting as well. Shooting at the cops will help get them off your tail, but you'll also be able to shoot down signs and other roadside objects to create diversions.
In between missions you'll have a full city to explore, as well as the ability to perform tasks that will help you in the heists themselves. Part of your job is to increase your contacts in the underground crime world, because you'll need new equipment, skills, and allies if you're to make it through the dozens of banks in the game. One example we were given was a mission to get the city's garbagemen on your side. You'll be able to use these allies during getaways, calling on them to use their trucks to block police cars so you can flee. Optional side missions will be available to make some of the heists a little easier, but you'll have the choice to skip these if you want.
After our presentation, inXile was incredibly coy about releasing any further information about the game. Questions about city size and multiplayer elements went unanswered, leaving a lot of uncertainty about how much longevity the game is set to offer. However, we do know that the game will offer an in-depth backstory to the main character of Johnny. It will also give you plenty of chances to break away from the main group, as well as control the other members of the team directly.
At only a 30 percent completion level, there's still a lot of work to be done on Hei$t; hopefully the designer will deliver a compelling game from this original idea. There's still a lot to be seen, such as the heist planning, the getaways, and the general free-roaming elements, but we should be fed information between now and the game's release. Hei$t is set to come out on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in Q2 2008, meaning you should be looting the banks of San Francisco before the year's out.
-GameSpot

[Raider1one]

from: http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/894/894696/imgs_1.html

[rocdhog]

idk looks like a GTA rip off to me. ill still buy it though.