October 24, 2006 - The year was 1992, and the movie landscape was changed by the artistic vision of a former video store clerk. Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, the fusion of pop culture references, nonlinear storytelling and violence was elevated to a new art form with the release of Reservoir Dogs. The tale of a jewel heist gone wrong captivated moviegoers and influenced countless other films and projects. Now, almost fifteen years later, Eidos and Volatile Games are bringing this crime drama to consoles and the PC. But they really should've let these sleeping dogs lie instead of making this game.

While the film focused on the aftermath of the attempted robbery, it left a lot of questions up in the air for viewers to wonder about. How did Mr. Blue die? Where did Mr. Pink hide the stash? When did Mr. Blonde kidnap Officer Nash? Some of these questions are answered during the game, as Reservoir Dogs tries to give a little more of the action behind the nonlinear story. Set across 16 chapters, you'll take on the role of the six robbers (Mr. Orange is pretty much relegated to the Prologue), as well as Nice Guy Eddie as you discover what happened when things went south.

The game alternates between two separate gameplay formats within each chapter: driving elements and third person action sequences and driving elements. The driving sequences often involve getting from one place to the other as quickly as possible without suffering critical damage to your vehicle, causing it to explode. You'll speed through city streets, freeways and parks, among other places, evading oncoming traffic and police officers. Players will also gain adrenaline for high speed driving maneuvers or causing damage to nearby cars, either by shooting them or crashing into them. Once your adrenaline meter is full, you can trigger a speed boost, allowing you to accelerate to extremely high speeds. During these moments, your car is relatively invincible to collisions with smaller and mid-size cars, which can help when your car is almost trashed.

Initially, it may seem like you'll have a variety of routes or shortcuts that you can take as you escape the police, get from one point to another or some of the other missions in the game. However, as you play through these missions, you'll quickly realize that you're constantly crossing the exact same ground over and over again. In fact, with the exception of some subsections of the stage or playing the level backwards, you only race around the same track. Even worse, the handling of the cars you receive in each stage is simply horrible, so even if you wind up slowing down or using your brakes and handbrakes to avoid accidents, you'll still wind up smashing into a wall, barrier or opposing traffic. You'll also find that the targeting from your guns isn't so hot as well; the aiming system waits for at least two or three seconds before it locks onto a target. By that time, you've already passed what you're aiming for, rendering it pretty much useless.

The action sequences, by contrast, typically focus on one of the criminals as they maneuver their way through alleys, buildings and other environments. As you go through each level, you have the option to engage in crowd control tactics, halting civilians in their tracks and pre-empting them from running for alarm systems or the police. Crowd control can also be used to order people around, unlocking safes or opening gates, for example, so that you can continue along your way. This can also be used to force law enforcement officers to drop their weapons: while the standard security guards will usually put their weapon on the ground with a simple voice command, police officers and SWAT members usually need to see a hostage beaten before they'll comply with your demands.