Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs for PlayStation 2 is a 2006 crime-action game from Volatile Games and Eidos Interactive, built from Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film. Rather than simply retelling the scenes set in the warehouse, it expands the failed diamond job with playable episodes around the characters’ separate escapes and encounters. The PS2 release puts the player in the sharp suits of the color-coded crew—Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blue and Mr. Brown—as a carefully planned robbery collapses under police pressure and suspicion of a leak.

The game is primarily a third-person action shooter, with the left stick used to move, the right stick used to aim, and a lock-on option available in combat. Characters can carry handguns alongside a larger weapon, use cover, lean out to aim, blind-fire, crouch, roll, reload and pick up equipment. Its campaign is divided into 16 chapters, beginning with a warehouse training sequence that introduces weapons, cover, crowd control, hostage-taking and neutralizing opponents. Mission cutscenes link the action while filling in events that the film left offscreen.

A central feature is the choice between violent force and intimidation. Civilians, guards and disarmed officers can be threatened, moved, ordered to open routes, taken hostage or neutralized instead of immediately shot. Hostages have a tolerance meter, so pushing them too far can remove the protection they provide. Police are harder to frighten directly, but a hostage can create an opening to disarm or escape them. These systems make each confrontation a question of controlling a room as well as hitting targets.

How a player handles those situations determines the end-of-mission assessment. A largely lethal approach earns the Psycho label, while relying on threats and non-lethal control moves toward Professional; mixed tactics receive the Career Criminal rating. Statistics including time, accuracy, shots, disarms, threats, neutralizations, hostages and body count feed into the result. Adrenaline earned during play can be spent on character-specific signature actions or the slow-motion Bullet Festival mode, while health pickups and limited weapon capacity add pressure during gunfights.

Reservoir Dogs PS2 also breaks up its on-foot chapters with six driving missions. These put members of the team behind the wheel during escapes, pursuits and timed routes, with a mini-map, damage gauge, speedometer and boost meter. The player can steer, brake, use the handbrake, change camera views, lock on to targets and fire from the car. Fast driving, close calls, jumps and other risky maneuvers build boost for extra speed, and the driving missions receive their own performance ratings based on factors such as pace, accuracy, collisions and destruction.

The game uses the film’s robbery-gone-wrong setup but extends it into a linear single-player campaign with branching outcome material tied to the player’s overall conduct. It is not a multiplayer game despite early announcements that discussed that possibility. The PS2 edition supports a DualShock 2 controller, optional vibration, 4:3 or 16:9 display settings, subtitles, saved progress on an 8 MB memory card and chapter replay after missions become available. Extras include a movie viewer, concept-art gallery, cheats and credits.

Released for PlayStation 2 alongside Xbox and Windows versions, Reservoir Dogs arrived during the late life of Sony’s console and was rated M by the ESRB for blood and gore, intense violence and strong language. Volatile Games was the mature-audience division of Blitz Games, and its own history lists Reservoir Dogs as a 2006 Eidos project for PS2, Xbox and PC. The adaptation remains distinct from the later 2017 title Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days: this is the 2006 third-person, driving and hostage-control game based on the original film’s characters and aftermath.