GameShark | Previews | Gangland

MediaMobster's Gangland is a mish-mosh of gameplay (a smidgen of role-playing, real-time strategy and adventure) that centers around four brothers - three who are attempting to make a name for themselves as a heavy in an organized crime syndicate in the fictional Paradise City, and one who is out to kill them all. The game is played much like a real-time tactical strategy game; players start in the "Little Italy" neighborhood muscling in on restaurants, distilleries, garages, gun stores and more.

Paradise City is an interestingly seedy backdrop where apparently the gun laws are very light, and every two in ten of its citizens are armed. The Little Italy District is comprised of a number of businesses and a steady stream of citizens roaming the streets and frequenting establishments. It is in these streets cluttered with goons, bagmen, prostitutes, thugs, gunmen and newspaper boys that the player has to get the job done as one of the three brothers. Jobs include everything from extorting protection money from shop owners to wiping out rival crime family operatives trying to muscle in on you or your current boss's turf. The game offers some interesting concepts once you really get established, like the ability to get married and gain an heir to your crime family throne, the ability to take over shops (like gun shops), giving players access to additional weapons and other goodies, and the ability to hire thugs and prostitutes off the street.

The crux of the game is combat and players will find themselves shooting it out with non-player characters more often than talking to them. As your crew's kill count rises, so does your primary and secondary skills. The three skills in the preview version we played were Leadership, Business and Combat. Obviously these skills help in various aspects of the game including parlaying with business owners, recruiting henchmen to do your bidding and fighting out against those folks that would see fit to make you 'sleep with the fishes'.

Gangland is relatively fast-paced and players will find themselves touching every area of their current situation. In the preview version you handle various missions for your boss and take out any enemies that don't like you or your boss. When players get too carried away and stroll near the police station, they can expect to get an extra dose of danger as the cops will go crazy and attempt to make your expensive Italian suit look like Swiss cheese. The preview version we played was stable and didn't crash, but there were a few things about the gameplay that I didn't enjoy. For some reason MediaMobsters decided not to allow players to save the game during a mission. Normally not a big deal, but when you've completed four or five tasks within a mission and die before moving on to the next phase of the story it tends to be a wee bit disheartening. Challenge should never be supplemented by a lack of saving. Still, this is by no means a deal maker and players might enjoy the difficulty in the game, much like in the game Mafia.

While the preview version only gave us a slight taste of the action, the full version of the game promises a whole lot more gaming bang for your buck including multiplayer mode. Here's a slight list of what the full version will allegedly offer:

a living city with 800+ citizens per map
500+ NPCs with individual AI behavior
the ability to create your own family from 20+ unique characters
The ability to build a business empire based on lots of illegal activities
26 different map locations in Paradise City
26 conquests and challenges
Lots of weapons and gadgets
Using the environment in action-driven combat (like taking cover behind objects, crouching)
non-linear event-driven plot
highscore lists

The full game will support multiplayer for up to 8 players via LAN or Internet, DirectX and OpenGL support, a full 3D environment with free camera rotation and zoom and advanced character AI. All in all Gangland is an interesting game offering fast-paced action, a little management, and an interesting storyline. The beta only gave us a glimpse of what the full game will offer and the recent delay of the game should insure that it gets a lot more polish before it hits retail. The game is scheduled for release in March under the Whiptail Interactive label. You can learn more about the game at its official site. Look for a review right here on GameShark sometime after the game's release.