Original entitled "Paradise City," it's easy to see why it was renamed Escape from Paradise City -- you need to get out of playing this game as soon as possible. A lackluster game that fails to capitalize on its enormous potential, this is certainly something you'll want to avoid.
Escape from Paradise City grants control of three characters each trying their best to do just that--get out of the urban wasteland that is Paradise City. Commissioned by a stereotypically shadowy NSA operative, the trio of former criminals is forced to navigate the dingy streets in order to retain their freedom. Through the course of the single player campaign, you take turns playing as each of the characters: retired bank robber Nick Porter, feisty brawler Angel Vargas, and former corrupt cop Boris Chekov. Escaping the dilapidated city means taking the fangs out of its pervasive network of gangs--literally.
The game successfully blends role-playing and real-time tactics for surprisingly intuitive click-and-point gameplay. Taking control of one character, you must work through a series of neighborhoods owned by local bosses. Defeating the leader brings the area under your control, netting you experience and cash for which to develop your characters. Subordinate gang members naturally have to be eliminated along the way, prompting copious clicking with the mouse to guide your character into combat. As you gain control of neighborhoods and accumulate cash, you can augment your fighting ability by hiring your own gangers. While you're never afforded direct control over these gangers, you do have the ability to station them in specific areas. In this respect, the game takes on a light real-time strategy tinge that differentiates it from other click-and-point adventures.
Like a true role-playing game, the focus lies in gaining experience through combat. Experience points go toward enhancing core attributes, while skill points awarded upon each new level can be used to unlock traits. Abilities are not earned, but actually purchased from trainers wandering about your neighborhoods. Access to abilities is only granted once you've unlocked the associated trait with skill points. It's a derivative system to be sure, although appropriately so since simplicity keeps its hybrid gameplay from being convoluted.
Escape from Paradise City is an easy game to get into because there isn't anything necessarily confusing or complicated about it. Even more, the game manages decent graphics. Cutscenes fail to meet the same standards as the real-time graphics due to unexplained blurriness, but the in-game engine is surprisingly good. Between the pleasing visuals and simple gameplay, it would seem that it has all the makings of a fun title.
Sullying such a solid foundation are poorly-conceived scenarios and frustrating cooperative intelligence--with both flaws often exacerbating each other. Campaign missions are scripted with deceptively simple objectives: secure all neighborhoods, protect a specific character, and so on. Unfortunately, the cooperative intelligence often destroys any chance for success. Boris, for example, must be accompanied by a henchman because he's too weak to survive on his own. Henchmen are supposed to stay close to you, moving to whatever location you click with the mouse. Instead, henchmen frequently wander about neighborhoods in a needless attempt to track down rival gangsters. This leaves you vulnerable to attack and, worse, prone to death at the hand of enemies cognizant of your predicament. Keeping henchmen in check is a chore and one that is wholly left to chance. You have no direct control over these characters and as such, some missions devolve into a frustrating trial-and-error affair.
Even worse than henchmen are characters requiring protection or escort. The same nonsensical intelligence rots their digital brains causing them to run deep into dangerous neighborhoods. One early mission playing as Angel, for instance, requires protecting a character and gaining control of five neighborhoods. As you work to defeated local bosses, the character who should be sticking close by is into enemy territory. Not only does this force you to abandon your work in capturing territories, but it also puts you in extreme danger of dying since you're essentially speeding into the lion's den. Only frustrating trial-and-error gets you through the mission.
