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Gangsters: Organised Crime (PC)
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| Description:
If you secretly wish to extort your neighbours, gun down your enemies, cheat on your taxes and build a massive criminal empire--but want to avoid the inconvenience of a long prison sentence--then Gangsters might be the game for you. Gangsters transports you to a 1920s Chicago-style city for a gangland free-for-all. You start out as a small-time hood with big-time plans, and the only obstacles in your path to power are the cops, the G-men and all the other gangsters that want you dead. Game play is a cross between an empire builder and a business simulation. Your goal is to take over the city and make a lot of dough. You've got to finance your expansion with your businesses (illegal as well as legit) and hold your territory with muscle. Since not too many venture capitalists are keen on giving seed money to thugs, enterprising hoodlums have to turn to their neighbours for cash. Luckily, your neighbours have plenty of money, and they're happy to fork it over if doing so means they can continue using their fingers. So you go about recruiting hoods and extorting everything within your territory, all the while building and managing profitable public services such as booze distribution and well-lit brothels. It's a good gig until you're dead or in jail. So you want to avoid those unpleasantries by paying off cops and judges, while at the same time killing anyone who would do the same to you. The above-mentioned activities may sound fun, but Gangsters only partially delivers on its promises. The interface is complicated without being comprehensive, forcing you to spend a lot of time looking for information that has been segmented into different menus. The diplomacy options are simplistic to the point of being nonexistent, which really diminishes the possibility of subterfuge. Visually, only the zoom feature gives you an entertaining view of the game. Unfortunately, after an hour of play, your territory is so large you can't afford to look at anything but the big map, which appears dull and grey. But even for all of its flaws, the original concept and over-the-top game play hold a surprising amount of entertaining hours. So, if you're a fan of The Godfather, Gangsters might be an offer you can't refuse. --Joshua B Coombs, Amazon.com
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1/5 |
Poor Strategy Title
(January 06, 2004) |
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This game is a strategy title based in a classic 1930s gangster era. You take the role of the leader of a crime syndicate and it is your job to recruit mobsters to extort, bribe, assault and murder the people of the city in order to gain influence and power as rival gangs attempt to do the same. I would have to classify this as turn-based for lack of better judgement, although I would not label it so. The engine is built on a basis of ordering your mobsters to perform tasks in a certain order throughout the week, and they will attempt to complete them all. In order to aid them, can group them into mobs of their own and attribute various vehicles and weapons to them. With each mobster in the mob having different attributes you can create certain roles and weekly jobs for them to perform. The graphics aren't anything to complain about, and are pretty much what you would expect for an isometric strategy game. There is also the option to switch to an overhead view, eliminating any real source of animation and using a map of coloured dots representing the people and the gang members. The music is extremely repetitive and will probably wear you out combining it with the awkwardicity of playing the game itself. The sound effects and voiceovers of the gangsters and victims aren't brilliant either, and could use a lot more variety in what is said, or they could scratch the voiceovers entirely. Aside from other the main features there are other gimmicks included in the game which aren't there to do much such as the accountant and the lawyer. The engine is also very badly thought out, with no real objectives in the game besides becoming more and more influential or becoming the mayor of the city. This game quickly becomes tedious after hiring more mobsters than you can control and not being able to keep up with the rate of losing the areas you control. It also becomes monotonous not being able to do anything during the week besides watch your instructions be carried out. Avoid this. |
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5/5 |
A Brief Moan
(November 09, 2002) |
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You may be wondering why I gave the game 5 stars and then entitled this review A Brief Moan. The truth is I love the game it is the game's successor Gangsters 2 Vendetta that I have a problem with. When the original (this one) first came out it was brilliant all the elements of strategy and business management to keep The Godfather himself happy! It was open-ended and could be played an infinite number of times with different outcomes and variables to make each individual game totally unique. There were some things missing though, for example, you couldn't in spite of the manual telling you could bribe individual policemen to get cases of your Gangsters dropped this is quite a significant element of the game. There was only one city, granted it was different each time you played it but it would have been so much better to have multiple cities that you flick between simutaneously sending wanted gangsters to other cities where they didn't have the same degree of legal interest in them for example. There were also some glitches in the AI. But at the time these were passable and to be honest I didn't really notice them until I brought the strategy guide!
Then the successor Vendetta was scheduled for release. The promise of multiple cities and the ability to flick between the two wetted my appetite. It promised a revolutionary AI. Then I bought it foolishly not reading any reviews beforehand and was royally disappointed. What I got in fact was a game shoddily mixed between Syndicate Wars (better graphics granted) and amultiplayer game of capture the flag unrealistically taking over buildings and basically a game that was totally different from its predessor.
So basically what I am getting at is....if you are looking at this against its successor deciding which one to buy.....buy this one. It offers so much more freedom that Vendetta and is almost totally open ended and at the end of the day is the game that The Godfather would ensure you slept with the fishes if you didn't buy! |
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4/5 |
Gangsters: Organised Crime
(October 04, 2001) |
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'Gangsters' is the crime sim that we've all been waiting for. With amazing graphics, tons of crimes and a completely original idea, 'Gangsters' looks like a fantastic game. But don't take my word for it, feast your eyes on this... Gangsters gives you the chance to make you own team of bandits in a realistic 3D world. It's packed with loads of scenarios and problems to keep you busy. The aim of the game is to become the most powerful gang in the city, making sure the other gangs don't get in your way. This game is definitely not a walk in the park. The other gangs'll try to make your life misery. To stop them you've gotta do a little 'reasoning'... In Gangsters there are masses of crimes to commit. There's bombing, stealing, ambushing, killing, extorting and lots more. The good thing about gangsters is that you're in charge so first off you're going to have to recruit some team members. Once you've done that it might be good to expand your property so get a man whose specialty is in extorting. If your people who own shops and things on your property do not pay the protection money you could get into some trouble. This is the fun bit. Bombing. Recruit a bomb squad and watch them get to work. If you look closely you'll see little people run out on the building and if you look even closer you'll see that they're on fire! The graphics are fantastic. It's kind of the view you get in grand theft auto but zoomed in and 3D. This is the best way to view the game and in crystal clear 3D you couldn't get any better. As the people walk along you can actually see their faces and what they're carrying. Absolutely fantastic, you can't stop playing. There is only on problem with Gangsters though, you either love it or hate it. Be safe and rent it first or even better, borrow it from a friend. That's what I did and I'm hooked. Gangsters is a highly addictive game... a brilliant 90%. |
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5/5 |
Gangsters-The free city
(September 29, 2001) |
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Gangsters:Organised Crime is a intricate as Victorian cornices. It has as about as many ways to play as there are people in China.It is about as funny as a series of Red Dwarf. It is about as easy as eating chinese food with one chopstick. Yes, it starts off easy and everything goes your way; but then the other gangs rise in power, and you feel as helpless as a cow in a pirahna tank. this, however should not put you off getting this game; as it is too good to be left lying around at any price. |
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