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All of this Mafia talk kind of scares me.
There have been a lot of Mafia-related games in the last few years. Grand Theft Auto 3 showed millions of gamers the danger and excitement of messing with the wrong people, which continued with GTA: Vice City and even the self-titled Mafia. Gangland from publisher Whiptail Interactive and developer Media Mobsters takes it in a different direction by blending action elements with a bit of role playing and real time strategy.
Gangland’s gameplay “style” is reminiscent of Diablo as it is done in a now-standard point and click manner. Even if you have played a few RTS/Sim games before, you’ll probably want to read the manual since Gangland lacks a tutorial and you won’t receive many tips during gameplay. If you’re exceptionally skilled, you’ll probably want to glance at the manual before you get started.
With that out of the way, in Gangland you begin much like all characters do in Mafia-related games. You start as an aspiring thug with dreams: big dreams of becoming a crime boss. At first, you’ll take any job you can. These will come from local bosses who have no better way to get things done. You’ll do many things during the game’s twenty-six missions including shooting people, blowing things up, doing drive-bys and even stealing. As you progress you’ll need to learn how to get certain “items” where you want them and even seducing women to get what you want. Gangland doesn’t push you too much and you have many ways to get your missions accomplished, which is a nice touch and allows you to soak in everything that is going around you.
When you feel you are ready, you can hit the net and play with others. The goal is to see who can become a boss the quickest, although with only a few weeks of release, there aren’t too many people playing. Nonetheless, you’ll be able to find a person to play with at peak times.
Gangland doesn’t push the PC much (just look at the recommended requirements). Regardless, Media Mobsters has made a visually appealing game considering its genre. Gangland is fully in 3D with high-resolutions, detailed textures and decent lighting. The characters aren’t great but are satisfactory and animate rather way. Not much in the way of visuals, but the art style definitely serves the game.
The game’s sound is equally as good. The sound effects, especially the gunfire, sound excellent. The ambient sounds are pleasant and add more “life” to the locales. The voice-overs are equally well done.
With the recent infatuation with Mafia-related games, Gangland should be right up the ally for many of you. Even if you don’t like the subject matter, it remains a solid RTS or sim or whatever genre you think Gangland best fits in.
Note: Gangland has been reviewed with Patch v1.1. It can be downloaded for free HERE. Patch 1.1 addresses the following: a rare crash bug when starting up, input problems in the chat bars, occasional stuttering in The Docks, Shootout Balancing, and multiplayer capabilities, allowing North American gamers to go head to head with European players on dedicated servers. General improvements include up to 25% faster performance on ATI and 50% faster performance on Nvidia cards. The patch also introduces some new features to the in-game chat, multiplayer lobby, AI and End User cheats.
Minimum System Requirements
Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP, 600MHz+ Processor, 128MB Ram, 1GB Free Hard Drive Space, 32MB videocard, 12X+ CD-ROM Drive, 56K Modem for internet play
Recommended System Requirements
Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP, 1.1 GHz+ Processor, 512MB Ram, 1GB Free Hard Drive Space, 64MB videocard, 12X+ CD-ROM Drive, Broadband access for internet play -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Mar 18, 2004
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