Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

At first I picked up this game thinking it was going to be a rip off of the Saints Row series with less play-ability. I realized quickly that I was wrong, the story starts out a little slow with you working as a small time gangster until you work you're way up. Seems cliche but what are you gonna to expect from an open world game with the game centering around gangsters. The dialogue in this game I found was superior to both Grand Theft Auto 4 and Saints Row 3. Some of its repetitive, such as the swearing but there really isn't a different word for it in Cantonese. Which brings in the translation in this game, it's by far one of the best translations I've ever seen in any video game, I would argue the best but I haven't seen many games oriented towards the Chinese or any Asian culture for that matter. The fight mechanics of the game grab a little from the new Batman games (ex. Arkham City and Arkham Asylum) with counter moves being performed at a single click of a button. The fighting may seem repetitive but if you start to become skilled at the fight mechanics of the game you can really whip out some nice bloody combos against the Ai. The driving mechanics in this game are very arcade and fun but it does get boring eventually travelling at fast speeds because you're moving a lot in this game, the in game world is pretty big. At times I got bored driving to just the missions themselves because it was such a long trip. All and all the game is a definite buy if you want to see how things are done by the Triads (I honestly doubt it happens) but its something different than just being an American gangster and the fight as well as the driving being unique in its own way from the cliche style for its genre.