By gamers for gamers.
User Rating: 8.7 | Kingpin: Life of Crime PC
By gamers for gamers was the slogan Xatrix used back in the days. And you really could feel that in their games. Unlike most of the newer "fast food" shooters this one was well designed and delivered a custom setting very well. It's one of those games from a era where games had really unique settings and heros. Kingpin had given me a real flash in the year 1999. While I really enjoyed the single player part, although it wasn't really what the devs promised, the more played part was the multiplayer for me. I spent hundreds of hours in the great "bagman match mode". A mode where you had two teams fighting for cash which appeared in the middle of the map. You had to collect it and bring it to the safe in your teams headquarter. Man those was one if not the best multiplayer back in the days. That plus the urban gangster setting which was perfectly covered by instrumental music from Cypress Hill had keept me playing for a really long time. I remember clans like Spinnenkrieger or [VL] all with their custom skins, man this was great multiplayer. But back to the singleplayer part. Kingpin was meant to be played with the aspect that you could hire gang members who were fighting for you. Basicly the problem was that this was only working in the first three levels where ammo and cash was short coming. Later you just had so much ammo and better guns that you were pretty stronger on yourself instead of having some more thugs around which get shot pretty easily by the growing strength of the enemys. So it was more of a typical FPS later one and lost the idea and fun of the gang gameplay. The better part were the impressive graphics and sound plus the level design with bars and backalleys filled with thugs and let's say girls. Kingpin is a alltime favourite and one of my most played games. It won't be so interesting to play it today but back in those days where it was released it was one of the best shooters around. But it's still a game worth playing even today. [BTW. I rated the graphics in link tho the release date in 1999)
