Gangland Impressions

Organized crime is back in vogue, thanks to the success of television shows like The Sopranos and video games like Grand Theft Auto III and its sequel, Vice City. Gangland is a game that will try to capitalize on this trend--this upcoming mafia-based game lets you live the life of a wiseguy on the rise. Thanks to its arcadelike gameplay and Sims-like management, you can experience everything from drive-by shootings to grooming your heir to succeed you in the family business. We recently had a chance to play through an early version of this unusual game.

Set in the fictional Paradise City, Gangland tells the tale of four Sicilian brothers who came to America to make their fortune. Three of the brothers became crime bosses, while the fourth, your character, came to kill them. However, to accomplish that goal, you have to work your way up the mafia career ladder and become a crime boss in your own right. Thus, the early part of the game is about performing mob missions for your uncle, who's also a mafia boss. These jobs include extortion, gun running, intimidation, and, of course, good old-fashioned whacking of snitches and rival mobsters.

As a fledgling mob captain, you can hire a crew of your own, including muscle-bound bouncers, tommy gun-totting gunmen, and seductive femme fatale assassins. Both you and your crew gain experience and abilities over time, so the longer you have them around, the more useful and powerful they become. Eventually, you'll set up operations of your own, and you can recruit additional mobsters to guard your safe houses and provide protection services for your businesses.

The game is played from a top-down perspective, much like the original Grand Theft Auto games. The controls are very simple; just point where you want to go on the screen and click the right mouse button. Moving the cursor over non-player characters will indicate whether you can talk to them, flirt with them, or shoot them. You can crouch behind objects for cover, and there are different types of ammunition that you can choose from, but that's about as realistic as the combat mechanics get. The combat is heavily influenced by arcade games. Each character has a health bar that diminishes each time he or she takes damage. It's not unusual to have to shoot your enemies 10 or 12 times in a row before they go down.

There are usually different approaches you can take in a mission. The most obvious is the confrontational method, but that yields dangers. Noncombatants can easily get caught in the crossfire, and policemen will stumble on a gunfight and complicate matters. In that case, you'll have to run and find a safe house to hide in until things cool down. Or there's usually a stealthier option; you can sneak behind targets lurking in alleyways or stalk victims until they walk into a building and out of public view.

Why You Do This to Me, Huh?

The role-playing portion of Gangland is somewhat reminiscent of The Sims; you can meet a girl, get married, and have children who grow up and succeed you as mob boss. While we weren't able to see this feature in action, it's clear that you'll have to do a fair amount of work in order to impress your potential bride. Women on the streets of Paradise City won't have anything to do with you until you move up in the world; you need to have a safe house, a fearsome reputation, and some money in your pocket, or else they'll blow you off. So, like in The Sims, you really have to work to build up your character before a relationship can blossom.

The larger of the two levels that we played incorporated several highly detailed city blocks. You can walk into and explore all the buildings, though most of the stores and hotels consist of only a couple of rooms. The game looks beautiful; it has good-looking high-resolution textures that let you read the neon lettering on signs. The levels we saw were brought to life with dozens of other characters milling about doing their business; cops walk their beats, female dancers gyrate atop tables (though Gangland has no nudity), and guys with briefcases stuffed with money run into the mob HQ and deposit the cash into the safe. Every time non-player characters walk into a restaurant or business, they'll spend money and you'll see the amount flash above their heads. It's not unlike how the guests in RollerCoaster Tycoon wander around your park buying refreshments and tickets. Since you are part of the mob, you can get a cut of those profits by extorting money from the shop owners or making them a "business partnership offer" they can't refuse.

The second level is where Gangland starts to stray from the familiar gangster themes. The game supposedly takes place during the Prohibition era, but this level featured objects and characters from decidedly different times. The cars we saw had a modern look to them, and the characters were dressed in a combination of 1920s and modern-day fashions. We figured something was up when we were tasked with recovering three Japanese swords hidden in a park and defended by hordes of ninjas. On succeeding, we were then able to commission "super ninjas" from the Japanese mob bosses for use in later levels. These super ninjas are apparently just one of the many kinds of characters that you can unlock over the course of the game.

Gangland still has a way to go--for instance, the version we played didn't seem to have a "save during a mission" feature, so we were forced to replay the entire level if we failed. Also, some missions in the version we played had time limits, which were occasionally frustrating; in one mission, we had to get through a park within a time limit, and the park was easy to get lost in. And if you're averse to profanity, be warned that Gangsters, like Grand Theft Auto, tries to be "edgy" by incorporating profanity into the gameplay. Finally, there's not a lot of role-playing early on in the game, though we expect that to change as your character gains more experience and prestige.

There are a number of features that didn't make it into the version that we played, including player-controlled vehicles and multiplayer. You will apparently be able to drive a car around the streets of Paradise City. Not only will this get you around faster, but you can perform drive-by shootings against your opponents (and they can be performed against you). The game's multiplayer modes will support up to eight players at once, and there will be some kind of team-based game, though details are still unavailable at this time. Gangland is scheduled for release in early March.