Quick Review:
Genre:
RTS/SIM/RPG - (RPG)You've gotta talk to other characters to get missions, gain allies, and perform take-overs. (RTS)You control a small group of people. You can send them to do your missions (including pimping out women, or killing other crime bosses). (SIM)You control this character's life. You make decisions to take-over businesses, extort funds, hire hitmen, buy a safe-house, etc.
Graphics: 8/10
They're not the best by today's standards, but they're great none-the-less. The models aren't too differentiated, but there's enough randomness to make the characters non-monotonous. The style and general feel of the landscape (city streets, clubs, bars, etc) really put you in the game. I thought it was awesome. There are plenty of little details all over the city that add realism (somewhat stylized, of course) I've not seen that often.
The Sims meets GTA III?
Sound: 7/10
I've read a lot of reviews that say the soundtrack is terrible and doesn't fit the game. I did not find this to be true. It's got an Italian flare with a rock beat. While it's not exactly the Godfather theme, the music DOES seem to fit with the game.
The sound effects do get pretty repetitive, even in the demo. I got tired of hearing people say "I need this excersize" and "Do what the Boss says," but with any RTS, you just get used to it. Think of the speech from Warcraft II.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
You start out visiting Uncle Vinny, a mob boss. He puts you out on missions of extortion, take-overs, and 86ing enemies. He'll supply you with your first gun and a wad of cash. For each successful mission, you get more cash. Vinny even gives you money to hire your own set of thugs. In the demo, I had just made it to the point where I could "Start my own family," however, I ended up beating the demo shortly after. I felt cheated there. Fucking demos.
Playing is pretty easy if you're used to RTS type games. You move your character with a right click, you move other characters once you select them in the same fashion. It's really quite straight forward.
Missions are fairly simple, and in the demo I found it nearly impossible to die during a drawn out gunfight. A nice aspect of these gunfights is that your character can use environmental objects to duck behind for cover.
There are also two ways to fight: weapon, or hand to hand. Hand to hand is good for when you wanna knock someone out of commission (they're cramping your style, and attack when you try to take-over a business, but you don't wanna kill them because you might want to hire them....)
View point (isometric, Fallouty) can be a problem if you don't know what you're doing. True to RTS games, you move the screen by either clicking on your map or by scrolling with the mouse. Unfortunately there are some buildings you enter that are turned at just an angle that you can't see shit. This is one thing I rather liked...Not only can you zoom the camera in, but you can rotate, pan, and zoom out. Very good for viewing a whole scene for hidden enemies, or getting close enough to another character for a little "chat."
Overall: 8.5/10
It's not the best game ever, but it's definatly a hell of a lot of fun if you're into this sort of thing. It reminds me of Fallout Tactics (there is a nice multiplayer feature), GTAIII, and The Sims all rolled into one game. I know it doesn't have everything from each of those games, but it does combine a lot of the elements. The game does what it promises, and I'd say you might as well buy it, if not DL...But I warn, if you do, you're gonna have to wait a long time before anyone releases a NoCD patch for it.
