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Terrible, terrible game!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 18
Date: June 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've never played the original Gangsters but I've heard enough horror stories to know what was wrong with it, but despite all the flaws people complained of everyone still seemed to enjoy the original. So when I saw the sequel on the store shelf I thought to myself that it would probably have all those flaws improved upon while still keeping it's great strategy elements. So I bought the game hoping to be able to live out my favorite scenes from the Godfather. At first the game was amusing, but after those quick 10 minutes, the game was quickly repackaged and returned!

First off, the strategy elements of the game are completely gone! Everyone used to complain about the micro-management in the first, so I guess the solution was to completely erase all management. You're basically told what business to buy and it just generates money.

The graphics are a bit cartoonish, but fitting. Although the graphics aren't realistic or polygonal they match the theme of the game and give it the appropriate feel. Unfortunately, that's all this game has! Good looks, good packaging, no substance!

The gameplay is terrible! You'll pull your hair out as you order your goons to drive two blocks away and watch him circle around the whole neighborhood before finally going to his destination... and hopefully he's not there to do a drive-by! The drive-by shootings in this game are just ridiculous. You'll quickly despise watching your thugs drive past, shoot, make a U-turn, drive back, shoot more, make another U-turn, shoot (you get the point). That doesn't seem like a very effective drive-by to me. Also, the people standing on the side walk never EVER take cover, they just stand there shooting at the car until they are FINALLY gunned down. What kind of dumb gangsters are these anyway? The AI definately needs improving! Also, don't get your car ruined. If you do, then you have the option of stealing your enemies car, but only HIS car. What sense does this make? My thugs have no problem with gunning down police officers but they refuse to steal an innocent person's car. I had to run 4 blocks (past rows and rows of perfectly good parked cars) to my enemies hideout to steal his vehicle. But basically what I am saying is that the AI in the game is pretty stupid.

Another thing that ruins the gameplay is the tedious and repetative missions. The game is basically open this shop, do a hit on this guy, buy that building, place guards here, do a hit on that guy... over and over and over again. And although carrying out a "hit" should normally be enjoyable, as you can tell from my paragraph above I found killing people to be quite the chore.

So if all of the micro-management is now non-existant and all of the action is absolutely horrendous and silly, what does this game have to offer? Simply put... boredom. The game is just too easy, too simple, and too shallow. Perhaps for the third game they should eliminate the tedious missions and make it more open-ended. Just allow you to hire thugs and build your empire. Also, they need to work on that AI a little. Why do these guys get lost in a neighborhood that's 5 blocks wide? And who ever heard of circling back around, better yet, making a U-turn while doing a drive-by? You're supposed to shoot and then high tail it outta there! Basically, it could have been a good game had they taken the time out to actually add some gameplay to it.

Ganster2

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I have been bitterly disappointed with this product. The website works somewhat if you can get on. The game does not work well you have to get many downloads and customer support if you can get them does not respond well. How could they come up with a sorry version of this game based on Gangsters? It never seems to work in the multi player mode either. Even when you have the same version. My friends also don't like this version. They have the same problems. All I can figure out is when it works fine, but when it doesn't watch it.

A waste of an excellent concept

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: December 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Perhaps my anticpation for and high expectations of this game are what has caused me to give it just one star. But I must say, I don't think my dissappointment is at all unjustified.

The gameplay is abolutely terrible. It is incredibly frustrating trying to give commands, particularly when you instruct a car to 'flee', and it turns back into the direction of a plethora of cops and rival gangsters. Knowing what to do in certain scenarios can be a headache inducing experience in itself.

The simplicity of the game is overshadowed by the teeth-grinding irritation that comes with trying to accomplish anything. Personally, I found the first Gangsters to be more accessable and less mind-numbingly dull. While the 'working week' aspect of it was a bit annoying at times, giving orders was simpler and the level of involvement you were allowed was by far greater.

This game misses some of the neat, finer detail aspects of the first. But if you're after some real gangster/criminal action, go for something like Mafia or GTA3 instead.

If you really want this game, just let me give you mine

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Boring and dull. You lose all control over the game to the scripted missions that you must complete,(and by the way, it is confusing as to HOW each one is supposed to be complete) and you can't buy weapons or cars until the third or fourth level. The first gangsters, despite its flaws, was one hundered times better. Instead of making improvements on the first one, it seems that they just made a totally different game with gangsters and called it "Gangsters 2". This game reminds me of Heist.

BORING!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: January 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When I bought this game I thought this would be better than the first Gangsters game, BUT I WAS WRONG!!!!
This game is far too easy and there aren't as much possibilities as in the first game.
This game is just boring after the tutorials and the first level of the campaign. I owned the game for one week and I haven't played it since then.
I would recommend spending your money on a GOOD game

...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: March 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I Loved the first one but some how they found a way to butcher it. Weak story line and BAD gameplay are 2 of the games many problems. ...

I would give it no stars if I could!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: June 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is a waste of money. I played the first game and it [was bad] like a taco canned rice and jellybeans. I thought this one might be good because of improvement in disc space and graphics, but they just [messed] this up. The concept is one of the best I've ever seen. Run a city to make it simple. However, the gameplay is so utterly terrible that the few good aspects of the game are completely countered.
Don't buy this game. I like tacos, but I have to advise against eating thi one. I like Mexican food!

Bad

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I didn't like this game at all. I was expecting a game like the original with tons of improvements and it was nothing like the original.

The Original was Better

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: June 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game disappointed me too. I liked the original Gangsters quite a bit & played it off & on for a few months. But the game was sunk by its flaws, including a variety of nagging bugs, a difficult-to-master interface, too much micro-management, & a manual that omitted descriptions of important portions of the game. The game had a lot of options although I sometimes wondered if all of the options had been implemented--did it really make a difference if you set up your speakeasy behind a dress shop or behind a restaurant? Who knew & it was difficult to tell from the gameplay. But despite that, the game was fun & I thought the graphics especially were quite good.

Hothouse gets high marks in G2 for listening to the complaints about the original game since most of them have been dealt with here. The interface is easier to use & you no longer have to manage every single gangster under your control. But, in my opinion, they have gone too far. The graphics are cartoony & Hothouse has gone way too far in their effort to get rid of micro-management. Now instead of being able to buy any business,you can only buy certain specific ones & can only open certain illegal businesses in specific locations. This takes a lot of the juice out of the game & I never felt, while playing G2, that I was running a mob of gangsters as I did in G1.

The game runs fine on my 2-year old Pavilion & I didn't find any bugs in the time I played it. The pathfinding on the units is terrible though--cars especially would often go around three sides of a square to get to someplace that was only a block away from where they were. Doing drive-by's against other cars is also weird as both cars go back & forth down the street like a pair of medieval knights at a joust until everyone in one car is eliminated. On the good side, the AI has been changed & you won't see the massive gun battles that you had in G1 as the sound of gunfire drew every nearby policeman & gangster into the bloodbath. Of course, I kind of liked those gun battles (my best way of getting rid of enemy gangsters involved sending a "cannon fodder" guy to assault an enemy in front of a cop. When the enemy responded by shooting at my guy, he'd be attacked by the cops & a massive battle would result) so this is not all to the good.

G1 really needed nothing more than some tweaking & cleaning up but G2 has gone too far & created a game that is inferior to its predecessor.

Not worth the money

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Very disappointed in this *yawn* boring game. Graphics are poor...less than to be expected of a game at this price. The mobsters are not even The Sims quality...they are small and have little detail, barely can tell they are people at all. No satisfaction for those liking the sinisterism of being a mobster. You spend most of the time hunting moving square dots on a poorly drawn map. Blood is a single red pixel. Missions are boring and similar throughout the game. Little detail, no mobster feel. Menu and maps are frustrating to work with, moving between and across maps and menus will furiate you. Difficult to follow your mobsters on the map...hard to find a view that works. Its like playing blindly. Controls are not user friendly...unecessary button combos. The wrong click of the mouse can mean "game over"....and its extremely easy to make this mistake. Often times mobsters and vehicles will not move the direction you want..and will get killed. Not user friendly...bottom line...game is good enough to cure boredom but buy it when its 15.99.

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