User Reviews (1 - 11 of 34)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Better than the original, simpler yet highly addictive.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 35 / 38
Date: June 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Over two years have passed since the original Gangsters. While the original clearly had carved out a new niche genre, it was mired in complexity and micromanagement. Not so with Gangsters 2.

Hot House and Eidos listened to the gamers feedback and implemented many features to make Gangsters 2 much more accessible to players. The first thing you will notice is a much more intuitive interface. While I am still a little hesitant to give the interface a glowing review (It's a bit tricky to read some windows and decipher information at the building level), it is much more simpler than the original. And with the lack of micromanagement of each individual gangster (like the original), you control the main character, Joey Bane, and his lieutenants. All other hired muscle is controlled by you immediate family or built in AI scripts which are pretty good.

Upon loading the game, you will notice that Gangsters 2 revolves around the story of Joey Bane, (you). It seems your father (a big time mobster) was killed by the opposing family moving into the city. It is your job, over individual episodes, to move back into your home town, avenge your fathers death, and assume the role of mob leader. You start small, just taking over a neighborhood, but as he story progresses and you move on to episodes, you eventually take over the city, then neighboring cities, then eventually cross state lines setting up your empire.

Cut scenes between each episode move the story along in a concise fashion, and a pre-episode briefing is really good in defining your primary and secondary objectives. There is good feedback (could always be better) during the game from a 'family' advisor and reading the local newspaper. The Newspaper all allows you to hire 'specialists' that can carry on special assignments for you, lists obituaries, and clues you into other subtle hints and game progress.

The graphics are pretty good, but not top notch. A new addition to the game is being able to play at night, where street lamps light the streets and shading effects are more visible. Also there are seasons, so later in the game you'll notice the snow falling.

Game control is better than the original but is still tricky. Good thing there is a pause button (the game is real time) to re-issue orders. I found I made a few errors in assigning tasks to my gangsters only because selecting them is very sensitive. Game A.I. is also good, but could be better. When in trouble I have selected my gangsters to flee, only for them to sit around idle for a few seconds and get shot at before they run. And they seem to sometime run the wrong way! Also navigating your cars can be a bit frustrating. Seems that sometimes that computer chooses the longest path to get somewhere via car, when your car could easily take a turn down another street and get to a destination in half the time.

The manual is nice, explains pretty thoroughly what you can and can not do, and even walks you through the 1st two episodes. The only complaint about the manual is a few screenshots used for explanation are blurry.

Gangsters 2 offers multiplayer support!! Now that's awesome. You can have up to 4 Godfathers trying to compete over a city. However, it would have been much better if there was a random map generator for not only multi, but single players as well. After you complete the game in 16 episodes, you just restart it again at a higher difficulty level, but it's the same cities and same objectives.

As you move on from episode to episode, you take your hired hands with you, and dole out experience points to them in different categories based on performance: combat, stealth, or special skill (diplomat, distiller, bomber, hit man, driver, etc..)

When you take over buildings in the city, either by buying them, by force, etc., you must stay in control. For the building generate you money, and if you set up an illegal business (speakeasy, card den, brothels, brewery, distiller, gun smith, etc..) you rake in more money to expand your empire. Use money to buy better guns, recruit muscle, buy better armored cars, and buy influence over the police, the judge, the DA, etc...Bribery is big, however, the FBI are incorruptible, but every other figure in the game is. I love the drive by shootings!!! I often eliminate my opponent by taking out enemy gangs by Tommy and shotguns via a drive by, hop out of the car, and bust up their business (either by bombing, or killing those inside massacre style) and speed off before the police arrive. This disrupts the cash flow for your opponent, and even better if you can capture the business yourself and set up shop. You generate more money while increasing your influence in town! But be careful, you better hire guards for you new place, because your opponent doesn't like you taking over and will soon dispatch his own thugs to reclaim lost businesses.

One of your gang members in jail? No problem! Maybe you just need to put the judge or the DA on your payroll. Or maybe a breakout is more your style.

I'm just touching the base of things you can do. There are many illegal business to set up, cars to steal, people to kidnap, patrol your area, buy of the mayor, etc....

All in all, a very worthy sequel and worth the money.

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.

I Fair Reveiw by an expert Gamer

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 15
Date: June 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

. . This is an awesome real time stratedgy game. I loved the first one. I mean it's a sweet concept. You're a gangster leader and you're trying to dominate the crime of several cities. It was a major improvment from the first one, (Not saying the first one ...)but this game is cool! You can tell your gang members to bomb or raid an enemy building. Make some "doh" by setting up ilegal cards houses and shipping ports, By exporting illegal goods and booze. Buy your equimpment from the black market, and if your good enough, set up your own black market. You can even kidnap people. Run in a election to gain polittical control over the city. Bribe cops to get a gang member out of jail. Thats just skimming the surface! (seriously) . This game is awesome. I have been gaming for a long time and i give out fair reveiws on games, and let me tell you somthing this is an easy 4-5. . You should seriously look into this game, i know you won't be dissapointed! . :)Matt/Chucky/PAblo/Super Cow. . :P M from Sama Gaming,

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.

The sims meet the sopranos!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I got this game on the 1st day it came out. Good thing it's summer cause these days I've been spending most of my time playing this game. So I'd say it's highly addictive. Of course, Gangster 2 is now a story mode and your Joey Banes. Also the motive of this whole game as the title hints "gangsters" is that you destroy, loot, kill, etc. and what can't be a better story than to get into the shoes of a mob? However I'd really have to give it three stars for several reasons after balancing out the positives and negatives of this game.

The negative side of this game is that there are three levels of maps. Of course the one we'd like to see most is the 3D one where you get to see the buildings, cars, people, etc. The 3D map of the city is similar to the sims. So I wouldn't say the graphics are at all good. The graphics basically look like the Gangsters 1 and this dissapointed me. But besides that sometimes you'd be stuck playing in map 2 which is a flat map of the city with symbols for the people, car, buildings, etc. It's a lot easier to control all the businesses but when you are being attacked from all different directions, it just leaves out the excitement seeing your men fight in glory or dying in battle. Another flaw with this is say you want to control your men to a certain position and there is enemy nearby, your men might not follow your orders instead just go right away to attack that guy.

The good part of the story is that there is just so much to do and so many characters. Also characters have different attribute points and you can add attributes after each level and make then stronger. Different characters are also good at different techniques, let's say bombing, driving, kidnapping, etc. Of course the most fun is hopping into a 1920s car and speeding by an enemy office and shooting them with your maching gun as you drive by. You can also bribe people, purchase different weapons, car, the list goes on. I think this is really a great game, I just wish they improved the graphics. It's worth buying but I'm not so certain this is a game people will play over and over again. So maybe it'd be a good idea to get a used one or buy a new one and sell it when your done. There just so much I can write about this game, it would take pages so I'll just end it here.

worth every cent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

110% + 1 better then the first version. Theres an actually story behind this game and theres over 20 OTHER towns and cities to take over. The multiplayer looks to be very interesting when they get the servers up. But either way eidios made A LOT of improvements on this game so its a diffenate must have for all gangster 1 fans.

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.

Moronic ai and pathing makes what could be fun, annoying

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is kind of simple and would be fun if it weren't for pathing and AI that makes the original Warcraft look smart. If your gangsters are wanted by the police, and getting shot at, they will pace back and forth in front of the cops like ducks in a shooting gallery until dead. This happens ALOT.

Also, if you tell someone, say a wimpy specialist, to go somewhere, he takes the direct route, even if it takes him past a hundred enemy troops (well, he'll be dead after 12 so no matter)

The idiotic ai takes what could be a simple but fun game and makes it feel like someone just wnated to put out their software a couple of months before they were finished.

A patch could fix this, but not too likely from eidos, customer service isn't very important nowadays.

Avoid this game.

--Alex

No Freedom

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: July 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I didn't like G2 to well you weren't as free as G1. G2 is stupid because you only can have eight guys like in G1 you get eight guys but then can get 10 more for each of those guys. Also the drive-bys are stupid because the guy in the car keeps going back and forth and the opposite gangsters just stand there they don't take any cover at all. Another thing is the missions are the same "GO KILL THIS GANGSTER THEN GO KILL THE OTHER ONE" thats how all twenty-one missions were. Another thing is when you wanted guns or cars sometimes they wouldn't let you buy any so that was stupid. Another is you couldn't decide for your self which buisness you wanted to buy or what illegal buisness you wanted it to be. Another thing is how you could only steal your other gangsters cars and not any of the citizen cars. I think that Hothouse really went over board.

Was the best and going to be the best!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: May 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have been to every fan site website of this game and read every preview/review of this game and saw every screenshot of this game!

It's going to be a brilliant game!

Any Mafia fan will like this game, really! This is the closest that you can get to organized crime!!

GO FOR IT!!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 Next 

Actions