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Don't buy this after you've played "Mafia"

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: March 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because I was so fascinated with the Mafia world. I thought it was interesting to own a business and hire people to help you. But, do not expect the same quality as the "Mafia" game from the God Games. That game is just so much better than Gangland. Okay, you may argue that "Mafia" was more about action than strategy, you're right... but still you'll feel disappointed when you play Gangland. There are some pro(s) and con(s) from this game:
(+)Mafia theme, great ideas that allowing you to own business and hiring your own people.
(+)Cheap price from Amazon: I only paid $4.74 including shipping and handling.
(+)Lots of levels and challenges that may keep you staying with this game for a while.
(+)The CD makes a crisp "snap" sound after I snapped it because it's so frustrating (two days after I bought it). You can use the box to hold your chair and the guide to make fire ( in addition to fire wood) when you camp.
(-)Awful camera position. The game gives you two ways to control it (including zoom in and out). One is to press "V" and "B" which will enable you to quickly rotate the camera on 90 degree, second is to hold "alt" button (in addition moving your mouse) to move the camera 360 degree to give you more freedom to enjoy the camera. I found those are not helpful because the streets and buildings are just too small/ narrow. So, you'll need to move around the camera position numerous times just to give you a better shot for your surroundings. It's annoying when you're being attack from many sides and you have to re-direct your camera just to see where you are and the enemies' positions. It simply gives you a headaches, literally.
(-)You cannot drive the car(s) on the sidewalks! Okay, so you want to be a great citizen and tax payer by not abusing the sidewalks.. but, you're mafia!! This may not be a big problem if the roads are wide enough to drive.. but they're just to narrow! To me they're just another sidewalk painted with black color and white stripes. It's also hard to make a left/ right turn since the control are just insensitive. I prefer to run during the game just to keep me out from being stressed out.
(-)Great story... your uncle sends you to make some revenges to your brothers.. owing business.. blah..blah.. but please.. can you put some animation on it or better actor to improve the voice?? Instead of just reading the text.
(-)You have to complete every single mini tasks in one level before you can save the game. So, prepare yourself to repeat one level so many times.
(-)Poor interface menu.. to me.. it's just too childish. Bright colors (like yellow and green colors from your Sharpie/ Sanford markers) do not tell me that you're playing a Mafia-theme game.
(-) There is not so much variation on the music, voice, and effect. After you've been playing it for a while you'll feel bored.
This is my first time to write a review for a game (or for any product description from Ebay, Amazon, etc)... and this was my first time to snap a CD into two pieces because it's simply too bad. I bought this game because of the theme and the ratings (four out of five stars) from Amazon. I don't know how those people who gave five/ four stars enjoy it, may be they're the ones who made the game. But to me...prefer to spend my $4.74 for something else.

good gone ugly

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This story is similar to the Godfather series by Mario Puzo in the way it is played out in the video game. If you read the series think about how it would be to play his son in the family. If you haven't what it is, you go out to the godfather who is in very good terms with you and he gives you a bunch of missions. Most of these involve killing someone but some are as simple as extorting some money from a bar owner or the other with no blood spillt. The game's graphics are not that good, think diabloI or Starcraft(the first one). The gameplay is allright with the only problem is that is almost not at all based on strategy but rather on numbers. If you have more goons with you, the higher your chances of winning. I have found it very difficult to use strategy when you are weaker than your enemy in order to win. In a way it's pretty much a game where each side has a life balance and you stand in the open, shoot at each other, and see whose life gets to 0 first.
The makers tried to make the game more GTA style as you can take over a car here and there, and can take over bars and restaurants in the city to improve your city position. The only problem is that these dissapear as soon as the next mission starts. It's like you'r playing a GTA level with 20-50 missions and after each mission you would have to start looking for guns, cars,..etc again as everything reset itself.
Another possible problem I found, or maybe that's how the makers intended it to be is dealing with civilians. Some civilians as you walk by them for no reason whatsoever start shooting you. This can be annoying especially when you have low life and are trying to get away from a situation.
Overall this game is worth the money only if you are a fan of mobster type games, if you aren't I would keep my money and buy something else(maybe Mafia for PC).

Seriously disappointing

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

People talked about this game like it was a cross between "Grand Theft Auto 3," "Gangsters," and "The Sims." Believing that, I went out to acquire this game. I regret spending my money.

Here's how gameplay is: you play a campaign, following a storyline. However, this is not like GTA3 where you can follow a certain storyline/story arch and still go out and do your own thing. Each mission is an isolated level, like a normal video game. Before I completed a mission, I went out and acquired a large portion of the city that I was allowed to go in, as well as raising my own personal army. Then when the next level was loaded...BAM! All of it was gone. I was heartbroken. Everything I had done was thus undone, as if the game only wanted me to have so much power. Imagine earning a lot of money, weapons, and vehicles in GTA3 and then suddenly losing all of it come the next mission, and you'll understand me better. What you come to realize is that while the game designers had a great concept, they presented it terribly. I got tired of doing the missions, and I didn't feel like I was in any great sim like the advertisements claimed. I think "Gangsters" was more like "The Sims" than this was.

The gameplay is also annoying. Moving the camera was awkward, though that wasn't my biggest complaint. The voice acting in this was incredibly awful. Every character says something in an attack, and its usually in a bad Italian accent. This is even worse for the girls who pepper spray people, and every time having to say something out loud. Imagine someone saying "How do you like my new piece?" and "You're goin' down!" every SECOND and you will understand just why I quickly turned down the volume.

There are other serious issues with this game however. The main reason I have given it one star as opposed to the original two I was going to give it is this: the patches. I downloaded the patch after a crash-to-desktop when the game first loaded...only to realize I had to download the other patches beforehand. Problem is...those patches apparently no longer exist. I couldn't believe it. I went to the company's website and searched all over, with just the recent patch available. I searched online, and though I found some earlier patches the game couldn't accept them, because it first had to accept the other, MUCH earlier patches. So all in all...I couldn't patch the game. This is inexcusable.

This game is not what I would recommend to other people. I hope in some ways my words have helped other gamers make a decision, or prevented them from making a serious financial mistake. Though the scars are too deep in me, I can exert my pain for the better good of mankind. Don't buy this game.

Best Mafia type game yet!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: January 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off let me say it beats out both gangsters 1 and 2. The graphics detail are amazing aswell as there is more to do. Gameplay is great except I found driving vehicles to be semi hard turning wise. The downfall to this game is that occasionally it crashes, however I didnt have this problem before I got the update patch. Overall this is a great game and I recommend it over any other mob type game!

Wish i had my money back

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: August 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

i bought this game with high hopes, and regretably paid the full $50, there are way too many things wrong with this game to list. Do NOT buy this game

Demo Review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 10
Date: June 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game was so fun but it was a little to easy with cheats.

Gangland Join the MOB.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: May 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

GREAT! Be a member of the mob without the short life expectancy.
Requires planning, but worth the effort.
Much more depth than other games.
Fun.

Beware: Absolutely Horrible Game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When the game first came out, it did not have the save game feature & had many performance problems. Then after a long delay Media mobsters came out with Patch 1.2.1 which had a checkpoint save feature not the save feature where you can save the game when ever you want. Also Patch 1.2.1 had lots & lots of bugs leading to occasional crashes & performance problems. You can read all about this in the official forum: http://www.forumplasma.com/gangland/.
Almost all the forum members at the official forum had requested media mobsters to correct these issues but they responded back saying that right now they are concentrating all their resources in developing a localized version of the game for different countries. What kind of software company is this? Instead of solving the bugs in the game first and improving the game's performance, they are concentrating on making more money & fooling customers in different countries by making localized versions of the game. I wonder how far greed will take media mobsters.
I am giving the game a rating of 1 since the lowest in Amazon is 1. If there was something less than that I would have given that.

Anyway If you are interested in trying this game, just wait for 10-15 days as I am sure that lots of disgusted game players will be selling their cd's at less than $10 at ebay. Today I sold mine at $11 and I am happy that atleast I have earned $11 for this disgusting buggy game

Good and Bad

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: March 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

So far I've only played the demo version of the game. Unfortunately I've never been able to complete a game without it crashing on me and my friends. With that being said I'm still giving this 4 stars because it's a hell of a lot of fun to play (especially in safehouse mode). The FFA mode kinda blows - you start with a set amount of dudes and attack the other side and that's it. With safehouse mode though it's a completely different story. You start out with your main guy (don't let him die!) and a bouncer. From there you can take over the entire city, hire tons of guys, do missions and more. I hope the full version has more than 2 players on a safehouse map. This would definately be a good game for LAN parties.

For "Gangster Strategy" Themed Games, this is THE Best!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: March 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Gangland is definitely the "Capo Di Tutti"(Boss of all Bosses) of all "gangster strategy" games out there, that is why it gets a 5 star rating. Yes, the field is small in the "gangster strategy" category, though there are some worthy contenders, most notably, Gangsters1(classic) and Gangsters2(some people didn't like it because of no sandbox mode like the original, but it was still an enjoyable game overall).

Gangland far exceeds all of them, with great graphics, sound, and gameplay. The game does everything as a whole very well!! Whether its buying an Arms Dealer and setting up a Gambling Den in the back of the place, or blowing up buildings, or my personal favorite, the infamous drive-by's!! This is a very addicting game!!

There are some minor flaws in Gangland, as most games do have, but they don't detract from the overall game experience and are easily overlooked. There is no "in-game" save during missions(though this will be coming in future patches), the voice-overs are a little short and weak, but not out of place.

Even with these little short-comings, Gangland extorts all other games that compare to it. There most likely will be a Gangsters3 from Hothouse/Eidos, but Gangland has set the bar very very high!! A DEFINITE must buy for anyone who loves this genre of game!!

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