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Kingpin puts the "terr" in terrible

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: February 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Kingpin is the Phantom Menace of video games. The graphics are breathtaking, especially at 1024 x 768. It incorporates hundreds of skins and textures to give that seedy, dark atmosphere to the game. However, take away the fancy computer graphics and you're left with a terrible plot, confusing layout and boring gameplay.

There are so many problems I don't even know where to start. Enemy AI is best described as psychotic. They run around in circles, shooting at the walls. Often times they run in squares and incessantly yell insults at you (actually there are about 4 that repeat over and over again). Enemies are either telepathic since the instant you unholster your gun, they fire at you. Talk about your quickdraws! Although the plot is decent, the map layout is so confusing you'll end up circling around yourself looking for the door to the next level.

And then there's the weapons. The rocket launcher has a blast radius of 2 feet. You literally have to hit your opponent or else they will kill you. Also they can jump over rocket explosions. That's right, jump over. The flamerthrower requiries at least 15 seconds to kill anyone. The Heavy Machine Gun shoots 3 bullets a time, and can kill you from 2 miles away. The shotgun takes about 10 seconds to reload 8 shells. And the grenade launcher can sometimes take out a whole room, while other times it barely scratches the furniture.

Well if the first person game sucks, multiplayer should be fun, right? Nope, guess again. Even though I'm running a P2-300 with 192mb ram, 16mb TNT2 video card and a cable modem, every (I repeat), EVERY, online game I've played has had lag. We're talking Grade A, jumbo-lag flown in from Alaska. I've logged about 40 hours online, and there hasn't been one game where I've seen characters float in the air, walk in slow motion, or skip to several places at once. You guessed it, Kingpin is the Matrix of video games!. As soon as you get your opponent in your sights, he disappears and reappears several feet away, conventiently shooting at you.

If you want multiplayer action, get Unreal Tournament. If you want violence, gore and some serious gunning action, wait for Soldier of Fortune. If you want to curse at the monitor screen and yell "work dammit, work!", by all means get Kingpin.

Too obscene for me!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 13
Date: April 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Is it possible for a game to be TOO realistic? The graphics are excellent, and there's a lot of bass to everything. Now, shall I go into the negative parts? I'm against the claim that video games cause violence in the populace, but this game nearly changed my opinion. In Kingpin, it's "f-this" and "f-that," and "Don't look at my (expletive)." Even casual talk has the F-word butting into the conversation, and I was very disgusted with the conversations that my character engaged in. I returned the game soon after I installed it because I thought the "gritty" subject matters detracted from the "fun factor" of the game. How can one have fun cussing and killing other people that cuss back? Sure, Quake and other games are violent, but not as wanton, gratuitous, and obscene as THIS game. I admit that I like some violence, but not even *I* would defend Kingpin from accusations of youth violence. Aside from that, bullets leave exit marks on the opponents, but so does the crowbar, the levels are very confusing, making you run in circles, and objectives are very vague. Heed the rather large warning labels on the box PLEASE. This game is DEFINETELY NOT for kids...and even some grown-ups!

Kingpin really isn't king...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: April 05, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Kingpin...where should I start? The main highpoint of this game is the impressive and funny songs by Cypress Hill that were made exclusively for this game. Aside from all the profanity and blood and gore, this game is ok but not one of the best games from Interplay. This game is basically your Quake mod that has a story and some additional features added to it. However it is funny to see the reactions of people in the game when you pull a gun on them. If you are up for lines and lines of profanity, tons of blood and gore and missions that require you bounce heads with some big boys, then this game is for you! The only drawback is the long load times so make sure your computer chair is comfy.

Everything about KINGPIN, Good and Bad.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

In Kingpin you start out as a guy just like everybody else, but then you get this "reputation" as this bad [guy], who doesn't take [anything]from anybody and is basically unstoppable. There are alot of good, and BAD things about this game, and this will deffinetly be the review you need to look at because I like the game more than I dislike the game, or vise versa.
The Pros for the game are: The graphics are Great in some aspects (people, explosions, fire, and sometimes surroundings),
also realisticness plays a big part in the game at some points, for instance, the blood, the blowing off of limbs, it's not like those other games where you shoot someone in the face 50 times with a bazooka and bleed a little! The language is also GREAT, most people think that the language is "terrible" or cursing is way overused but if you think that then you shouldn't even have bought a game like this! I mean what do you expect? This is a game, where people almost ALWAYS have a gun. Live in the WORST area of anyplace that I have ever seen and have box's at the best as homes. So I really doubt the people in kingpin are going to care about their language! I also seen someone complain about how long it takes to reload the shotgun, that is bullcrap, it is almost the exact same speed of realoading a real shotgun! Another thing is, the enemys have to reload! Thats right!! When they run out of ammo you can blast them and they can't do anything about it! The lighting is also good in the game! When you shoot a gun liek the tommygun it will definetly light up the room! It's also great to be able to hire people or "thugs", which basically only help you kill people or unlock doors or safes! There asre also diffrent gangs in kingpin! You can spot them by their attire. The Sewer rats, the scorps, the dragons, and the jokers. You later in the game even get a chance to join the Jokers! which all have a joker head tattooed on their arm. The cons of the game are, first of all, like another review said on here. What the Box of kingpin says is a COMPLETE LIE!!!! First of all it says, Recruit a gang of thugs, LOL, NO, you can have up to 2, yes 2!!! thugs at one time, if you try to hire any more then they'll say something along the lines of "sorry, i can't run with ya" or "you gotta make room for me", the box also says about what the thugs do, and it says something about them hanging back to guard your turf, what turf???!!!! You have no area of your own, you rarely ever go back to a spot you've visited before in kinpin! So if you tell them the stay put then you'll never see them again! It Also says, shoot a snitch in the knee caps, there are no snitches, and if you shoot anyone in the kneecaps, your going to catch a cap in the face and lose 60 health! It also says shoot an enemy with a single head shot and watch them bleed! No again, in the later levels of the game it is EXTREMLY hard to kill people you can sometimes go up to an enemy at point blank range and shoot them in the face with a shotgun and they will just shoot you back! Another thing, enemys don't ever acutally bleed! They just have red marks. Another completely moronic thing about this game is that the RATS can hurt you!!! They can set there and bite you and take off 1 point of health each time they bite you! thats just dumb! Another thing about the enemy is they sometime are just stupid, they'll set there and run around in circles until you kill them, even if they have a gun! And that is kingpin, thats a long review but it is basically everything about the game!

Misleading but fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: July 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game under the impression that it was something of a gangster simulator. Call me dense, but that's what I thought. (Well, don't.) The packaging reads along the lines of 'Hire your own gang and tell them what to do.' It also mentions shooting informants in the kneecap to punish them. This is made up out of whole cloth, because nowhere does this occur. I was expecting to start off low then move into my own office, hiring new members, conducting gang wars, somewhat like Gangsters 2 but in 3D. This isn't the case. The blurb on the box gives the impression that you have far more control over your environment than you do.

Somewhat interesting on certain parts, but lacks

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Despite my liking for gore and profanity, this game leaves for something... I would say gameplay value. When I first started playing it, I enjoyed the nice Quake 2 based engine and the 3D Audio, but it quickly got me saying, "Why am I playing this?"

I understand the plot clearly, you want to become the Boss (the Kingpin) and you have to fight through gangs and other obstacles to get there. These obstacles include ridiculous missions of running back of and forth doing favors. Such as giving a bum some whiskey to get a combination safe number. I thought if a game has a Mature rating slapped onto it, it might as well have some Mature thinking puzzles...

The profanity is something that probably turns away most audiences, because most of the gamers are young and probably need parental admission to get games. To me, the profanity is interesting to hear, not annoying or disturbing. I have never seen a game so daring to use so much violence (until Soldier of Fortune) and profanity.

All in all, I would suggest anyone who likes graphic violence in gang-related environments and non-stop profanity.

Gives new meaning to the term "Ghetto-Blaster"

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

#@!$%*! ^&*&$#%!

That's the censored version.

Its the most vile 1st person game I've ever played. Not in terms of violence, just in the language. That in itself, makes this game a total riot to play.

Where else can you use cuss-words in practically every sentence in a game?

Well, there's that, the interaction with characters, various weapons and upgrades and the "buying" of "muscle for hire".

On the downside, the graphics are blocky and ugly and there is no MANUAL SAVING!!! That is the biggest upset of all.

The other issue is that this game is RIDICULOUSLY HARD! You shoot your enemies in the face five times and they won't go down! It gets to the point of sheer frustration.

There's the fun sound fx and music from Cypress Hill that give it an extra boost of pulp fiction.

You'll have a f***in' great muth*****n' time you ***holes! ;-)

Addendum: After much aggravating gameplay I stopped playing this and unistalled it. It's just ridiculously hard in any setting and annoying.

Subtract 1 "fun" star from my original review.

Kingpin: Life of crime

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Kingpin: Life of crime. I had heard alot about this new game by Xatrix where you played as a thick necked overweight thug trying to make it to the top in a gritty dark world where gangs rule the streets. I had also heard alot about the language and how obusive it was. Well I got the game, and thirty minutes later I was the one cussing like crazy because the game was still installing ist sinful 570 MB. When this little ordeal was over and the game started, I had to sit and wait five more minutes for the game to load the first episode, which seemed surprisingly small for such a long loading time. When it finally loaded, I was forced to watch a lame intro movie with which the F word was gratuitously overused. The Enviroments are highly detailed however and the gamelay is exceptionally good. The AI is superb. Enemies run and duck and jump - even through windows to the streets and alleys below if it means staying alive! You can meet other local drunks and thugs, hire em for money and they'll follow you anywhere, wasting those that get in your way. You can command them to wait in a place and regain health when they're severely injured. You can talk to people however you want from "smack to cool." However as you get farther and farther into the game it seems more and more rushed, and the boss at the end of the game, the Kingpin and his woman is a very unreal fight. You can deal absolutly no damage to his b*tch and he himself is not hard to kill. But overall the games only real weakness is loading, loading and loading. Other then that, its great. Definately a buy if you got at least a pentium 233. Though the game did slow down even on a p-3 with 450 mghz, when there was alot of stuff going on on the screen.

Whatcha expet? Faggeddaboutit...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

1. Profanity: If you don't like profane language, don't buy this game. Also don't go into any inner city ghetto, don't join the US Navy or more important the marine corps where they actually insert profanity inside other words. guarran-...-tee it.
2. Bleeding: Enemies don't bleed per se but when they run away having been shot they leave blood trails to follow.
3. Gangs: In the single player you can only hire 2 guys at a time and in one episode once one of two guys in a bar is hired the other won't work for ya. [even if ya got room]
In the multiplayer there is free for all [everyone for they selves] and bagman [2 gangs] and ya don't really hire them they just join ya. safe's can sdtore your loot until another gang rips you off.
4. Maps: Multiplayer version has many arenas available, and even stategies like 'the sniper' up in a high place while your opponents blindly walk below you. [note you have to download lots of maps or design your own (game includes a map design tool)

5. Rats: if you're beaten pretty bad and hiding 1 point of health can hurt more than just healthy exploring a warehouse.
6. Trains: you heard about the train? well there's an episode wher you have to dodge trains - worse than the guys shooting at you. almost as bad as avoiding molten steel pits, and be sure not to drown in the water...but sometime you need to dive in to get stuff.
7. Gullible: You can hire a guy to come with you, lead them away to nowhere and the off them [boy, are they shocked!]. And if you search their corpse, you can get the money you paid to hire them back! [great for gratuitous violence]
8. Postal: you can keep on shooting people [blow their legs off] of course if you shott their corpse all away, anything they might have been carrying is gone - so be careful before going postal.
9.Ladies: The single player version is a man's world and all the women tend to be a ...well, "...". The multiplayer version allows the player to be runt or thug [male] or ... [female] many skins for all are available. i like the cheerleader and homer simpson goon. hey if profanity, nudity, and violence aren't your cup of tea, then don't buy it, don't play it, and don't even think about making a popular movie these days.

my favoite maps [not supplied, but available]:

chinatownbrawl
goldeneye
old desert dog
[forget name off hand but it was a prison]
pirate ship
cemetary and church

many others are available
the only disappointment was when looking over files in the demo, lamont's woman has two phrases she never uses in demo or retail.. "Could you gimme [money] for my hormone shot?" and "Why thank you very much. You so sweet" both in a 'different voice'
I truly wanted to get her to say that. she only talks about lamont and lenny until ya attack lamont, then she just curses you and tries to kill you. also note her to search the dog's carcass.
i suppose a mapping function would have been nice, but in this environment, real men don't use a map. they don't ask for directions either.

Kingpin: Life of Crime

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Kingpin: Life of Crime is a dark fps with a great gameplay set in the real bad world. You play a unnamed guy just called Thug. The game opens with thug badly beaten up and left in an ally by Nick's men, Nick works for the kingpin, Thug vows to get revenge, but he does not have anything besides a small pipe, so he has to kill people for money, he kills people takes their money and weapons, buys more weapons, hires goons, rides on a stolen bike, jumps into a moving train, finally he takes on the kingpin, kills him and he becomes the kingpin. The single player gameplay is a different and great experience, no boss levels, all the villans are humans but their weapons and toughness changes. Besides shooting the baddies you have to talk and get advise from people in night clubs, visit the pawn o matic, hire goons ect. The level design is fantastic, From a dark ally, a steel mill, railroad, bad streets ect. They are very fun and very enjoyable to get through. The level are huge and are in hub layout. The weapons are good, There is a pistol, shotgun, tommygun, grenade launcher, bazzoka and a flame thrower. The flame thrower looks as good as it is in rtcw, This same company did rtcw.

Kingpin is built on the heavily modified quake2 engine. I play it on the default OpenGL video mode and the game runs very smooth. The graphics are fantastic, look great even today. The charecter animation is good but thier flesh moves as if they do not have any skeleton. Sound is very good, weapon sounds and the music is great. The voice acting is averange and almost all the male charecters sound the same. The art direction for each levels is superb, artists who did it should get an award for their contribution, kingpin has the best art direction in a computer game even today. Wow! fantastic environments look real and the atmosphere is superb. Kingpin is a very violent game, you could see arms and limbs comming off, baddies injured and running away will leave a trail of blood. the level of violace and langauge make games like sof look like a kids game, you can reduce them by installing the pg-13 version. There are lots of bad words you will hear the f-word hundred times in the first level itself. The AI is quite good, villans react well in situation. Kingpin is a very good game, If you do not mind games with heavy violance and bad words then you will surely like it. It is one of the realistic and coolest fps i have ever played.

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