|  "GTA Style game, but repetitive gameplay"
GTA Style game, but repetitive gameplay
This is a GTA Style Action-Adventure game, it starts off nicely, but as you play it more and more, the gameplay starts to get repetitive. You can play storyline missions, extort businesses for money, perform hits on the side, and take over or blow up opposing families' rackets. The first few times you do it, it's pretty cool, but after you do it 20 times it gets old quickly.
Genre score: 38/50
- Action Element (15/25)
I liked the fact that this isn't your typical run and gun game, as that will NOT work at all (maybe at the end with fully upgraded weapons it would, but for most of the game it won't). You have to use some strategy with taking cover and shooting around corners if you want to survive, as well as the target points on the body you can hit, such as the knees, shoulder, etc... But, that's about the only good thing about the action part of this game. The game was very 2D, and the physics were terrible.. Your character and the cars seemed to be glued to the ground, for one, you can't jump, and cars don't flip no matter what, trust me, I've tried. Some of the controls were also a pain to use, like trying to push people around after you grab them, it's very difficult to get them where you want (such as if you have to throw them over a ledge for a hit). And as I previously said, after you extort like 20 businesses, it's not fun at all to have to continue doing it, the same goes for warehouses and compounds, because the layout is EXACTLY THE SAME for all of them. I think that the designers cut corners here by just using the same layout instead of making unique buildings for each one to keep it interesting.
- Adventure Element (23/25)
The storyline was great, and you definitely can get into it. Normally when a game is based off a movie, it sucks, but they did a good job of keeping the storyline good in this. The cash system was designed pretty well, if you never extort any businesses, you'll have barely enough money to get by, but if you do extort a few here and there, you can buy safehouses and will have money for high-end weapon upgrades about halfway through the game. Mob wars and bribes are a nice idea, but I think they wer done poorly in this game. For example, a mob war is way too easy to end, to bomb a business, all you have to do is open the door to it, toss the bomb in, and run away, or bribe an FBI Agent a measly $3000. What kind of FBI Agent takes a $3000 bribe? The same goes for police.. One time I bribed a cop outside of the bank before robbing it, and after I broke into the vault and was on my way out, the cop was in the bank just watching me shoot guards and run off with the bank's money. I know it's just a game, but when the game is trying to be realistic, a cop just standing there watching you rob the bank shouldn't be allowed. Cop bribes should be exclusively for mob business, such as extracting protection money or whacking other family members.
Other genre-specific notes:
- The third-tier weapon upgrades look stupid in this game, just because of the time period that it's set in. An automatic pistol, a shotgun with a 10 shot drum, and the dillinger should not be in this game.
- You can NOT switch between the different levels of the weapons. Once you buy an upgraded one, it's upgraded forever. This is kind of a pain because sometimes you need a weak weapon to perform the bonus conditions on some of the hits, and if you already upgraded all your weapons, your out of luck.
General score: (32/50)
- Graphics (12/20)
The graphics look like they were a rush job. All the people look the same, and all the cars look the same. There's maybe 8 different faces for people, and 5 different cars, and that's it. There's absolutely no excuse for that. Even with the lack of variety for graphics, the ones there weren't done too well either, they look like graphics from a 5 year old game (like dropped guns glow, that was stuff that was done 5 years ago).
- Sounds (8/10)
Sounds were nice in the game, but they cut in and out randomly too much (like you run someone over, "battle" music comes on, then fades away in a few seconds)
- Performance (8/10)
The game ran very smoothly (probably due to the fact that the graphics were so simple), but reloading a game was a pain, since you had to go to the main menu first, then let the savegame list load, then let the actual game load. There's also no excuse for the startup movies that you can't skip through.. That's ridiculous that you have to wait for those movies to play every time you launch the game.
- Learning Curve (4/5)
The tutorial missions do a pretty good job explaining the game, but some of the controls are awkward and take time to get used to
- Replayability (0/5)
After you play the game once, your done. After you do all the hits, buy all the guns, and extort all the businesses (which doesn't take long at all, after you finish the storyline missions, the hits might take an hour or 2, and extorting all the businesses might take 2 - 4 hours depending on how many you have left), and finish the main mission, there's really nothing else to do. Unlike GTA, where there's a large variety of vehicles to play with after you finish up the main missions, and different levels of police/FBI/etc.. the cops are pitiful, you can get a max heat level in 10 seconds flat, and there's really nothing to do. You won't want to play through the game again, the storyline mission was short, and extorting businesses is boring.
Final Notes:
Decent movie-based game, but not worth $50 for a week of gameplay
Final score: 70/100
Rounded to: 7/10
Reviewer's Score: 7/10
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