By:
Hot House

If games were judged on their potential, Gangsters would be showered with praise for its fresh concept, addictive gameplay and sharp interface. Unfortunately, the wedge between proper execution and what could have been is too far to warrant any accolades for Hot House's strategy / resource management hybrid.

As a godfather, your job is to takeover a 1920's clone of Chicago called New Temperance, a city which has benefited from Prohibition. Crime rate is down, unemployment is low, business is booming and the streets are clean, making New Temperance ripe for the picking. Through racketeering, extortion, bribery and outright violence you should have no problem placing New Temperance under your control. Unfortunately, three other gang families have the same idea in mind, and they're no less determined to running the city than you are.

The concept sounds great, and indeed there were times while playing the game when we were impressed by certain in-game events, or were pleasantly surprised by an action we weren't expecting. For the most part however, Gangsters falls just a little short of its intended goal, turning a potentially great strategy game into a frustrating and sometimes overwhelming mess of buttons, icons, faulty gameplay and user-unfriendly interfaces.