You are an independent crook in a corrupt city. You can work for any of the three gangs but first you must get respect by either carrying out minor jobs for them or by inflicting damage on one of the other gangs. Each job pays big but also bring you to the attention of the law. Alternatively you can start a one man crime wave and steal cars, run down people, shoot gang members, the public and cops.
I bought this game cheap for PC, years after all the controversy raged. Personally I am not going to go out and commit crimes simply because a game with an overhead view allows me to do it that is a game and this is real life
..just cause I still play video games as an adult doesn't mean I'm a child!
Outside of the controversy this is an enjoyable game. The basics get a bit samey but are still entertaining. Most jobs involve stealing cars, pick up this, pick up that etc but it is all still enjoyable. The jobs increase in difficulty and depending on how some of the gangs feel towards you can become more difficult. For example when a gang hates you but they're armed with pistols then no problem, but when they've got machine guns etc then just driving past a crowd could find your important vehicle destroyed.
With the mission difficulty increasing so does the problem the police pose. In the first level the basic police presence will be added to by SWAT teams unless you lay low for a moment to let the heat die down. In later stages you get ruthless special agents (who WILL kill you instead of arresting you) or in the final stage, martial law is declared and it's impossible to avoid the military for long literally every street is full of soldiers and tanks.
The driving/walking game play is quite fun even if the view makes for confusing controls until you get the hang of it. My main problem with it is that it gets quite samey for a while so I'd rather be able to pick it up for short times. However to save a game you must get back to the `church' (a job in itself if you don't have maps) and then it costs you money to save setting you back in terms of progressing further into the game. This is a down side as it means anything you do needs to be save continuously as you go.
Overall a good game looks a little basic but if you want to play then you can go through the missions or if you want to destroy and go nuts then you can do that too!
