We’ll start positively: when Gangs of London first begins, it looks pretty slick. Rather than taking control of one mobster, you actually take control of criminals. Control of the crimes can be changed on the fly whilst the mission is in progress. If you actually die during a mission then you’ll automatically take control of one of the living gangsters. The main mode in the game is the story mode. In the story mode there are five gangs in the game and you can play through missions in any of them. In total there are around 60 missions, which are all purposely broken up so the game is more portable.
Wonder if Chris-Leigh lives around here somewhere?
Before you actually begin each mission, the main menu displays what type of mission it is. There's a decent number of missions, including ones that entail defending, kidnapping and chasing. After you select the mission, a short cut-scene plays, with the story told using a comic book-style narrative. Up until this point everything seems fine, but then the game begins and things start to go downhill very quickly. The first thing you’ll notice is that the controls have had to be reworked for the PSP, which immediately makes aiming very difficult. If you’re aiming to shoot at an enemy then you actually can’t rotate your player to face another enemy, so when there are enemies coming at you from all sides it quickly becomes really frustrating. The game doesn’t actually compensate for this control issue either, so the AI takes advantage of your disadvantages.
The targeting system on the game is far too broken as well. As such, the game will often auto lock onto the furthest enemy away or enemies driving off into the distance in a vehicle. This isn’t helped by the fact that the AI itself is rather inconsistent, they will sometimes just get out of the car and attack, or run directly at you. The AI on your team isn’t that intelligent either, so whilst the team based gameplay had potential, it ultimately doesn’t work as well as it should because it feels like your team mates are just human life packs. The game also throws in the obligatory few stealth missions, though the less said about them the better, considering they’re even worse.
Unfortunately things aren’t that much better for the driving side of things either. The cars handle very poorly so chasing down an enemy or out speeding somebody is made even more difficult by the poor handling of the vehicles. Whilst we have to commend the fact that there are sixty missions, the missions actually start to become a little bit repetitive halfway through the game, and it sometimes feels like missions have just been recycled. When things start to heat up the game actually suffers from some frame rate issues as well, which is the poisonous icing on the cake.
The end of parking tickets?
Aside from the main story mode there are a few other things buried in the menus that serve to occupy for a little while. There are quite a few free roaming options including a free drive option where you can just walk or drive around London and take it all in. One of the other modes is London tourist, where you have to try and take photos of specific places in London, the taxi missions are back in the knowledge. There is a cause havoc free roam option which speaks for itself as well as a riot control mode which is the complete opposite of cause havoc. There is also a Getaway option (where you escape the police and not the game) as well speed trap (keep to a certain minimum speed). Inspired by the 28 Days Later film, the developers have also included a free roam mode called four weeks later, where you fight off as many zombies as possible. It seems a lot of effort has been put into the free roam mini options with some of the mini games a lot more fun than others.
Another option from the main menu is an option called the pub. The pub includes five mini games (darts, skittles ,UK 8-ball, US 8-ball and the arcade). These five mini games are all a lot of fun and can be played in multiplayer or single player. The game also includes a game share option where a friend can download a completely unique demo of the game. Finally, the game also includes a gang battle mini game. It's not polished but essentially it's a turn based strategy mini game where you try to take over parts of London. The gang battle option is actually pretty compelling but it isn't good enough to be the saviour of the game.
Because killing the ice-cream man is what everyone dreams about.
Graphically the game looks pretty dreary at times and character models aren't very clear, it takes a lot for the damage to show up on your car as well. The load times are pretty decent though and the fact that the game features a massive open world is something to be commended. The voice acting is pretty average and the music seems to loop quite frequently. Swearing is back in force as well, so those who enjoy their colourful language will be quite satisfied, although it seems like the swearing is thrown in a bit for the shock factor.
There is plenty of content in Gangs of London so if you can ignore some of the massive flaws then the game will last you a decent amount of time in story mode. The pub games are ideal for playing on the train or in quick bouts and the gang battle option is sure to please strategy fans. Unfortunately though, the game is so frustrating that it's likely most people will just give up on it.
Like the first two Getaway titles, Gangs of London is a missed opportunity. It seems Studio London has ignored everything anybody disliked about the two Getaway titles and just included the problems in Gangs of London. This results in poor AI, a terrible aiming system, repetitive missions and a sporadic frame-rate. Gangs of London is strictly for fans of the series, it's just far too broken to be an enjoyable game.
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