Gangsters: Organized Crime - PC Games

Game play is a cross between an empire builder and a business simulation. Your goal is to take over the city and make a lot of cash. You've got to finance your expansion with your businesses (illegal as well as legit) and hold your territory with muscle. Since not too many venture capitalists are keen on giving seed money to thugs, enterprising hoodlums have to turn to their neighbours for cash. Luckily, your neighbours have plenty of money, and they're happy to fork it over if doing so means they can continue using their fingers. So you go about recruiting hoods and extorting everything within your territory, all the while building and managing profitable public services such as booze distribution and well-lit brothels. It's a good gig until you're dead or in jail. So you want to avoid those unpleasantries by paying off cops and judges, while at the same time killing anyone who would do the same to you.

The above-mentioned activities may sound fun, but Gangsters only partially delivers on its promises. The interface is complicated without being comprehensive, forcing you to spend a lot of time looking for information that has been segmented into different menus. The diplomacy options are simplistic to the point of being non-existent, which really diminishes the possibility of subterfuge. Visually, only the zoom feature gives you an entertaining view of the game. Unfortunately, after an hour of play, your territory is so large you can't afford to look at anything but the big map, which appears dull and grey. But even for all of its flaws, the original concept and over-the-top gameplay hold a surprising amount of entertaining hours. So, if you're a fan of The Godfather, Gangsters might be an offer you can't refuse. --Joshua B. Coombs

Pros: Wide variety of legitimate--and not-so legitimate--businesses Amusing sound and graphics Cons: Tedious interface Extremely buggy without the patches Limited diplomacy Questionable business practices make this game unsuitable for kids