t irks me when a developer innovates within a genre and fails to tighten up the final product to the point where its creativity can be enjoyed to the fullest. Gangland is chock-full of great new ideas, but I couldn’t get into its world of violence, wealth, and power.

The idea behind this title is brilliant: Captain an organized crime family to dominance through clever strategy, shrewd business dealings, and plenty of violence against those who oppose you. These elements fit snugly together, and impact one another in logical fashion. Ignore any one facet of your criminal empire, and it’ll all come crashing down around you – the mark of a well-conceived strategy game.

Although its core concepts are well executed, the little things bring Gangland down. In particular, the AI leaves a bit to be desired. Regular civilians to whom I’d done no wrong would frequently open fire on me, completely breaking the game fiction. Also, combat feels more like a slugfest than an intense tactical experience; not once was I able to recover from bad odds through strategic expertise.

If your desire to be a criminal mastermind isn’t enough to get you over a steep learning curve and overlook some flaws, you’d be well-advised to look to other, more polished titles for your strategy fix.  

MATT HELGESON   7 Whiptail Interactive envisioned Gangland as a blend of the real-time strategy, role-playing, and sim genres. On paper, this sounds quite amazing. However, there are just too many flaws that detract from Gangland’s admittedly cool concepts. Too much of your time is spent in transit between jobs (the vehicles, which do help save time, are abysmally difficult to control), and the combat itself doesn’t really have much in the way of depth or strategy, a problem that’s exacerbated by the lack of unit variety. Like so many Mafia epics, Gangland reaches a predictable conclusion: great concept, spotty execution.