idway’s upcoming title This is Vegas delivers most of the trappings you’d expect to see in an open-world game. “We were demonstrating the police-response system,” explains Surreal Software studio head Alan Patmore, “and Andre [Maguire, the game’s creative director] got in a fight and the police-response system got to a point where they have to use guns on you. They shot and missed him and hit somebody else. He hit somebody else, and all of a sudden this enormous riot broke out behind him.”

It’s a sad state of affairs when such seemingly epic events are now, frankly, fairly common in the world of video games. It’s also difficult for sandbox-oriented games to forge their own way through the marketplace without getting mired in the obvious comparisons to a certain Grand Theft Auto series. Fortunately for players, This is Vegas’ creators seem to be taking a different angle than players might be accustomed to.

If you’re the kind of player who immediately drives up and onto the sidewalk or beelines across virtual streets to smack grandmothers around, well, you’ll be able to do that in Vegas, too. “But they might fight back,” adds Patmore, “and sometimes they’re packing heat, so you have to be careful. What we wanted to capture from a tone standpoint, the best analogy is we’re Oceans 11—the cool glitziness—meets Anchorman. It’s almost that conflict that makes it even funnier.”

So while you can smack random passers-by around, your punches will generate more in the way of swirling little stylistic flourishes than in geysers of blood. “If you go and punch a grandmother and blood sprays out of her mouth, it’s a lot worse than going up and having a cool hit effect and then she puts her dukes up and starts wailing on you,” says Patmore.

In This is Vegas, players maneuver their character through the seedy world of casinos, clubs and more. And as your character makes friends (and enemies) in Sin City, he runs into Preston Boyer. Boyer has a vision for Vegas that is at odds with yours. Where you see a place to have a great time and party into the morning, he imagines a family-friendly enterprise. While such a tourist trap might be a bit safer, you think he’s missing the point of the place. With that philosophy and 50 bucks in your pocket, you set out to hit the big time.

“To date, most open-world games are crime based. Even Crackdown, in which you’re a good guy, you’re still in a crime game,” explains Patmore. “This is not a crime game. This is someone trying to make it from rags to riches to become the king of Vegas. We have a conflict between Boyer and you, but tonally it’s a totally different game. I think it’s one of the most unique things about this game, and honestly one of the most refreshing—as a gamer, I like the fact that I’m not just doing hits on people and jacking cars and things like that.”

While that conflict drives the story, the fact that Vegas is so many things to so many different types of people helps propel things along, too. Those varying ideals are represented in the game via the Suits, archetypes of those stock characters based on the four suits in a deck of playing cards. “Diamonds are the high rollers, the money,” explains Patmore. “You have hearts, who are the old-school entertainers, sort of your Sammy Davis Junior and Liberace types. You have the spades, who are the rockers, the darker side of Vegas, the edgier side. And then you have the clubs, who are the nightlife, the clubbers, the DJs, the dancers, et cetera.” As players work their way through story missions and side gigs, their reputation will increase for various factions. Players are free to interact and work with each of the four factions, and each has their own feel and tone.

“So a race mission for the diamonds might be, ‘Drive a Ferrari around a course on strip,’ while for the spades it might be driving dune buggies around a ring of the Axis, which is our Stratosphere-style casino.” Patmore says players will be able to change the city itself through their actions, too. As he explained, players can take advantage of their increasingly impressive reputations and revitalize clubs, turning them from dead zones to thriving hotspots.

That increased reputation manifests itself elsewhere, in some unexpectedly funny ways. “We do have our version of carjacking, though it isn’t as thug-based as other open-world games, where you smash in people’s heads in their cars and pull them out,” says Patmore. “We’re doing things that are consistent with the tone and humor of the game, like the person will go, ‘Get it washed before you bring it back,’ or some line like that instead of just killing people and taking their cars.” Later, people will actually start volunteering to give you their keys, because, as Patmore puts it, “You are the coolest guy in the world.”

Of course a game set in Las Vegas wouldn’t be the same without the gambling, and it’s a huge part of This is Vegas, too. The game includes robust simulations of the usual suspects—poker, slots, blackjack and more. “We’re using Poki AI, which is essentially what real professionals train with, so the AI poker system is really advanced,” says Patmore.

The game puts its own spin on gambling, though, with the introduction of a system the team calls Advantage Play. Basically, it gives players a competitive edge over the house. For example, players can use a device to rig slot machines or can mark cards while playing poker. If that sounds a lot like cheating to you, you’re not alone. As in the real world, pit bosses skulk through casinos, keeping an eye on the gamblers. If you start doing a little too well, you’re likely to find yourself the center of attention. And depending on that attention, you can end up facing consequences as slight as seeing a dealer replaced up to getting taken out back and threatened with a beatdown—or worse.

This is Vegas looks like it’s going to give players plenty to do. Along with the story missions, players can engage in a slew of minigame-like diversions, like going out to a club and dancing or performing, bartending and other decidedly non-mafia-game activities.