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Gangs of London Review
Written by Justin Davis on Monday, October 16, 2006
Excellent variety of multiplayer-enabled minigames.
Main game itself is pretty much awful.
Gangs of London is the worst game I've ever given a positive review. I can explain.
The meat of the game - a GTA-style romp through London where you'll jack cars, bust caps, and otherwise become one of London's most notorious gangsters - is awful. If I didn't have to play through it for the sake of this review, I would have given up on it after literally just a few missions. Yet the disc spent a tremendous amount of time spinning in my PSP, thanks to the plentiful, varied (and genuinely excellent) minigames present. I'll still be playing them long after this review is written, even as hotter, newer handheld titles cross my desk.
The storyline-driven main game itself isn't all bad, actually. Gangs of London nails that "London Underworld" atmosphere perfectly. Or at least what I, as an American, imagine that atmosphere might be like. The gang that I chose to hook up with is led by old man Morris Kane - the kind of guy that probably lovingly dotes on his grandchildren during the day, and breaks the fingers of his captured enemies at night. All the stereotypes are present and fleshed out via excellent voice acting, including the violence-loving gang member that's so crazy even his friends are slightly afraid of him (who bears a striking resemblance to Vinnie Jones, come to think of it).
Unfortunately that's pretty much all the entertainment value to be had from the adventure itself. London isn't actually open - an overhead map shows the available mission, and each begins with your character magically appearing at the right intersection or building. This serialized nature very quickly reveals the repetitiveness of the missions. They might not truly be more repetitive than game like GTA or Saint's Row, but when you storm a building and kill nameless thugs over and over and over, without the sandbox bits in between, it wears thin quickly.
A bigger problem still is the nearly unmanageable controls. Like many other PSP releases, Gangs of London suffers significantly because of the system's one analogue pad. It makes it hard to manipulate the camera, and when driving, the nub's sensitivity makes traveling in a straight line (let alone anything else) extremely frustrating. Shooting controls are only marginally better thanks to an auto-aim system, although this allows missions to be completed almost automatically. Most missions you're given AI-controlled sidekicks, which you can supposedly issue orders to, but I found that they usually just ran around and did whatever the hell they wanted. Including throwing grenades all over the damn place.
The bottom line is that Story Mode is bad. Very bad. If you're hankering for a nice portable free-roaming title, wait for Vice City Stories.
If, however, you're looking for a collection of London-themed, multiplayer-enabled minigames, Gangs of London is an excellent $40 purchase. "The Pub," accessible from the Main Menu, houses all these somewhat-out-of-place games. Inside you'll find American and UK-style 8-ball, darts, and skittles (sort of like bowling). Some of the games are executed better than others (it can be hard to get a good view in pool), but all of them can be surprisingly addictive. The AI gets absolutely tenacious at high levels, and ad-hoc multiplayer adds to the replay value.
There is an arcade housed within the pub that is actually an entire videogame in its own right, oddly hidden within these other menu options. It starts off like Snake - you control a line of ever-increasingly length, in an extremely spartan (just black and white) layout. Make no mistake though - this game is the devil (in a good way). It gets SO DAMN HARD, and yet I found it impossible to put down. Imagine controlling TWO snakes, one with each thumb. Now imagine controlling two snakes, only each is inside a maze. Hit a wall, and it's game over. Yeah. It's that kind of game. Ye Olde Arcade (as the game calls it) almost single-handedly bumped the package to three stars.
What finally did bump Gangs of London into three-star territory was another seemingly-random extra - a "gang battle" turn-based strategy game. It's more or less like Risk - at the start of each turn you'll purchase recruits or cards (that grant special abilities), and then use your recruits to take over adjacent territories, until you control all of London. The hook is that every turn all gang actions are carried out at the same moment - if you and your enemy attack each other at the same time, you'll trade territories. It creates much more tactical tension, as you try to anticipate enemy moves. Especially when playing against four human opponents. Gang Battle has me hopelessly addicted.
So, Gangs of London is an odd overall package. You have a story mode that isn't much fun (but also isn't entirely devoid of entertainment), and a collection of mini games that actually aren't that mini at all. Is it worth $40? Maybe. If you're a fan of Risk, casual-style minigames, and challenging, oldschool action.
