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> Results: Gangs of London
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The ESRB Says...
Blood and Gore: From the first time you bash a guard with a sledgehammer, you see blood spatter frequently. Intense Violence: There is no incentive to use non-lethal force. Brutality is encouraged. Language: Gritty gang talk, though with fewer swear-words than Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. Still plenty to go around, but strangely many of them are ﾑbleeped' out. Sexual Themes: Not as bad as expected given the amount of prostitutes. Use of Drugs: Drug use, discussion of drug use and many of the missions center on drugs. Gangs of London is a Grand Theft Auto clone with lackluster missions, repetitive gameplay and lousy controls. The game seems like it has tons of potential. London is stunning, as are the voices of the various gangs and the stylized comic book presentation of the story. It all goes wrong with the controls. Walking and running are sloppy, but driving is worse. Control is unresponsive and you crash repeatedly as a result. There's a massive feature list of stuff to do including missions for each of the rival gangs, parlor games, some strategy stuff and even bonus missions that allow you to explore, but everything seems underdeveloped or is poorly implemented. This game likely looked much better on a white board than it does on your PSP.  
Gangs of London does a very good job of capturing the look and feel of the brutal streets of London. As such, there are reminders everywhere of why this game was rated M. The most obvious is violence. From the very start you are killing innocents as well as other gang members using a variety of methods.
One interesting thing is that language in the game is worse than the rating indicates. Specifically, the ﾑF-word' and ﾑS-word' are used frequently, but have been ﾑbleeped out' and edited from subtitles even though it's clear what's being said. When I first encountered this in the demo, I thought it would be confined there to make it more accessible, but the bleeping remains in the full version. Since the game is already rated M, it makes little sense. Gang wars often have racial overtones, and in Gangs of London the rival gangs fit into neat stereotypes. There is the Morris Kane Firm, the EC2 Crew, the Talwar Brothers, the Zakharov Organization, Steele Associates, and Water Dragon Triad. The racial stereotype associated with each is fairly obvious with a cursory glance at the names. What's worse, the language of each group is sometimes insulting in how it portrays the particular racial group. This is a game for adults, but that doesn't mean it handles anything in a particularly mature way. Harsh language isn't a problem in mature games, but here it often seems gratuitous, even given the extreme circumstances. The same is true of the treatment of women. Urban settings lend themselves to this characterization, but the superficial treatment of all these themes in Gangs of London leaves you embarrassed. This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Gangs of London |
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