Gangs of London

If you are looking for the next Grand Theft Auto for PSP, this is not it. The main story mode falls short and fails to deliver, but the additional modes add a lot of content and provides you with something to do, no matter your mood or amount of time available.

Some of this is good, some of this is utterly boring, but there sure is a lot to do.

Don't use the lock-on, and the dodgy controls and at best so-so ally AI will end up killing you. The camera system will cause death after death in the infuriating mandatory stealth missions - it's just too hard to get real situational awareness. Despite all that, the game is perfect for the PSP - fun to pick up and play in short bursts.

Gangs of London can be quite fun in spite of its bland story mode, but I'm filing it under the rent before you buy category.

A stylish title, but one that falls down on its unimpressive controls and repetition. Damn it. [Oct 2006, p.66]

It hits all of its targets accurately enough, but none so dead-on as to be memorable. Mini-games add to the value, but still can't elevate this to anything like an essential purchase. [Issue 144, p.94]

The gameplay is miserable with sloppy combat and driving controls. Add to that the fact the missions are terribly short, dull and repetitive and Gangs doesn’t provide enough interesting opportunities.

Gang Battle, the pub mini-games and, to a lesser extent, free-roaming mode make this title fun for a bit, just not enough to justify a copy at full price.

In typical "Getaway" style, this swings from virtually unplayable to crime-filled fun. [Oct 2006, p.62]

A strong idea let down by poor controls and lack of originality. The mini-games go some way to repairing the damage, though. [Sept 2006, p.92]

With such clumsy controls, the limited intelligence of both friends and foes, and a lack of mission variety, most players would have a lot more fun with "GTA Liberty City Stories."

We’d find it hard to recommend this due to the dubious controls, but with the game being so fleshed out so well with extras it becomes a decent little package. [Oct 2006, p.128]

Yet these Gangs of London prove to be more like the Jets and Sharks from "West Side Story;" mildly amusing, to be sure, but potentially only dangerous to an 8-year-old boy who still has accidents when mom forgets to turn on the nightlight.

It’s great that Team Soho has tried to break out in some new directions; it’s a pity that the gameplay and missions aren’t up to the challenge. The most disappointing aspect for me was the total linearity and lack of freedom that makes this an “open world” game in name only.

Gangs of London features a lot of gameplay, it’s just that not very much of it is all that enjoyable.

Gangs of London incongruity between style, substance, and basic gaming mechanics is disappointing.

SCEE London brings the whole Getaway British gangster feel to the handheld, with unfortunately the same dull plot and uneventful gameplay.

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.

The actual depth available for the player is amazing with a large number of missions, mini-games and mission types (including free-roam), but unlike Grand Theft Auto, they aren’t seamlessly integrated into the world, rather a big list of activities for you to choose from the menu, which seems to be a step back in my eyes.

Not perfect, but solid portable fun. [Holiday 2006]

The concept of splitting up the gameplay into a myriad of mini-games and separate just doesn't work and just about all of it is inexplicably boring.

An interesting concept is sadly let down by dull execution.

There's no shortage of things to do in Gangs of London--the trouble is that none of it is much fun.

Gangs of London gets the portable game design thing absolutely right, with lots of choices and play sessions that are over relatively quickly. But the decent collection of distractions doesn’t make up for the awful controls.

Unlikely to be the killer app that gets people swapping their DS for a PSP. But if you're looking for a compilation of pub games, and a simple, quirky, turn-based strategy, you could definitely do worse.

A pretty dull game that can border on frustrating due to the clunky controls, lame missions and weak AI.

I would like nothing more than to tell you that Gangs of London takes "The Getaway" series in a brand new direction that breathes fresh life into the franchise. But that would be a lie. This game is just as bad as it was on the PlayStation 2.

Wif nah real multiplayer mode ter speak of (unless ya consider 'andin' the chuffin' psp ter someone else as their turn comes up true multiplayer) and tacked on gang battle, this is prolly the bleedin' worst representation of London's seedy underbelly I've ever 'ad the displeasure ter witness.

This portable "Getaway" has its share of ugly gangster gameplay and bullet holes. [Nov. 2006, p.99]

Any amount of time spent with the game will likely have players frustrated by the mind-boggling linear format in light of its competition as well it’s technical shortcomings.

But after playing the actual title, there's no way that I'd want to subject friends to the bland missions, continually infuriating AI and gameplay issues and repetitive story structure.

As close to broken as it gets. Anyone looking for a virtual 8-ball or darts simulator will find it here, but they certainly aren’t worth the 40 dollar price of admission.

Sure, I’m busting its balls, but Gangs of London isn’t all terrible. It’s just really easy to pick on the bad A.I. and repetitive gameplay.

Whether it's stealth, driving or shooting, the game feels limited and unengaging, is hampered by unresponsive controls and completely lacks the necessary polish of a modern production.

It seems Studio London has ignored everything anybody disliked about the two Getaway titles and just included the problems in Gangs of London. This results in poor AI, a terrible aiming system, repetitive missions and a sporadic frame-rate.

It all boils down to one simple fact - it's just not fun.

Apart from the cheese factor, Gangs simply fails at the basics. [Nov. 2006, p.120]

Curiously enough, the billiards mini-game really does sum up Gangs of London as a whole. Gangs of London has a lot of balls but when it comes to sinking them it always scratches.

I desperately wanted to like this game. Really. But the terrible gameplay, boring mission structure and pathetic mini-games just make me pity it.

There’s a good game in here somewhere, but it’s buried beneath a layer of unpolished graphics, clumsy controls, and boring missions.

Gangs of London would get wasted in the opening cinema of any Grand Theft Auto game. Although it strives to be all things to all gamers, it comes off as little more than a sad mess of something half-digested, in the final analysis.

A blatantly shallow excuse to create yet another exercise in brutality and abhorrent language. The game lacks any form of motivational justification, and setting it in realistic surroundings, force feeding an uninteresting cliche-riddled narrative across truly banal missions, and then relying on violence and blood-spattered cursing and imagery to pad the gaping holes, makes the '18' certificate assigned by the BBFC ('M' for Mature in the US) seem sadly insufficient.

The dialogue is belief-defyingly bad, the characters who deliver it lazy, one-dimensional caricatures. [Oct 2006, p.94]

It is simply a portable piece of ugliness that lacks humility, wit, or any entertainment value whatsoever. It is singularly unpleasant in the way it handles its subject matter, and it lacks the style or panache to carry its inadequacies with any dignity.

Rent Gangs of London for some pub games on the road, but please do not encourage developers to continue putting wretch like this on a system with so much more potential.