Free-roaming violence
It’s then a matter of either roaming the streets of the city doing what you will or picking up missions and objectives to progress through the ranks. Through the streets of the city you’ll be able to hijack cars, pimp some whores, take part in races, take people hostage and participate in numerous missions that will gain you both cash and respect. Cash is crucial for buying weapons, food to replenish health or pimping your ride, but its respect that really matters on the tough streets of Stilwater, which is apparently modelled on the city of Chicago. Once you have achieved enough respect you’ll be able to recruit new members to your gang and earn the opportunity to take on other rival gangs in different territories.
Click for larger imageThe city is huge and full of danger. There are 36 sections of the city to unlock and the mini-map in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and the waypoint markers help to point you in the right direction to the next mission or objective, ensuring that you’ll never get lost. You’ll need to be careful of rival gangs who won’t think twice about putting a ‘cap in your ass’ at any opportunity. From the comfort of a vehicle you can lean out of the window and take out rival gangs from relative safety, but we found the targeting to be far more difficult than shooting whilst on foot.
Click for larger imageDisappointingly, there isn’t a huge choice of weapons available, apparently 8 in total ranging from a powerful rocket launcher to every thug’s favourite weapon, the baseball bat. Each weapon is easy to control and targeting an enemy only takes a few attempts before you become accustomed to the aiming. The right analogue stick is used for controlling the gun’s target, which is shown from the third person perspective, and despite there being no auto-target function, you can take a gangster out by a carefully placed headshot or a few body shots.