If I were to describe Gangland in just a few words, I would say that it is part tactical strategy, part real-time strategy, and part economic sim. In truth, though the game tries to be all three, it falls short on all counts.

It's very hard to get into Gangland, and I don't just mean the steep learning curve. The graphics are decent with day and night effects, and smooth rotations and zooming, but there are a lot of elements that are out of place. It's as though someone assigned different teams to work on individual aspects of the game and didn't allow any of them to talk to each other. Just look at the rock music soundtrack that plays in the background even though the game appears to take place in the 1930's. That's just the first in a series of misplaced ideas and anachronisms which include bazookas, Uzis, humvees, and ninjas. Yes, that's right - ninjas.

The single player game centers on Mario, who grew up in Sicily with four other brothers. One day, three of the brothers, Sonny, Romano, and Angelo killed their other brother, Chico, and fled. Mario is then sent to America, Paradise City, to be exact, to kill his misbehaving brethren and avenge Chico's death. The plot isn't exactly the stuff of Oscars, but it's enough to get a game going. What surprised me, though, is how much of the game relies on reading. The storyline is moved forward by intermittent stills using a text box (frequently filled with spelling/grammar errors) describing events. There is very little voice acting and no dialogue at all, which in this case is a good thing, since there were a few times the units annoyed me so much that I turned off my sound.

As Mario, you have to work your way from the bottom rung of the mafia's ladder and eventually become a boss. Mobsters from around the world will call you for favors. Get a wife, and you'll eventually have children who will grow up and become your underbosses. The first three chapters have you taking orders from your Uncle Vincente, but you will soon get out from under his shadow and start your own mob family. You have to either become a partner in or extort local businesses in order to gain revenue. When inducted into the family through the "partner" option, managers will build back-rooms that include speakeasies and gambling dens.

Keeping Mario alive is crucial. If he dies, you lose. Your uncle will assign you one goon to help out in the beginning, but as Mario's experience level increases, he'll be able to add more people to his crew. There are 16 Conquests (plot related missions) and 12 Challenges that center only on combat.

Somewhere between conception and execution, something went terribly wrong. If any game screamed for a "pause" button, this would be it, as shootouts can be very chaotic. Units can use environmental items for cover, but it takes about a million bullets to kill a single person. Most of your gunmen are lousy shots, so combat becomes a drawn out exercise in frustration. This bullet-factor, as I will call it, combined with a number of other issues makes timed assassination tasks near impossible. Worse yet, the Challenge missions require you to participate in shootouts without replenishing ammunition. Luckily, the challenges are optional.

There is a severe lack of variety in this so called "living city." The city's civilians are all identical, with only a small handful of character models to go around, and most are armed. They will normally run away should a shootout start, but oftentimes, they'll participate in the fray. Players are reprimanded for killing civilians, which seems ludicrous! You can kill, extort, and bribe... but heaven forbid that you shoot a well-armed civilian! Oftentimes, shootouts will start for no reason. Leave your guys idle for too long and a shootout is bound to occur. Unfortunately, your units don't have the brains to run for cover or retaliate. Police will shoot at anyone, including the player's units, leaving me wondering why I bothered to pay off the police chief. Also, for some unfathomable reason, there is no save game system, so failure or quitting means having to replay the level.

Driving is a total pain, and often a waste of time. Some of the streets are very narrow, and many of the cars are huge, potentially taking up half the road. Strangely, cars can't drive up onto sidewalks and hit an invisible wall whenever they try. If only Gangland had gone with an RTS engine for the vehicles instead of trying to include a driving game. Drive-by shootings are completely out of the question because of the bullet-factor. You can run people over, but the car pushes them halfway down the street before a kill registers, making driving even more pointless. Usually, it's far easier to gather up your guys and walk to wherever you need to be.

As Mario's empire expands, it becomes painfully clear that it is impossible to protect it. It's not like you can hire a bunch of goons to patrol your turf and make sure your establishments are secure. Everything has to be handled personally. In order to take over an enemy boss's business, you have to kill everyone inside the establishment, then wait for a new manager to arrive (they appear to have a dispenser in the back). When you have to worry about cops shooting your managers on top of opposing mob bosses, you'll soon wish Mario would invest in a walkie-talkie. Or at least arm his shopkeepers with shotguns like any smart person would do.

Special Units range from the ordinary to the over-the-top, and include Big Mamma - a large shotgun-toting woman who can heal others. There are also snipers, bazooka units, and ninjas. Yes, ninjas. Playing the challenge missions will unlock them for use in the campaign. They are useful, but not necessary, and you have to suffer through the challenges to get them.

While Mario's skills carry over from mission to mission, his crew, funds, and businesses do not. A carryover system is critical to a game like this, but is missing. Each new mission means having to start from nothing all over again. Many of the levels are needlessly difficult. At the end of your first mission, you are asked to take on a heavily fortified safe house and kill a boss. There is nothing normal feeling about the normal difficulty setting and many will have to switch to the easy campaign, which reduces the amount of damage units take.

You can take Gangland online and compete against other mobsters in either a full game or straight combat. You will even be able to choose among the four brothers to be your mob boss. However, there are no central servers available to match up players. During the time I spent reviewing this game, I have been unable to find anyone online to play with. But, given all the game's flaws, I couldn't imagine myself wanting to play against anyone.

The saddest thing about Gangland is that one can see all the promise it held. This game could have easily been a fantastic title. There are a ton of great ideas here, but they were all executed badly. What we have is an utter mess of wasted potential.