Gangsta Paradise

Before I review Gangsta Paradise, I feel it's important to make clear that this has nothing to do with 1990s rapper Coolio. We're not going to be walking through the valley of the shadow of death or taking a look at our life and realizing there's nothing left, because those are lyrics from Gangsta's Paradise. Completely different. The "gangstas" in this new game weren't taught by Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds, but rather controlled the flow of hooch and gave Dick Tracy a hard time. So grab your tommy gun and roll up in your Falcon-Knight Roadster, because it's time to take down the mafia in this quirky shoot 'em up from the appropriately named developer Prison Games.

If you're not familiar with the mafia's power and influence in the first half of the 20th century, then you should probably go read a Wikipedia article or watch a documentary, because you're not going to learn anything from Gangsta Paradise. Beyond being a guy who stands next to his car shooting gangsters, there's absolutely no story here. It's just a 40-stage shooting gallery where our character casually shoots people in the slums, the back alley, the docks and the railyard. Once we've completed one stage and collected all the money, we move on to the next, where the unruly band of killers are even more aggressive than before.

As a shooter, this one is pretty basic. Our hero stands on the left side of the screen and shoots at enemies piling in from the right. The goal is to kill all of the gangsters before they destroy the tiny fence that separates you from them. In that sense, Gangsta Paradise is a lot like Plants vs. Zombies, only without the plants, zombies and strategy elements. You move the character up and down shooting at bad guys and reloading your gun, hoping that you'll be able to finish them off before they tear down the wall and, presumably, kill our hero.

Our default weapon is a standard handgun with seven bullets. As you take down the many cartoony mafia-types, you'll earn money that can be used to upgrade the effectiveness of that gun. When you need a little extra firepower, we will also be able to purchase better guns mid-round, including dual-pistols, a shotgun, minigun and, of course, the trusty tommy gun. And, before you ask, yes, all of these weapons can be upgraded as well. In fact, a lot of this game is about grinding through the levels multiple times in order to earn cash to spend on your arsenal and wall. Just about the only thing you can't upgrade is the grenade, which will stun the enemies for a short amount of time.

Speaking of the gangsters, there's a nice variety of bad guys to shoot at. We start out with low-level thugs with crowbars and dynamite-wielding masked men only to graduate to angry chefs, crooked cops and mafia dons. Beyond attacking with different weapons, these enemies will also require skill to defeat. For example, there will be enemies that shield themselves with car doors, which means that we'll need to carefully line-up each shot in order to take them out. The enemies are usually pretty easy to defeat on their own, but the challenge comes when there are a bunch coming at you all at once. If you don't upgrade and use the bonus weapons, then you'll stand no chance in the second half of the game.

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This leads me to the game's biggest problem -- the imbalance of weapons. For the first half of the game, your trusty pistol will be more than enough to get the job done. You'll need to upgrade it a few times, but it has plenty of power to hold the enemies at bay. However, your pistol is all but useless in acts three and four. Unfortunately, I would argue that the dual pistol and tommy gun are also pretty useless. They are the cheapest weapons to buy in a pinch, and you definitely get what you pay for. The best weapon is the shotgun, which is not only significantly stronger than most of the other guns, but it also has a spread shot that hits multiple people at the same time. To put it bluntly, it feels like you're cheating when going from the tommy gun to the shotgun. The only weapon that is more effective is the minigun, but that costs three times more than the shotgun and is rarely necessary to complete a stage. No matter how aggressive the enemies were, I knew that all I needed to do is earn enough to buy the shotgun and it would be smooth sailing from there.

My other big complaint is the repetition of the levels. Sure, I could make the case that the entire game is repetitive, but it's especially jarring when it comes to the backgrounds. There are 40 stages spread across four acts, which sounds more impressive than it actually is. There's only one background per act, so the game really only has four locations to fight in. They try to mix it up by having some levels at night and others during the day, but that's not enough. The lack of variety only helps to remind players that they are doing the exact same thing in every single stage. If the gameplay is going to be this repetitive, then you need to offset that by having two or three times more locations. Something to break up the monotony and give off the impression of change.

With no story, repetitive level designs, imbalanced guns and a real emphasis on grinding for money, I had a hard time staying invested in Gangsta Paradise. The fact that there's not even a half-hearted acknowledgement when you finish off all 40 stages is a reminder that even the developers know that most people are going to get bored and give up mid-way through. Shooting gangsters should be a lot more fun than this.