As the title indicates, Gangs of London evolves around the gangs of the British capital and you can expect a lot of smuggling, street fights, turf wars, prostitution and – yes- getaways in which you are sometimes the prey, sometimes the pursuer. You can make a choice out of five different gangs with their weaknesses and advantages. Some have faster cars; some have better weapons and so on. After you have made a choice you get a map with a couple of missions. Finishing those missions successfully will increase the amount of land under your control and will unlock more missions to get more land under your control. Rich men want to be king and a king isn’t satisfied until he rules everything. It seems that the Boss was right after all. There are over 60 missions in this game, some of them only last a minute while others will keep you busy for over 15 minutes and are tied together by a storyline that is told through a comic.

A very irritating comic, not only because of the annoying voice-overs, but also because you have to press the x button yourself to go to the next panel. Once you have passed the cut-scenes, you can begin your mission: a little bit of driving, a little bit of shooting and giving orders to your team-mates. Yes, giving orders because you are not alone but accompanied by your posse who carry all sorts of heavy equipment to help you reach your objectives. Switching weapons also means switching to another gang member because you can only carry one! weapon at a time. Keeping your gang members alive throughout the missions is as such one of your main priorities – not only for their weapons - they also get experience points after every successful mission. In that way you can put together a team of experienced thugs who are prepared for the worst, and admit it; you don’t want to start your final mission with a bunch of freshmen street crooks.

The graphics resemble those of the first Getaway but a little less detailed while at the same time the drawing distance has been diminished a lot. The framereate is quite constant unless there is a lot of traffic or action on the screen, then it will drop down like a B24 hit by German anti-air flak. The graphics aren’t as bad as the sound and the A.I. however. First of all; there is almost no sound and the sound effects are either too weak are too obnoxious. The A.I. has the same problems; both your gang members and your rivals are looking at each other thinking ‘whaaaat?’ or your rivals take you out from the other side of London. Not funny.

The controls are rather okay although the vehicles tend to respond better to your commands if you use the d-pad instead of the joystick. Driving around London is a piece of cake and aiming at your enemies is even easier, a hud shows your weapons and health so you’ve got a got heads up on your assets before you decide to run over some Chinese triad sitting outdoors enjoying the nightlife. One you’ve completed the storyline there’s more than enough to keep you busy; apart from the free roaming mode there are tourist and zombie mode and tons of other unlockables. The game also knows a multiplayer mode which allows up to five players to fight over London.