Well reviews have been good from the people who have played it giving it an 8.1

http://gamespot.com/pc/strategy/gangland/index.html

Has anyone tried it out?

Looked over at gamefaqs and the reviews are not good. OUCH! Here are a few..

Introduction

Gangland attempts to cash in on the widely popular ''mob'' theme that oddly hasn't been seen in many games. Unfortunately, it's hybrid blend of strategy/rpg/simulation falls short on every level. The result is a unpolished game that produces little entertainment and a great deal of frustration.

Gameplay

The concept of Gangland is rather enticing. You select a character and start in the new world fresh from Italy. Your goal is to create a family and compete with others. There is a single campaign consisting of several missions to play through, as well as a multiplayer component. Along the way you to absolute power, you build up your character, fight with police, engage in gangland politics and duke it out in the streets. There is also a car driving component.

Unfortunately, none of this is executed well. The RPG elements lack depth. The combat elements are rather unbalanced. The AI is usually overpowered or dumbed down with no in-between. Even the driving physics fail to provide much entertainment. There are a number of bugs in the game that I won't bother to point out as there are at least patches in the works.

There also seems to be a lack of immersion in the game. The environments are not convincing. The streets fail to give the impression of being alive. Gangland never actually makes you feel like you are involved in a gang setting and not finding creative ways around monotonous missions.

Graphics/Sound

The graphics are sub-par. This would not be much of an issue if the rest of the elements provided a great deal of fun...but unfortunately they do not. The game is a standard top-view two dimensional format. The only thing worthy of a small praise would be some decent character models and faces that stand out against the drab environments. Additionally, many of the environments are far too dark for playability. The game desperately needs a gamma control feature but doesn't provide one.

The sound is generic and not immersive. It does it's job to provide a background but there is really nothing noteworthy I could say about it.

Replayability

The single player missions can be completed in about a week of regular playing. Of course, there will be a lot of frustration at the A.I and bugs in attempting to complete this process. After getting through the single player campaign, there is no real incentive to go through again.

If you enjoy the components of the game, there is a multiplayer game included. This module allows you to compete over the internet with other player's families.

Final Recommendation

If you simply must play this game because you are a die-hard mafia/gangster theme fan then by all means do so. Be warned that the game is not for everyone. It is buggy and not very entertaining. My best advice would be to wait for at least a few more patches to be released and the price to drop.

If the concept of Gangland does not appeal to you then the lack-luster game will certainly be a waist of both your money and time.


OverAll 2/10
Graphics 3/10
Multi Player 3/10
Story 2/10
Gameplay 2/10
Extras 1/10
Support 1/10

Man was i disappointed in this one. So you look at the box and see great big FUN words like extortion, guns, Mob, multiplayer, RPG/RTS. ''Wow,'' you think, be your own Mob Boss take over rival families kill or extort everything in your way. Must be fun. Well the words that should be on the box are Annoying, buggy, horribly hard to control, and WASTE OF TIME.
Graphics-3/10
At first it looks cartoony and kind o in character but then you realize that its not cartoony its just bad. Most of my bugs were graphical in nature so the coding is bad too. The animations can be interesting but all effects like lighting and explosions are just plain bad.

Story 2/10
Hey you...go whack that guy. Then go whack your brothers. When your bored try a challenge mission and run around and try not to do die for ten minutes. No really thats it. Oh you can have kids too.

Gameplay 2/10
OK...you spend three missions running around a whacking people for your uncle dreaming of the day you get your own family. After several attempts and no ability to save( very irratating) you get your own family and sit at the big chair. Then the phone rings, and a guy come to you for a favor, and the chief of police comes to you for a bribe, and you get attacked. Thing is this stuff doesn't stop happening. THE DAMN PHONE WONT STOP RINGING. JUST STOP RINGING FOR THE LOVE OF PETE...PLEASE I BEG YOU. You can only answer the phone sitting at your desk. But you cant sit at your desk and take over businesses at the same time. But you can still HEAR the phone over 40 miles away. This game ended just about there for me. Plus if you care to know the camera is horrible and the controls are really counter intuitive. The mouse buttons are reversed so right click does stuff while left does nothing. And it takes you 45 minutes to get anywhere. Even with a car.
The game also preaches tactics in fighting when you read the phone book sized manual. No tactics. They dont work. There is no pause or a easy move and hide commands. Numbers win point and shoot. Lame.

Multi Player 3/10
Get a seductress gain a huge mob of random people and go kill your buddy. Thats it. Or lock the doors on every gun shop in town. For real fun send in a bomber and whack him in one. First one to do this wins. I had hoped that this would be a real fun gain ground give ground game. Its not. Your buddy could have EVERY shop in town and billions of dollars. But you have a seductress with the powers of Cleopatra and can turn the entire world into your friend. Give your army some guns and send em you win. Lame.

Extras 1/10
Where....I knew I saw them somewhere. Oh yah in the lying box.
Support 1/10
You got to see this. Apprently the makers of this game KNOW their game sux. So they delete help/bug/complaint posts on their board. Try it. go post something and watch it get deleted so they can possibly fool one more person into burning their money. Who on earth did these guys bribe to get decent reviews from reputable game magazines.

OverAll 2/10
So bad I HAD to write a review. Thats bad because I am very lazy. Buy this load at your own peril.