Keeping It In The Family: Gangsters In Gaming

It doesn't take a film critic to point out that gangsters have inspired some of the greatest events in cinematic history. From The Godfather to Scarface, Goodfellas to The Departed, crime really does pay when it comes to the big screen, but it isn’t just film fans that can't get enough of the mafia.

In recent years, gangsters have enjoyed phenomenal success in the gaming industry. From faithful film tie-ins like Scarface: The World is Yours to the global smash Grand Theft Auto IV, few gamers can resist the allure of virtual organised crime, but it took developers a long time to perfect the Mafioso formula.

The road to the definitive crime sim is paved with mediocrity. Some of the earliest examples of gangster-themed games date back to the generic film tie-ins of the '80s, such as Ocean’s The Untouchables and Bandai’s Dick Tracy, but developers explored the subject matter more thoroughly as the '90s gained momentum.

Back in 1991, a company called American Laser Games figured it could make a quick buck by adding a gangster theme to its rail shooter template with Who Shot Johnny Rock?. Mobsters and light guns may sound like an offer you can’t refuse but this one was distractingly cringe-worthy.

Praised in its day for the use of full-motion video, Johnny Rock told the tale of a 1920s Chicago private eye. The object was to Tommy gun your way through pool halls and casinos in search of a murdered nightclub singer’s killer. Ported to the Sega CD, 3DO and CD-i in 1994, the game garnered something of a cult following, but its success was short-lived and American Laser Games ended up sleeping with the fishes.

Throughout the '90s, developers continued to explore the concept of organised crime in the shape of side-scrolling shooters, mystery games and platformers. In 1998 Eidos Interactive took a different approach, combining the strategy genre with prohibition-era America. The result was Gangsters: Organised Crime, an RTS that cast you as a Don in a fictional Chicago suburb.

Gameplay had the player contend with all of the headaches of a prohibition-era mob boss. From hiring lawyers to whacking rival Dons, Gangsters certainly had authenticity on its side but its reception was lukewarm at best. The game, and its follow-up Gangsters 2: Vendetta, received modest reviews in the press, many of which were quick to criticise the tedious menu interface.

It wasn’t until 2001, when the long-running Grand Theft Auto franchise had its breakthrough hit, that the blueprint for the perfect crime sim was drawn up. The GTA series traditionally features gangsters of every creed and culture, with new staples of the theme explored with each outing. With its award-winning combination of action, adventure and driving, Grand Theft Auto III set the benchmark for gangster-themed titles, dealing its competitors a severe pistol-whipping. And if imitation is indeed the greatest form of flattery, the game’s developers must have heads the size of Liberty City by now.

GTA III paved the way for a massive influx of similar titles such as The Getaway, Saint’s Row and the excellent Mafia, as well as some of the better film-licensed titles since the turn of the century, notably EA's The Godfather II and Sierra’s Scarface: The World Is Yours. Legions of dedicated fans have followed the series since its inception, but unfortunately, so has intense controversy.

Publishers Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have endured a firestorm of criticism over the years thanks to the influence of its infamous franchise. Lawyer Jack Thompson was involved in an ongoing crusade against the series until his disbarring by the Florida Bar Association last year.

In 2008, a New York mob claimed to have drawn inspiration for the series after a crime spree comprising assault and the theft of a BMW. The franchise suffered another lambasting this year when a six-year-old boy, who claimed he had learned to drive from the games, took his family's car on a ten-mile trip before colliding with a utility pole.

The series has even earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, with a hefty 4,000 articles written in criticism of it, encompassing accusations of glamorising violence, corrupting gamers, and inspiring real-life crimes - but they say all publicity is good publicity.

For all of its controversy, the GTA formula may be the closest thing we have to the definitive crime sim, but it isn’t the only way the gangster theme has been explored by contemporary developers. Interplay’s Kingpin: Life Of Crime on the PC demonstrated the mafia’s potential within the first-person shooter genre, while Starbreeze Studios’ The Darkness took things one step further, combining the theme with a supernatural twist.

So what does the future hold for gangsters and gaming? No shortage of GTA clones, that’s for sure, but this may not be a bad thing. The series itself has gone from strength to strength, with its latest incarnations Grand Theft Auto IV and the DS-exclusive Chinatown Wars taking the series to lofty new heights. Meanwhile, its imitators Saint’s Row and Mafia have proved to be enjoyable alternatives.

A GTA IV expansion The Lost And The Damned was released as an Xbox 360 exclusive earlier this year, and if the rumours are true, the additional content will be available to PlayStation 3 owners come August. A new entry in the series is not expected any time soon, with Wedbush Morgan Securities' analyst Michael Pachter saying: "I actually think they already have a story in mind. GTA5 is already in the planning stage and my guess is you’ll see the next GTA game in two and a half years."

A sequel to 2K’s Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven was announced in 2007 and is expected to surface this year. Set in the fictitious Empire City in the 1940s and 50s, Mafia II will feature a completely open map, with no restrictions from start to finish.

The game is said to take a different approach to its predecessor. "The old game was a tribute to gangster movies, a romantic vision. Mafia II is grittier, real, a darker world, and the effects are based in reality," said the game’s writer and director Daniel Vávra.

Gamers' obsession with virtual organised crime is showing no signs of abating, and developers will no doubt keep churning out these titles. Current generation consoles have proved to be a gangster's paradise so far, but no doubt the controversy that has tailed the genre at every turn will continue to voice its opposition.