Gangs of London hands-on

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We get behind the wheel - and the trigger - on Britain's meanest streets

We've taken it for a spin once before, but we recently got a more in-depth look at Gangs of London, the driving/shooting spinoff of the British car-crime epic The Getaway. The new, portable game is soaked in the same Cockney flair as its console cousin, but as we quickly found out, this is more than just another Grand Theft Autoclone.

Rather than two or three anti-heroes, Gangs of London focuses on five different gangs battling for control of London: the Morris Kane Firm (old-school English gangsters), the Talwar Brothers (Pakistani immigrants), the Zakharov Organization (Russian mafiosi), the Water Dragon Triad (Chinese gangsters) and the EC2 Crew (the obligatory Jamaican yardies).

Gangs might be an offshoot of The Getaway, but don't expect a similar experience. The game's 60 missions are even more restrictive than Getaway's, shepherding players rapidly from one shootout or car chase to the next with comic-book-style cinematics in between.

Also, while the game features five different storylines - one for each gang - there aren't any main characters to speak of. Instead, you'll control a team of three gangsters, each armed with a different weapon - clubs, shotguns, pistols, etc. - and you'll be able to switch between them on the fly (get killed, and the game will automatically switch for you). You can also give them simple commands, but the emphasis here is on straight-up, fast-paced run-and-gun.

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.