Urban Empires
Preview
If you miss Sopranos, this may be just for you
by T3HDX
previewed on PC
And when you get bored... (cont.)
Each gangster has their own criminal level that builds up during play. If a police officer catches your gangster in the act of a crime, that gangster’s crime level will go up. If the crime level is above a certain point, however, and the punk is then caught doing criminal activity, the police will try and arrest the gangster. If any of your gangsters get arrested, they can be bailed out, for a price.
Moving around fast when you need to
Currently, there are 30 different vehicles that have been put into the game, all having unique features, characteristics as well as damage modelling. You can order your gangsters into vehicles, or drive yourself, and perform drive-by shootings, or just move from location to location. You can purchase vehicles for your gang at the right shop, but you must own property that has a parking lot. You can also steal vehicles from civilians, but you must get it back to your parking lot without the police seeing you.
Images and tunes
The graphics engine used in Urban Empires has been made from scratch, mainly by a single person using C++, with a few bits taken from open source codes. The character / vehicle models were created by a hired team however. Considering the fact that the engine was written from scratch, mainly by a single person, the graphics are quite impressive for that kind of work scale.
Urban Empires offers in-game music, with a twist. An online radio has been built into the game, offering 20 different stations that you can listen to. What genres can be heard on these stations are undisclosed at the minute, but with 20 different stations, there is bound to be something everyone will enjoy.
If you miss Sopranos
Urban Empires is shaping up to be a promising looking gang simulator for the title. The graphics are fairly adequate at least, and with promising touches like online radio stations to listen to, the game has enough perks to keep people interested for some time, especially with the option of both single (offline) and multiplayer (online) modes, there should be enough to keep people playing for a while. With the game still in alpha testing, it will be a while before this is available, but it’s a title that seems worth the wait to get it just right.
