There are a few questions you need to ask yourself before you enter the rich world of Kingpin: Life of Crime. The first question is do you like violence? Got an answer, Great! Now ask yourself this, "Do you like un-called for bloodshed, the F-word used as a verb, pronoun, adverb, and adjective in almost every sentence?" Well if you answered no, then Kingpin is not the game for you, all of the above are fluently displayed throughout the game and make up the rich, underworld that middle class, modern Americans sometimes refuse to acknowledge exists.

I must state something right off the bat that may soothe your anguish. Did I like Kingpin: Life of Crime even when I heard mixed reviews from various other sites around the web? My answer to you would be "100% yes!" This is one of the most immersing games that you will ever lay your little hands on. From the very beginning of the game you are thrown into the world of the intercity, and believe me, it isn’t a very nice place to be.

You start off the game as a dirty low down thug. After a beating by Nikki’s goons you find yourself laying face up in an ally bleeding on yourself. From this point on the action and the immersing qualities of this game never cease. Your goal is to give Nikki the payback that he deserves and face the "Kingpin" and make a name for yourself in the Urban Decay of civilization. Xatrix sure did some studying, or at least the watched a whole lot of movies, for what the included in the game itself. If I were to take a trip to South Phoenix (which I won’t do) I am willing to bet it would look something like what I have experienced in Kingpin.

The game itself at the core is a First Person Shooter (FPS), but it is expanded upon and molded into something more. Xatrix added some RPG elements to the game, such as hiring goons (or as I call them "peeps") to follow you and help you in tough situations. Another welcome feature, is the addition of the option to holster your weapon so you don’t instigate a friendly NPC (non-player character) to attack you. As I said, earlier Kingpin hasn’t dramatically changed the genre, but the bar has once again been raised. Half-Life did it, Kingpin raised it again, and now System Shock 2 has done it once again. When we draw a timeline and look back at how FPS have progressed since the days of Doom, we will be looking at Kingpin’s release as on of the pivotal movements in game design.

Looking at the core of the game you can see why so much hype has been given to this game. To quote a recent magazine describing another game, "Look at the graphics man, they are un-frickin’ believable!" There is no doubt in my mind that Kingpin is the best looking game to be released this year, and may be the best looking one for the rest of this year and years to come. Details are so tiny and intricate that you wonder how they managed to put so much detail into the game and still get a steady frame-rate. From the garbage sitting on the street corners, to the broken beer bottles lying in allies, the game has all the details you would expect to see in an urban environment such as this.

Level design is a superior quality to the game. The game is linear, but as linear as you would expect for a First Person Shooter. You will find yourself doubling back upon your tracks to open safes that you have just learned the combination for, or looking for the extra scratch you need to move up to a truly better weapon.

Speaking of weapons, this is where the game truly shines, yet fails to be realistic. Early in the game you are beaten down and only have a rusty, mangled pipe to protect you from what lies ahead. Your first objective in the game is to gain some "heat" and through a few simple acquisitions you will be packing heat in the form of regular pistol. But, if you think that is the extent of the weapons you are seriously mistaken. From the pistol you will progress up to a magnum pistol, rocket launcher, grenade launcher, and (my personal favorite) the flame-thrower. Yet, this is a major failing of the game’s design team to keep the game as realistic as possible. When was the last time you saw a thug walking around with a big, green rocket launcher and entering a gang-brawl with a grenade launcher? Sure it is fun to use all this huge, destructive weapons, but is it realistic? Yet, you may not have to use those weapons if you didn’t talk so much smack…

Taking a break from the fast paced, action shooters of late (Quake II and Unreal come to mind) the game forces you to not shoot everything that moves. Sure you can take down every street-corner hooker, but where would that lead you? You will be without the information she possessed, and it could have been vital. So instead of the run and gun 100% gameplay, Xatrix is forcing you to think before you frag. Using 2 to 3 simple keyboard commands you can extract various information from a variety of characters. Using the Y key you will be as passive as possible and try to extract your information by being a "nice-guy" of sorts. Using the more (more is an understatement) negative command, X, you will lead your character straight into a bloody feud if you are not careful. There is also a Q command to use when you got your "peeps" following you to make them hold their ground.

All the aforementioned information falls flat to the ground when you enter the multiplayer mode that makes Kingpin one of the greatest games to come out in years. The multiplayer is like any typical FPS but there are new twists. The levels have been perfectly designed to keep up the action and cut down on the instances where you won’t find anyone for a long period of time. You will find a foe around every corner, and a lot of the time you will be fragged by him, but if you play a lot and get some skills you will be the one who is doing all the fragging to your buddies. Putting a new twist on capture the flag, is the Bagman mode. In this mode you will try to pick up money and bring it to your team’s safe. You can also steal money from the other team’s safe to make sure you got the "green" to win the game when time expires. Many new twists have been placed upon the traditional aspects of multiplayer. Ammo is abundant if you know where to look, and the weapons are not hard to find. Once you have acquired a weapon that is good enough to give you and edge, learn how to use it. With practice you will be picking off thugs with your Tommy Gun or Rocket Launcher. Practice makes perfect.

No game is without its flaws, and Kingpin does have some that keep it from gaming glory occupied by only a few select titles, but these flaws neither hinder gameplay or take it down from a level where it would be no fun. The first things you can find is that the hardware requirements are off the scale. Right off the bat is has you needing to sport a 3D Accelerator, and a recommended PII 300mhz and 128 Megs of RAM. This will cut the user base down even before the game is installed upon your machine. Another flaw would be the AI for some of the NPCs. Sometimes your hired goons will just jump in the air for minutes at a time trying to go up a flight of stairs you just went over. The AI does become more than frustrating when you are in a heavy firefight and your goons walk in front of you, you fire and hit them, they become pissed at you, and then proceed to attack YOU.

The only other thing I can find wrong with this game is not on the inside, but what it takes for you to actually get the game on your computer. When you purchase the game you are treated to a big yellow Warning label. From there on the front of the box we have, a Parental Advisory logo, the M Rating logo (really big), and the M Rating Descriptors. From there you proceed to find all this on the Jewel case, and the CD! Now you stick the label ridden CD in your drive. Now you get to read an editorial about youth violence, go through a few more warning screens about how this game is for "Adults over 18 Only," and finally you are asked to choose the PG 13 mode or the R (or is it X?) mode. This is over kill here. If you managed to get the game out of the store and are under-age, you will not listen to the warnings that are all over the box, CD, and installation splash screens. You knew what was in this game before you even purchased it. If you though this game was about some bowling Amish Guy then you are seriously mistaken. This is as close to real life as they get folks, if you don’t like it then don’t play it, and that is as simple as that.

My last few lines may have seemed a little harsh, but I am a strong believer that what is in games doesn’t not influence children to do what they do. They have to be mentally disturbed in the first place to even think about doing what some of them have done. I don’t want this to turn into an editorial about this subject, because the media is make a mockery of it already. This game should only be played by the mature or those mature enough to handle it. I admit that I am only 16 and I enjoyed this game, but you won’t find me with a gun in my hand marching into my AP Psychology class and doing " murderous acts." I am not that kind of person.

In the end Kingpin is a game only worthy of those who can stand what it truly stands for. It is a great game at the core and will be a standout in the genre for years to come. A sequel would be great and would be on your must-buy list as much as this game should be. So if you are mature enough to handle this game, go down to your local retailer or online store and order this game, you won’t be sorry. If you got the skills, you will be the next Kingpin.