- Mob Enforcer
-
Mob Enforcer 
Developer(s) Touchdown Entertainment Publisher(s) ValuSoft, GFI Russia Distributor(s) THQ, Russobit-M Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Xbox Release date(s) NA July 13, 2004 Genre(s) First-person shooter Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer Rating(s) - ESRB: T
Media/distribution CD-ROM Mob Enforcer is a Mafia related PC game. It was released on the Xbox with multiplayer capabilities under the title Chicago Enforcer.
Contents
Description
"Chicago in the Roaring ‘20’s. A Time of Bootleggin’, Bribery and the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Mob rule has taken over and Al Capone’s fighting for control of the streets. You are Jimmy “Machine Gun” DeMora, "Scarface" Capone's main enforcer. Pay off cops and knock off informants to rise through the ranks. Wash your hands in the blood of many to seize control of Chicago’s underworld. It’s nothing personal—it’s just business."
Plot
The player is shown as the main character of the game, Jimmy DeMora, an ex-fighter who joins Al Capone's gang in Chicago, to gain control of the entire city. Jimmy is seen as a young man in his 20s, loyal and hardy, being able to complete his missions with perseverance.
In the first chapter ("The Squealer"), DeMora answers a phonecall from a public phone, where Joe Tessio is introduced, telling DeMora of his orders, first to learn the ropes. DeMora is then told to hunt down one of Capone's men, Needles Gennaro for having loyalty issues. DeMora heads out to finish the job, though knowing before he requires to do so he should find Needles' right hand man, Mitts Cassiela for Needles' location. Mitts is easily found at pub joints, where DeMora succeeds to find and coerce Needles' location out. Needles' is then located at "The Lucky Hotel", where DeMora arrives to bust him up, running into little resistance sent by Needles. Eventually, DeMora finds Needles and kills him as ordered.
The next chapter ("Liquor Wars") shows DeMora into further action, as Tessio informs DeMora that the boss requests to see DeMora "at the deep end of the pool". The Cenzo Brothers are then brought into the game, where it seems that they, a rival gang, are "eating up" into Capone's territory. DeMora is first sent to destroy shops that launder money for the Cenzos and finishing off cops and henchmen on the Cenzo's payroll, and then handle the Brothers. DeMora succeeds the destruction job and heads to the Brewery, concealed from public eye which in fact is the Cenzo headquarters. DeMora intrudes, finishing off more henchmen, and finally arrives to assassinate the Cenzos. He succeeds again, and the Cenzos now no longer a threat.
Following into the next chapter ("Boom... You're Dead"), DeMora now has to blow up the brewery headquarters to cripple the Cenzo business and to stop any attempts of succession on the Cenzo leader line. DeMora sets time bombs around the brewery, again with Cenzo henchmen avenging their bosses and the Cenzo-paid cops. DeMora, when finished with the destruction, is arrested by Cenzo cops and put into jail. However, DeMora escapes easily, through a network of underground sewer tunnels. DeMora then regains himself back into his gangster-criminal line.
Continuing the story ("Power Corrupts"), Tessio calls in and advises DeMora on his situation. Though Capone does know that DeMora got busted, Tessio suggests that DeMora do something to keep himself in. DeMora was told of the police chief, Chief Shaw, and suggests massacring him, which Tessio immediately rejects. Instead, DeMora goes into the station, disguised as a cop himself, and delivers a bag stuffed full of cash to Chief Shaw's table, bribing him. DeMora then also mentions something about a man named Frankie Lucero he saw in jail with him, and it turns out that Capone was friends with Lucero, until some time ago. DeMora suggests that Lucero could have delivered to the cops on inside information about Capone, in which DeMora checks about the issue and confirms that Lucero did. DeMora pays the debt back, finishing Lucero off. DeMora is now sent to rob shops that hold foundation for a restart of the Cenzo business. He goes, stealing moneybags of cash for the Cenzos and putting them out of business permanently. A new rival shows up, Johnny Torello and his men come in, arriving to steal the show. DeMora succeeds, blocking them off and yet completing his mission.
Ending ("The King of Chicago"), DeMora heads to the Lexington Hotel, where the boss is at. He mentions of Torello's men surrounding the place, which could mean an attack on the building and killing Capone. The hotel comes under attack, first with a blackout and then bombs that tick away, threatening to blow the place. DeMora restores power and disarms the bombs, running into resistance from Torello's henchmen. Finally, he finds Torello in Capone's suite, in front of a bound and gagged Capone. Torello fights DeMora, which DeMora wins. Now with the Cenzos and Torello dead, Capone can place himself as king of Chicago. However the final task was to escape the Lexington. The Cenzo and Torello henchmen arrive to stop, to no avail. DeMora succeeds defending his boss while escaping the hotel, and Capone becomes crowned, as King of Chicago, where the game ends.
Characters
(Protagonists)
Jimmy 'Machine Gun' DeMora - The main protagonist
Joe Tessio - Unseen figure; guides DeMora through chapter cutscenes in the mode of phonecalls
Al Capone - An iron-fisted boss of DeMora(Antagonists)
Needles Gennaro - a wanted gang member by Capone on his loyalty
Mitts Cassiela - Needles' right hand man
Sal & Carlo Cenzo - The Cenzo brothers, the two greedy bosses who try to conquer Chicago
Johnny Torello - An ambitious leader of the Torello gang who tries to find opportunity to take over Chicago
Henchmen - Henchmen vary from their allegiance to a gang and also their ability with their weapons
Police (Cops) - Cops on the pay of gang leaders(Miscellaneous)
Civilians - Neutral people caught in the conflict within gangs
Police (Officers) - Policemen in the station of higher ranks out of action working at desks
Chief Shaw - A police chief who has the friendship with Al Capone over his control of copsGameplay
Like most first person shooters, Mob Enforcer consists of the interface and properties of most games. Likewise, two health gauges shown at the bottom-right of the interface are the protection and health bars, a red bar behind a blue one. The red bar represents health of the player while the blue bar represents a shield gauge; the amount of hits a worn bullet-proof vest can take before it gets useless.
The player is also subjected to an array of weapons, notably like all games which has pistols and shotguns and automatic rifles. Weapons of the game include a .45 cal pistol and Tommy Gun, a 12 gauge Shotgun, a 30.06 hunting sniper rifle. Also included are melee weapons like a lead pipe & an ice pick, and explosives like time bombs & Molotov Cocktails. In addition, cheats applied can offer two new weapons, a high powered 30.06 automatic rifle and a Chinese firecracker. The .45 cal ammo is shared between the pistol and Tommy Gun, the 30.06 ammo is shared between the hunting rifle and the automatic rifle.
Similar to most games on picking up ammo and health packs, weapons and ammo cases hold ammo for guns. A special issue is of the weapons used by enemies which are dropped when they are killed; if they are not picked up quickly the weapon will vanish, unlike most games where the ammo stays until picked up. Another issue is on the ammo count. If a weapon is fully loaded, picking up a weapon of the same type does not result in nothing happening, it will result in the weapon picked up but not used, which brings a 'wastage' idea to the player. Additionally health packs and shield kits are divided into two types, heavy and light. Light first-aid-kits are shown as a box with a red cross and light bullet-proof vests are shown smaller than their heavier counterparts. Heavy first-aid-kits are seen as a brown bag with a red cross and heavy bullet-proof vests are seen as bigger vests of the lighter ones. Unlike the weapons, enemies do not drop these items. They are also like ammo packs, they only disappear when picked up, or they will just remain.
One of the unique points of the game is of its manual 'picking' of items. Weapons dropped by enemies are automatically picked up when walked over, while anything else requires a press of the 'Use' button. First-aid-kits, ammo packs, cash drops and other obtainable items are such. The game also hides things in wooden crates with a trademark imprinted logo of Touchdown Entertainment; destroying these crates results in a small, harmless explosion which releases little metal cans and bits and sometimes items hidden in them. The items hidden are usually first-aid-kits or bullet-proof vests, rarely found are cash drops.
The visual effect of the game has a very detailed 3D setting, with much details shown. Civilians are seen doing what they do, cops are doing their usual patrols, enemies also run and fall realistically. Hats worn by any NPC, when killed with a headshot, may result in the hat blown off as well. The only issues are of the facial expressions of the NPCs, they are not shown talking and their moods and expressions remain the same when viewed close up. Also, when an enemy is killed by a melee weapon, notably the lead pipe, bloodstains appear on the gloves and arms of the player, with the lead pipe bent further. However, these bloodstains do not extend to certain weapons like the 'Cheat' automatic rifle and Chinese firecracker, also not on the Molotov Cocktail or Ice Pick.
Objectives of the game are clear, though some objectives are brief, i.e. to destroy a shop the objectives just indicate "Destroy (shop name)" and not on how to destroy. Killing NPCs also have effects. Going too close when attacking a cop will result in the player getting apprehended, any attack by a player on a civilian or police officer results in a Game Over screen. However, if enemies engage into such attacks themselves, the game continues since the attack was by the console itself, bringing a useful human shield tactic.
The game unfolds in chapters, each chapter beginning with a cutscene of a phonecall from Joe Tessio on the missions upcoming. Every chapter has two missions, a total of five chapters and ten missions are in the game.
Sound
The audio in-game is practically non-existent, with little to no music, small amount of voice acting and generic weapon fire sounds. However, the voice acting has been said to be the game's one high note, with the voices being authentic and fitting to the game, and the dialogue being above average
Graphics
According to GameSpot, Chicago Enforcer has some of the worst character models seen, as well as "horribly bland textures, blocky character models that animate about as well as animatronic robots with broken limbs, and environments so sparsely populated with proper scenery or the aforementioned terrible character models that you would think you had entered some kind of post-nuclear wasteland"[1]. Also, the loading times for the cut-scenes take upwards of a minute to complete.
Reception
Though seen as a good game, GameZone rates the game of its gameplay at a score of 5.5, Graphics at 6, Sound at 6, Difficulty at a Medium/Hard level, Concept at 5.5, an overall score of 5.8, at average.
References
External links
Categories:- 2004 video games
- Windows games
- Lithtech engine games
- Organized crime video games
- Video games set in Chicago, Illinois
- First-person shooters
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
