The crewing up mechanic doesn't feel like it's letting you lead your own mini-army to right the wrongs of rival gangs. You can issue basic commands like assist and regroup, but in most of the run-of-the-mill combat, your orders make little difference in whether or not your crew wins the fight. The potential evaporates after the first glimmer of hope that something more exciting might happen now that it's not just you and Darryl. What should be among the biggest perks of progressing through Gang Wars' story - but in practice is the game's major disappointment - is the crew you get to order around as you prove that you're worthy of their obedience. Some more practical rewards await, when you win a fight or finish a mission, in the form of cash and new moves, though you can also just beat some change out of parking meters and pay phones. Finishing moves are an OK touch, but like many other games that condescend to players by not relying on more subtle visual cues, Gang Wars indicates stunned enemies with an obvious overhead icon, ruining whatever thrill might have been had by realizing you've pummeled a rival street soldier into a vulnerable enough state that you can knock his feet out from under him with a club and finish him with several knocks to the head. The biggest challenge is mustering the patience to wait for your adrenaline meter to fill sufficiently to pull off the more powerful brutal moves. The battle animations change up depending on which weapon you've snatched off the body of a fallen enemy, but the fighting itself amounts to endless strings of light, heavy and special attacks. That is to say, it's a whole lot of unskilled, undemanding combat. While the mission details vary superficially, from fighting to claim turf for the Outlawz and repel Headhunterz incursions to organized fights in which you can bet on yourself to finish in 60 seconds or win a perfect victory, the details of what you're actually doing stay much the same as you progress through Gang Wars. Text messaging is the device that guides you from one mission to the next, even reminding you to visit Fat D's for some health-replenishing burgers and fries when you're hurting. That sort of curious logic persists throughout Gang Wars. Semi-stealth missions make you keep an eye out for cops, but the limited perspective forces you to rely on a magical map to avoid the heat. If you pay attention, you can spot a taxi slowing down briefly, then plowing through a pile of dead gangstas as if nothing's there. You can dust as many of his enforcers as you like, though, just to achieve the goal of frightening him into compliance with Smally's wishes. When Smally Biggs asks you to put the scare into Granville the landlord, for example, killing him is off-limits. Tre's required tasks are usually straightforward or at least easy enough to figure out, though the circumstances and restrictions often make little sense in the bigger picture. That's the extent of the game's playfulness with its subject matter. Earn enough cred to enter Conchita's fight club.

Vandalize some stores in rival gangs' ‘hoods. Teach a rent-gouging slum lord a lesson by smashing up his house and cars. The mini-stories behind each mission are largely conceived without much imagination, though. With more than one gang name ending with a “z” and neighborhoods with names like Blingsley Hills, it hints at satire, or at least at an awareness that it's dealing in clichés instead of themes and stereotypes rather than archetypes.

The story's tone is among the first clues that Gang Wars may not be terribly well thought-out. From then on, Gang Wars is a gangland odyssey reduced to a shapeless mass of simplistic combat scenarios as you run through the city trying to show rival gangs who's the boss.

After proving yourself in a simple fight with a fellow Outlawz member to learn the controls, cantankerous barber Smally Biggs sends you on some head-busting missions to get a feel for Grand Central City. This is surprising because, as you play as Tre, fighting your way to a position of respect among the Outlawz, you don't feel particularly noble, not even in an ends-justifies-the-means kind of way. It comes as a surprise when you notice, slipped in among Gang Wars' back story details, a line about how your mission is actually supposed to have something to do with ridding Grand Central City of urban blight rather than just participating in it for fun.

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