Developers really need to start using their head before throwing PS2 games onto the PSP. Some games suffer from poor ports due to loss of a second analog stick. Some genres just don't work, and sure, some are just bad games to begin with yet only become worse in the transition. Take your pick for Gangs Of London; it's much harder to find something right with this game than what went wrong.

Gangs Of London is based loosely on the PS2 franchise The Getaway. The start of game has you choose from a list of rival gangs that sets the premise for the story mode. All missions are based on protecting your turf or attacking rivals' buildings or gang members. Story scenes unfold using some slick looking, comic book style still shots with spoken narration over top. Once the narration stops, the real pain begins.

Welcome to London. Even though I've never been there, I'm sure it's not this bland. The open city streets are a real eye sore. Character and car models are just as bad, certainly below what is achievable on the PSP. Camera angles can be an issue, and it's not easily correctable without a second analog stick.

They tried to introduce squad based combat and stealth missions into the gameplay, both of which fail horribly. Gun combat is a joke, just point and shoot and hope that the auto aim works in your favor. Switching between the squad members has no real value, and with only basic commands like "attack" or "rejoin", the squad tactics leave a lot to be desired. You can't convince me to sneak up on anyone in this game without the ability to look around corners, see enemy locations, or put the camera a place that would allow me to see the enemies, so the stealth fails. The only real option is to run in with guns blazing everywhere you go, which makes any mission on foot completely devoid of fun.

Unfortunately driving is no better. Car controls are clunky, and this has all been done so many times before, much better I might add. There's no city life, so every driving mission just feels like a really bad street racing game. Except when you are forced to chase down and wreck an opposing vehicle, then the crappy physics are completely exposed, and you realize that this is even worse than the regular chase missions.

Even though the main game and all of the extra modes are a complete abomination, there is one bright spot dwelling in the game menu, the pub games. I had half a mind to write this whole review just about the pub games ignoring the fact that some other awful street gang game was packaged with it. In the pub you can play a game of darts, skittles, pool, or a game of snake in black and white on an old arcade machine. Darts and skittles both have a simple mechanics for throwing the dart/ball that's something akin to a free throw meter in a basketball game. Pool is a nice 3D implementation and works as expected, and snake is the old line game straight out of your cell phone. If these were packaged together as London Pub Games for a budget price, I think it'd be 100x more successful than the afterthought of a game they came packaged with.

Rent Gangs Of London for some pub games on the road, but please do not encourage developers to continue putting wretch like this on a system with so much more potential.