An admittance: I used codes. This game is ungodly hard. They say this is one of the earlier games to have a more complicated damage system, where headshots get you ahead. I had difficulty figuring that out. Aiming can just be a nightmare through much of the gameplay, with enemies strafing back and forth hitting you 100% of the time, and you struggling to just hit their torso once--especially early on, until you work your way up past the shotgun (which is hardly any more useful than the useless pistol until you're 2 feet away and charging) to the assault rifle by working, or just throwing down a 'give all' cheat. And frankly, the guns don't feel so great to handle. Clumsy.
When this game was released, I was 11 or 12, and spent many hours figuring the demo out, but I never got past the demo, despite my nagging my parents. So it's been a dream of mine to play Kingpin for years and years, and now I've finally accomplished my early video game dream. It feels good, but I can't help but be disappointed. The game feels incomplete, with the neither the gang system or positive/negative response system working very well (damn you buddies! always getting stuck in doorways!), and they were two of three reasons to play this game back in '99. The other was the violence/language.
Older reviews state that this game will take about 10-15 hours (and one I've read said 30--20 of which spent staring at the loading screen [areas are small (there are 39 total); dying is frequent]). I completed it in what felt like 4-5 hours. But then, I cheated and fixed my health/armor when I needed it. So...
...it was worth the $6.
-65%