The game follows the Sicilian mob theme made famous in films like The Godfather, Goodfellas and more recently by hit TV series The Sopranos. You take on the role of one of four Italian brothers, Mario, Angelo, Romano or Sonny. Born into Sicilian mafia, your character must work his way up within the family and compete with other mobs and gangsters for supremacy within the game's "Paradise City" playing environment.

As you progress through the game building up your own empire by setting up protection rackets, threatening locals, prostituting women and where necessary, murdering people, you gain respect from both your peers and family. The artificial intelligence (AI) in Gangland will react to the way in which you go about playing the game with an entire city and all of its inhabitants going about their daily business around you. It is possible to interact with every single one of the 500* non-playable characters (NPCs) appearing in each of the game's 26 sections, each character living out its own unique AI driven life.

Gangland players will continue to be surprised and thrilled thanks to a Highscore system and a unique "Event Engine" that generates non-linear plot lines every time a new game is played. Each new game requires gamers to adopt a range of different gameplay tactics to successfully control, manipulate and extort each district's 300 active citizens and 200 hoodlums.

Combat in Gangland introduces a totally new way of fighting, mixing "FPS" and "realtime tactics" styles in an innovative way that results in players having to move quickly and make tactical use of their gaming environment if they want to become the most powerful gangster in "Paradise City".