Buying the airport, for example, doesn’t unlock access to new vehicles like helicopters. Buying more gun shops does unlock new weapons, but the vast majority of purchases simply boost my daily income. It’s also disappointing that most of these properties don’t amount to much. When I’m asked to steal a coffee truck to add $100 to that tally, it begins to feel petty. At present, I’m making $21 million in just a few in-game minutes. By the time I was halfway through the game, I was making millions a day. While some of the properties are gated to the story, most are not. Part of the issue may lie in the way I’ve played: Instead of focusing on the main story, I wanted to buy up as much of the city as quickly possible. Vblank Entertainment via Polygonīuying up the town, neighborhood by neighborhood, is satisfying (if unquestionably evil), but it also results in a game so front-loaded that the latter half has nowhere to go. Now, with every story mission I complete, even more plots are up for grabs, increasing my cash flow and control over the city.īuying up real estate in Shakedown: Hawaii. Blue icons filled the map indicating everything for sale.

I was astonished when I first started playing.

I’m talking about hundreds of buildings, ranging from convenience stores to chop shops to salons to airports. The most impressive feature: I can own every piece of real estate in the game. But where Retro City opted for NES-era graphics, Shakedown looks more like an unreleased Genesis game.ĭespite the old-school visuals, there are some truly modern sensibilities in Shakedown: Hawaii. They’re both open-world games in the style of the original Grand Theft Auto. Shakedown: Hawaii is the quasi-sequel to Retro City Rampage. By the end of the game, you literally own the whole city. But in Shakedown: Hawaii, there’s no “essentially” about it. You’ve been here before: You start an open-world game as a petty gangster, slowly working you way up the criminal ladder until you essentially own the whole city.

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