Now out for iPhone, location-based Life Is Crime brings gangster ethos to the streets
Mafia wars in your neighbourhood
There's always plenty bubbling under in the world of location-based gaming.
US outfit Red Robot has started the new year by releasing its Android game Life Is Crime for iPhone.
As you might guess, it's a Mafia Wars-style experience, but the RPG elements are all shot through with real world locations.
This means that your virtual crimes map onto an actual map, adding additional elements in terms of how you perform missions, sell drugs and pickpock people etc.
For example, the 'Rob Bank' mission can be completed in any bank.
Bugs from the blockOf course, you can also create gangs by inviting your friends, and fight real world players to own real world locations. The more active you are, the higher your criminal reputation and the more notorious you become.
The underlying point, however, is that the game's map is a real world map, so you can easily see where the action is occurring. And as Red Robot points out, "the map's persistence allows players and places to become legendary over time".
A free-to-play game, you can spend real cash too, to speed your progression in terms of leveling up and customising your gangster with 200 types of guns, plus other gear and items.
Already pretty popular with over 500,000 Android downloads, Life Is Crime is out now for iPhone.