I first heard about this game quite a few months ago, and was impressed by it's overhead point of view more than anything. It took me back to the days of APB on my good old C64 (That C stands for Commodore, and its not a Jap console.). You played a Cop with a mission to clean the streets of scum, or if you weren't doing well, gum. It had a very similar look and feel to GTA, except this time around the Cops are after you.
The idea of the game is to get as many points as possible to become a member of a big crime family. This can either be done by following the route set out by the different missions available to play, which include assassinations, stealing, drug running etc..., or go it alone and score the points in any way possible, which means car-jacking, and when you can find a machine gun, flame thrower or rocket launcher (Hehe!), killing as many citizens of the fine city as possible. Or, if you can't find a hefty weapon, simply mowing them down in the safety of your own (Stolen) car!
But be aware! The police are out for you, and once you've committed too many serious crimes they'll divert they're attentions to you, which gives a chance for even more points as the cops can be mown down as soon as they step out of their car!

All this killing does have it's drawbacks though, the graphics are...superb. The sound though is...cheeky! The music...fantastic! (And thats big coming from me!!!) And yet the overall gameplay is....excellent! This game really can not be faulted. It may come with an 18 certificate on the box, but that's how it should be. Stop that moaning press and politicians.
Internet play is possible, but at the moment it is best left like that. It is so slow the game loses all of it's appeal. However, I expect that on a LAN or just a link up, it should work fine and be twice as good as Quake is, sorry, was.
If you can afford it, get Quake2 as well as this, but only if you can. If you only have/get £40 (Or whatever) this christmas though, go for GTA, it's gonna be more fun in the long run!

This does not deserve being restricted to a rating, so best put as ESSENTIAL.

World-wide release:   Out Now! Go Buy!
There are 4 different versions of the demo. An 8-bit version for low spec machines, a 24-bit version, and 2 3dfx versions. Go to the Games Domain for a list of download sites.