History VideoGame / KingpinLifeOfCrime

* UnwinnableByInsanity: Being extremely careless with money can result in this if the player doesn't make sure to leave 10 dollars for paying into the bar in the next area and doesn't loot corpse before they despawn after leaving the area, same with the 60 dollar ticket required in the last area and the two safecrackers in an earlier level.
* UpdatedReRelease: ''Kingpin: Reloaded'' is a remaster of the game by 3D Realms scheduled for 2020. It will feature support for modern resolutions (the original game requires fan mods to run at anything other than basic 4:3), rebalanced difficulty, and assorted aesthetic enhancements.

In January 2020, Creator/ThreeDRealms announced a remaster of the game titled ''Kingpin: Reloaded'', co-published with Interplay and developed by Slipgate Ironworks. The remaster is due for a release later in 2020 on PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.

In January 2020, Creator/ThreeDRealms announced a remaster of the game titled ''Kingpin: Reloaded'', developed in cooperation with Interplay. The remaster is due for a release later in 2020 on PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.

* {{Revenge}}: The reason why Thug takes on the Kingpin's entire operation. Given that he originally went after just one of his Lieutenant's for [[ItsPersonal for personal reasons]], and that he kills off a good portion of his "employees" in the process, Thug's revenge trip heavily falls into the DisproportionateRetribution and RoaringRampageOfRevenge territories as well.

* AntagonistTitle: Played with. The Kingpin is the FinalBoss of the game, so this trope is fully in effect - until the finale, that is. Once the BigBad is killed, Thug takes his place and becomes the new kingpin via KlingonPromotion, subverting the game's title into a ProtagonistTitle by the credits roll.
* AlternateUniverse: Mostly apparent in the RetroUniverse setting of the game. Most weapons (such as the Tommy Gun), vehicles, the teamsters, the Art Deco architecture, and the whole GangsterLand vibe are coming straight out of the TheRoaringTwenties; the big-city urban decay, pollution, and poverty are reminiscent of the TheSeventies; while some contemporary-looking character designs (such as the scantily-clad prostitutes or the Kingpin himself), the pop-culture references (see ShoutOut below) and the soundtrack from Music/CypressHill are mixed in from TheNineties. The resulting DieselPunk setting is described by the game manual as "a past that never happened".

* BadassBystander: An antagonistic example: When raiding the office of Moker (the steel mill manager and local Lieutenant of Kingpin in Steeltown), his secretary at the reception pulls a gun on the player (and their guns-for-hire) as soon as she notices them. She stands no chance of course, but she deserves points for trying to slow them down and cover her boss' escape.
* BigBad: The title character of the game, who also happens to be the FinalBoss. Although Thug only has a bone to pick with Nikki Blanco, the Kingpin's Poisonville lieutenant, at the end of the campaign he decides to take on Kingpin himself as well, to take over his operations that he managed to ravage through by that time.

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Of all the people in this game, Kingpin and his Lieutenants are this. Throughout the game, we frequently run into female enemies, indicating that a sizable portion of the organization's manpower consists of women. Interestingly, the trope is also subverted by the game's VillainProtagonist: while Thug can pay off a hooker in Poisonville to distract some well-armed thugs (and thus, avoid a firefight with them), and helps out Bambi, Steeltown's female bartender by rescuing his brother, he can never actually recruit any female characters to fight alongside him. All available guns-for-hire are male.

* ImmuneToBullets: Blunt, who just also happens to be one of the final bosses as well. There is no reason for her to be (especially given how unarmored she is compared to other regular mooks), other than to escape alive and leave a SequelHook for the game.

* KlingonPromotion: At the end, Thug becomes the new kingpin of the city after killing the old Kingpin, and the closing cutscene shows that the daily income is a lot higher than it was during the previous management. It's doubtful this has anything in the way of his managerial skills, but Thug has got plenty of minions to take care of that for him, so it could be assumed that even if he is far from being a nice guy, he is at least a bit closer to being a BenevolentBoss than his predecessor was.

** Frankly, the warehouse security guards of the first level are just doing their job protecting the premises. Granted, their approach is really excessive, but given Skidrow's reputation and the game's CrapsackWorld in general, their shoot-first-don't-ask-questions-later approach is understandable.

* RecurringBoss: You fight Nikki Blanco twice in the game: in Chapter 2, where he serves as the boss of the Poisonville segment, and then at the finale before the final boss fight.

* SequelHook: The game ends with Blunt fleeing Radio City and swearing revenge against the player for killing the Kingpin. This was, unfortunately, never followed up on: while a sequel was announced in 2004, nothing came of it and it was likely quietly cancelled.

* TheDragon: Played with. From a gameplay perspective, this role is filled by Blunt, who even helps the Kingpin during the final boss fight. From a story perspective though, Nikki Blanco plays a much larger and more important role, as he's the one who kickstarts Thug's RoaringRampageOfRevenge, and appears more frequently than Blunt. He still ends up being a SequentialBoss only by the finale.

Set in an unnamed, DieselPunk flavored, dystopic RetroUniverse city, players take control of an unnamed low-level criminal (referred to as "Thug" by the in-game chat, and therefore by the game's fans as well). Some time before the events of the game, Thug crossed paths with Nikki Blanco, head of the local Blanco Industries chemical plant, and also a resident Lieutenant of the titular Kingpin, the criminal overlord of the city. For reasons unknown, Blanco wants the Thug banished from his turf, Poisonville; to that end, he has his muscles give Thug an old-fashioned NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, and leave him unconscious in Skidrow, one of the outskirts ghettos of the city, with the warning never to show up in Poisonville again. What follows is Thug's RoaringRampageOfRevenge, first aimed against Nikki Blanco and then against the Kingpin's entire operation, taking him through all major districts of the city, from the outskirts through poisonous chemical plants, rusty shipyards, massive steelworks facilities, and a gigantic railroad network, right into Radio City, the heart of the Kingpin's criminal empire.

* BadassBystander: An antagonistic example: When raiding the office of Moker (the steel mill manager and local Lieutenant of Kingpin in Steeltown), her secretary at the reception pulls a gun on the player (and their guns-for-hire) as soon as she notices them. She stands no chance of course, but she deserves points for trying to slow them down and cover her boss' escape.
* BigBad: The title character of the game, who also happens to be the FinalBoss. Although Thug only has a bone to pick with Nikki Blanco, the Kingpin's Poisonville lieutenant, at the end of the campaign, he decides to take on Kingpin himself as well, to take over his operations that he managed to ravage through by that time.

** The game is ''loaded'' with foul language, so much so that it's a lot easier to count the characters whose dialog contains no swearing than the ones who constantly spout expletives.

* DarkActionGirl: Blunt is a named example of this trope, who also happens to be the Kingpin's second-in-command, in charge of the Radio City operations. However, all enemy gangs in the game have numerous female fighters, who fight (and swear) just as viciously as their fellow male gang members. On higher difficulties, the female enemies can even be more dangerous as their bulkier male colleagues, given their smaller statures (and thus, smaller, harder-to-hit hitbox).

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Of all the people in this game, Kingpin and his Lieutenants are this. Throughout the game, we frequently run into female enforcers, indicating that a sizable portion of the organization's manpower consists of women. Interestingly, the trope is also subverted by the game's VillainProtagonist: while Thug can pay off a hooker in Poisonville to distract some well-armed thugs (and thus, avoid a firefight with them), and helps out Steeltown's female bartender by rescuing his brother, he can never actually recruit any female characters to fight alongside him. All available guns-for-hire are male.

* ExcusePlot: Although the game has a detailed dialog and NPC system (well, for its time and for an FPS), little to no background information is provided on why Nikki kicked Thug out of Poisonville, and why Thug decides to take over the Kingpin's organization (apart from his obvious RoaringRampageOfRevenge). Character dialog itself is also pretty hazy and out-of-context in most cases, requiring players to constantly check their journal to piece together what mission objectives were actually given by neutral characters.
* {{Expy}}: The Kingpin is modeled after [[Film/PulpFiction Marcellus Wallace]], down to the small band-aid on his neck. Several lines of his dialog are also lifted almost verbatim from Marcellus as well.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Slightly subverted. In Poisonville, a female bystander (implied to be a hooker, but not really dressed as one) offers the player to distract some well-armed enemy muscle for a small amount of money. This is completely optional, but given that the mooks are considered heavily armed at that stage of the game (packing Tommy Guns that are not even available in stores for the player in that chapter), her offer comes really handy, especially on higher difficulties. It is not obvious whether she makes the offer out of sympathy or just to earn some cash, though.

** In true sociopathic fashion, they offer their help for Thug free of charge, if he beats three homeless people to death with a crowbar, apparently for no other reason than to [[ItAmusedMe enjoy themselves]]. Failure to do that (or using a firearm in taking them down) does not make them turn their back on us, but they charge recruitment costs instead.
* HyperspaceArsenal: In line with the [[FirstPersonShooter first-person shooters]] of the era, Thug can easily carry the game's entire arsenal and their ammo at once, without any limitations. This does not look that off at the early stages of the campaign (where you are packing a melee weapon, a pistol and a shotgun, and the Tommy Gun starting from Poisonville), but once you take your hands on the GrenadeLauncher, the Rocket Launcher, the [[MisidentifiedWeapons heavy machinegun]] and the flamethrower, you may start wondering how baggy Thug's coat is.

* MisidentifiedWeapons: A category designation error. The burst rifle in Slot 5 (acquired during the Steeltown chapter of the campaign) is referred to as "Heavy Machine Gun" in the game, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_machine_gun which it clearly isn't]]. Given its caliber, burst-fire mode and appearance, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_rifle "Battle Rifle"]] would probably be a more accurate term.

* ScaryBlackMan: Given that the Kingpin is an {{Expy}} of [[Film/PulpFiction Marcellus Wallace]], this is probably not surprising.

* ShoutOut:
** Many to ''Film/PulpFiction''. The game's dialogue lifts several lines from that movie, and the Kingpin himself is an {{Expy}} to Marcellus Wallace. The scene where Thug shoots the truck driver, splattering blood onto the side window is a reference to the "IJustShotMarvinInTheFace" scene.

** Heilmann, the crazy German ship captain is an homage to ''Dr. Strangelove''.
** There are a number of shout-outs to ''Film/{{Payback}}'': The Art Deco Crystal Towers at the end of the game resemble the "Outfit" building, and the ringing telephone in the street [[spoiler:that explodes if the player answers it]] is a reference to the scene in the movie where Porter tricks the gangsters into picking up the phone in his apartment that was wired with explosives before by other gangsters.
** In Radio City, one building is an almost exact copy of the one from the famous Edward Hopper painting [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighthawks_(painting) "Nighthawks"]].
** The character "The Jesus" shouts the same phrases as the character of the same name in ''Film/TheBigLebowski''.

Set in an unnamed, DieselPunk flavored, dystopic RetroUniverse city, players take control of an unnamed low-level criminal (referred to as "Thug" by the in-game chat, and therefore by the game's fans as well). Some time before the events of the game, Thug crossed paths with Nikki Blanco, head of the local Blanco Industries chemical plant, and also a resident Lieutenant of the titular Kingpin, the criminal overlord of the city. For reasons unknown, Blanco wants the Thug banished from his turf, Poisonville; to that end, he sends some of his muscle after him, who give him an old-fashioned NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, and leave him unconscious in Skidrow, one of the outskirts ghettos of the city, with the warning never to show up in Poisonville again. What follows is Thug's RoaringRampageOfRevenge, first aimed against Nikki Blanco and then against the Kingpin's entire operation, taking him through all major districts of the city, from the outskirts through poisonous chemical plants, rusty shipyards, massive steelworks facilities, and a gigantic railroad network, right into Radio City, the heart of the Kingpin's criminal empire.

While the game is notable for its technical accomplishments (such as the well-made allied and enemy artificial intelligence for its time, a quasi non-linear level design encouraging map exploration, and a rudimentary economic system that allowed players to hire armed muscle and buy equipment), it is more remembered because of the controversy it generated at the time of its release. Unfortunately for Xatrix, ''Kingpin'' was the first major shooter to be released in the wake of the Columbine high school massacre, generating increased attention (and criticism) from the media and politicians alike (although the game's main premise, excessive gore and profanity-laden dialogue didn't help either). This eventually forced most major video game retailers not to put Kingpin on sale, making the game a huge commercial failure (and also a CreatorKiller, as Xatrix has closed shop on the day the game shipped). While the game therefore never could become a classic FPS experience like Half-Life or Quake 2 did, it still garnered a loyal cult following, who keep hosting multiplayer servers for it to this day.

The game is available on both UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and [=GOG=].com. Bear in mind that playing the game in widescreen on a modern system involves altering the game's .exe file, which can cause conflicts with Steam's authentication procedure. A fan patch has been made to allow for widescreen resolution, with a separate Steam version of the patch to address the authentication problem.

NeedsWikiMagicLove.

!!This video game contains examples of:

* ArtificialBrilliance: Compared to other games of its era, ''Kingpin'' has remarkably good NPC A.I. Both enemies and allies can navigate the entire level relatively intelligently instead of being limited to a single area, and are reasonably maneuverable in combat instead of just standing and firing. Injured or outmatched enemies will even run off and hide, or run to another area to look for reinforcements. They can even climb ladders or leap from ledge to ledge, which was quite a feat in its day. Overall they behave a lot like a multiplayer bot, and in fact the A.I. was written by the same guy who made the [=EraserBot=] for ''VideoGame/QuakeII''.

* BadassBystander: An antagonistic example: The secretary of Moker (the steel mill manager and local Steeltown Lieutenant) pulls a gun on players as soon as they march in the office reception. She stands no chance of course (especially if players bring the recruitable muscle with themselves as well), but she deserves points for trying to slow them down and cover her boss' escape.
%%* BigBad: Kingpin.
* BossInMookClothing: The boss of Chapter 6 (the train tracks and depot) has no name and is indistinguishable from the regular goons found throughout the level. You only know he's a boss because he appears near the end and can take a ''lot'' more damage than the regular goons.

* ClusterFBomb: The game is ''loaded'' with foul language, so much so that it's a lot easier to count the characters whose dialog contains no swearing than the ones who constantly spout expletives.

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Of all the people in this game, Kingpin and his Lieutenants are this. Throughout the game, we frequently run into female enforcers, indicating that a sizable portion of the organization's manpower consists of women. Interestingly, the trope is also subverted by the player character: while Thug can pay off a hooker in Poisonville to distract some well-armed thugs (and thus, avoid a firefight with them), and helps out Steeltown's female bartender by rescuing his brother, he can never actually recruit any female characters to fight alongside him. All available guns-for-hire are male.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: The Thug, of course. He starts out as a lowlife gangster who crosses paths with Nikki Blanco, the Kingpin's Lieutenant in Poisonville. While he obviously angered Nikki with something, the latter only considers him a mere nuisance, and therefore, instead of having Thug killed, he orders his goons "just" to kick his ass, and leave him unconscious in an alleyway, with the warning of never showing his face in Poisonville again. This proves to be a fatal underestimation on Nikki's part, as Thug then proceeds to wipe out the whole organization as a true OneManArmy.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: A slightly subverted example occurs in Poisonville, where a female bystander (implied to be a hooker, but not really dressed as one) offers the player to distract some well-armed enemy muscle for a small amount of money. This is completely optional, but given that the mooks are considered heavily armed at that stage of the game (packing Tommy Guns that are not even available in stores for the player in that chapter), her offer comes really handy, especially on higher difficulties. It is not obvious whether she makes the offer out of sympathy or due to the opportunity to earn some cash, though.

* KlingonPromotion: At the end, Thug becomes the new kingpin of the city after killing the old Kingpin. While far from being a nice guy, the closing cutscene actually shows that the daily income is a lot higher than it was during the previous management. It's doubtful this has anything in the way of managerial skills, but he's got plenty of minions to take care of that for him, so it could be assumed that he is at least a bit closer to being a BenevolentBoss than his predecessor was.

** There's also the big ''Music/CypressHill'' logo on the game's splash screen, as their music is used in the game's soundtrack and a few of their members voiced characters in the game.
* RecurringBoss: You fight Nikki Blanco twice in the game: he is the boss of the Poisonville chapter, and a BossinMookClothing at the finale before the final boss fight.
* {{Revenge}}: The plot of the game, if need to be summarized in a single world. Expand with DisproportionateRetribution and RoaringRampageOfRevenge for more details.
%%* ScaryBlackMan: The Kingpin.

** Many to ''Film/PulpFiction''. The game contains several lines from that movie, and the Kingpin is an {{Expy}} to Marcellus Wallace. The scene where Thug shoots the truck driver, splattering blood onto the side window is a reference to the "IJustShotMarvinInTheFace" scene.
** And at least one player skin that is a shout-out to ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'', whose visual style Kingpin borrows from.
** Poisonville is a reference to Dashiell Hammett's ''Red Harvest.''

** In Radio City, one building is an almost exact copy of the one from the famous Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks".

%%* TheDragon: Nikki Blanco.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: You can choose to play nice, which will allow you to recruit goons to help you out, go on {{Fetch Quest}}s, get extra money, and avoid some firefights at the beginning of the game.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can choose to play mean, which will result in violence, more ammo spent, and more money to pay for neutral characters.
* VillainProtagonist: The Thug, of course. He was a small-time thug who got beaten up by the muscle of a criminal middleman. He starts off trying to take out Nikki Blanco to get revenge on him, and then, as part of a DisproportionateRetribution, escalates to taking on the Kingpin himself.
* WorldOfJerkass: Almost everyone seems to have anger management issues, which isn't that surprising since about 97% of the cast is made out of violent criminals.
* WorldOfMuscleMen: Most male characters are built like linebackers and even the fat ones have giant muscular hands.

* WretchedHive: Given that the majority of the characters we meet are gangsters, gun-for-hire muscles, shady business opportunitsts, hookers, or alcoholic homeless, most of the city qualifies.

* WretchedHive: Most of the city. The first location, Skidrow is a hopeless ghetto whose population consists mainly of criminals, prostitutes and homeless folks. Poisonville is an uninhabitable chemical dump, the shipyards are full of rats and warring crews, Steeltown's mills fit the NoOSHACompliance trope to the letter (with the Thug's journal also implying that forced child labor is not uncommon in its factories), while the gigantic Railyards are the blood veins of black market smuggling. Even the flashy Radio City is not free of the street fights of the warring gangs.

* GoddamnBats: Throughout the game, the most annoying enemies you will face in the city will be... the rats. Hard to hit, and numerous in numbers even in small rooms, you lose a health point each time you step on one. You can easily lose a good portion of your health even just by running carelessly between mission points. On the human side of things, any enemy wielding a flamethrower should be a priority in any firefight: though relatively weak, those guys can easily chew through your health and armor, quickly leaving you at the mercy of their gun-toting colleagues.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: According to the game's lead world artist, Viktor Antonov (of VideoGame/HalfLife2 and VideoGame/Dishonored fame, among others), the game's setting saw numerous revisions during its development. Kingpin was initially envisioned as a sci-fi crime story, something like "Blade Runner with a gangster touch", before hip-hop group Music/CypressHill got associated with the project. Once they came on board, the science-fiction elements were phased out in favor of a more grounded, dystopic DieselPunk world.

''Kingpin: Life of Crime'' is a FirstPersonShooter based on the ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' engine and released by Creator/InterplayEntertainment in June 1999. It was developed by Xatrix Entertainment, also known for ''VideoGame/{{Cyberia}}'', ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'', and the single-player portion of ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'' (as Gray Matter Interactive). You play as a thug who refused to pay Nikki Blanco. For that, he gets beaten up, dropped off at Skidrow and is told to never show up in Nikki's territory again. Cue the RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

The game is available on both UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} and [=GOG=].com. Bear in mind that playing the game in widescreen on a modern system involves altering the game's .exe file, which can cause conflicts with Steam's authentication procedure. A fan patch has been made to allow for widescreen resolution, with a separate steam version of the patch to address the authentication problem.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: All of the bosses have lots more health and generally better guns than the regular mooks. This makes sense, given the survival-of-the-fittest, Chaotic Evil nature of the game world.

* CityNoir: The urban locations feature everything between desolate ghettos and classy, but equally vile Radio City with its neon signs and Art Deco architecture.
* ClusterFBomb: The game is ''loaded'' with foul language.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Recruitable gang members all dress entirely in blue or grey, to help you identify them as friendlies during frantic firefights.
* DieselPunk: The setting is a weird mix to say the least, but mainly falls under this. Evoking the big-city urban decay, pollution, and poverty of TheSeventies, the Tommy Guns, teamsters, Art Deco architecture, and GangsterLand vibe of TheRoaringTwenties, and the pop-culture (such as Film/PulpFiction and ''Music/CypressHill'') of TheNineties.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Thug seems genuinely disturbed when he finds Big Willy's girlfriend Lizzie has been decapitated by the German ship captain's men.
* ExcusePlot: The thug gets his ass kicked in an alleyway and rest of the plot is just seeing if he's a bad enough dude to get revenge.
* {{Expy}}: The Kingpin is modeled after [[Film/PulpFiction Marcellus Wallace]], down to the small band-aid on his neck. Several of his lines are lifted almost verbatim from Marcellus as well.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: The thug goes from a random nobody who gets his ass kicked in an alleyway to one of the most feared criminals in the entire city, capable of taking entire gangs out on his own.
* HarderThanHard: The "Real" difficulty is one of the most difficult FPS experiences in existence, especially early on when your equipment is very limited.
* ImmuneToBullets: Blunt. There is no reason for her to be, other than to escape alive and leave a SequelHook for the game.
* ItsPersonalWithTheDragon: Thug's main goal is to get back at Nikki Blanco, the head of the thugs who beat him up at the beginning of the game. Kingpin gets involved because Nikki's one of his best men and the gangs Thug's cutting through to get to Nikki are technically under his payroll, so he's got to deal with this disrespect, but Thug isn't even really interested in Kingpin and decides to kill him in the end more for the chance opportunity to rise to the top than a vendetta.
* KickTheDog: Thug didn't have to shoot that truck driver with a shotgun, but the driver had the nerve to ask for money Thug had said he would pay!
* KlingonPromotion: At the end, Thug becomes the new Kingpin after killing the old Kingpin. It's doubtful he has anything in the way of managerial skills, but he's got plenty of minions to take care of that for him, and after all the people he's killed it's unlikely any of the Kingpin's surviving staff are in any mood to argue with him.
* NintendoHard: This game is ''really'' hard, even by the high standards of its era. The resource management aspect of the game is particularly unforgiving of careless gunplay, especially in the early levels. It's comparable to its contemporary, ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', except unlike ''System Shock 2'' you can't avoid most combats.

* PipePain: The first melee weapon in this game.

** The game has a tie-in with clothing maker Diesel. The idea was that the developers would put the Diesel logo on some character textures (there's also a big billboard in one level), and in return, the retail copy would be sold in Diesel stores. The textures appear in the game, but it's unknown if the game was ever sold in a Diesel shop.

* RecurringBoss: You fight Nikki Blanco twice in the game, once about 1/3rd of the way through, and once at the very end just before the fight with Kingpin and Blunt.
* {{Revenge}}: The plot of the game is this.

* SequelHook: The game ends with Blunt fleeing Radio City and swearing revenge against the player for killing the Kingpin. This was never followed up on; While a sequel was announced in 2004, nothing came of it and it was likely quietly cancelled.

** Many to ''Film/PulpFiction''. The game contains several lines from that movie, and the Kingpin is an {{Expy}} to one of the film's characters. The scene where Thug shoots the truck driver, splattering blood onto the side window is a reference to the "IJustShotMarvinInTheFace" scene.

** And the crazy German ship captain boss is a homage to ''Dr. Strangelove''.
** There are a number of shout outs to ''Film/{{Payback}}'': The Art Deco Crystal Towers at the end of the game resemble the "Outfit" building, and the ringing telephone in the street that explodes if the player answers it is a reference to the scene in the movie where Porter tricks the gangsters into picking up the phone in his apartment that was wired with explosives before by other gangsters.
** In Radio City, one building is an almost exact copy of the one from the famous Eward Hopper painting "Nighthawks".

* VideoGameCaringPotential: You can choose to play nice, which will allow you to recruit goons to help you out, go on {{Fetch Quest}}s and things like that.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can choose to play mean, which will result in violence, and prices being driven up.
* VillainProtagonist: To be honest, the thug is this. He was a small-time thug who got beaten up for refusing to pay "protection" money. He starts off trying to get Nikki Blanco, and then escalates to taking on the Kingpin himself.

* WretchedHive: Skidrow, at least. The rest of the city may or may not qualify for this trope.

* ShmuckBait: After getting tickets to the Skytram, you will come across a ringing telephone booth. [[spoiler:Answering it will instantly kill you.]]

* TheDragon: Nikki Blanco.

-->'''[=TheSnakerer=]''': ''This past talk must go way back into our evolutionary history, because humanity in this world seems to be made off of bizarre protomen, who are made mostly out of muscles and anger.''

* BigBad: Kingpin.

* CityNoir: The urban locations in ''Kingpin; Life of Crime''. Features everything between desolate ghettos and classy, but equally vile Radio City with its neon signs and Art Deco architecture.
* ClusterFBomb: The game is ''loaded'' with it!

* {{Dystopia}}: Skidrow, at least. The rest of the city may or may not qualify for this trope.

* {{Expy}}: The Kingpin is modeled after [[Film/PulpFiction Marcellus Wallace]], down to the small band-aid on his neck. Several of his lines are lifted almost verbatim from Marcellus's as well.

* ScaryBlackMan: The Kingpin.

* VillainProtagonist: To be honest, the player character is this. He was a small-time thug who got beaten up for refusing to pay "protection" money. He starts off trying to get Nikki Blanco, and then escalates to taking on the Kingpin himself.
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: At the end, Thug becomes the new Kingpin after killing the old Kingpin. It's doubtful he has anything in the way of managerial skills, but he's got plenty of minions to take care of that for him, and after all the people he's killed it's unlikely any of the Kingpin's surviving staff are in any mood to argue with him.

* CityNoir: The urban locations in ''Kingpin; Life of Crime''. Features everything between desolate ghettos and classy, but equally vile Radio City with it's Art Deco architecture (bearing a suspicious resemblance to some places in ''Film/{{Payback}}''). Also noteable for a weird mix of modern as well as 20's, 30's and steampunk-scifi styles (Cypress Hill music, Tommyguns, and thugs with cybernetic facial modifications all in the same setting!).

* EliteMooks: The gangs get progressively tougher as you go through the game, but the difference is usually only a couple bullets more to kill them. The Kingpin's personal bodyguards, on the other hand, are very tough and can survive almost as much damage as the game's bosses.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: The player's journey is interspersed with cutscenes of the Kingpin sitting at his desk, playing pinball, and generally lounging around.

* ProductPlacement: The game had a tie-in with clothing maker Diesel. The idea was that the developers would put the Diesel logo on some character textures (there's also a big billboard in one level), and in return, the retail copy would be sold in Diesel stores. The textures appear in the game, but it's unknown wether the game was ever sold in a Diesel shop.

* ShoutOut: To ''Film/PulpFiction''. The game contains several lines from that movie.
** The scene where Thug shoots the truck driver, splattering blood onto the side window is a reference to the "I shot Marvin in the face!" scene.
** The Kingpin himself is modelled after Marcellus Wallace, down to the small band-aid on his neck.

''Kingpin: Life of Crime'' is a FirstPersonShooter based on the ''VideoGame/QuakeII'' engine and released by Creator/InterplayEntertainment in June 1999. It was developed by Xatrix Entertainment, also known for ''VideoGame/{{Cyberia}}'', ''VideoGame/RedneckRampage'', and the single-player portion of ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein''. You play as a thug who refused to pay Nikki Blanco. For that, he gets beaten up, dropped off at Skidrow and is told to never show up in Nikki's territory again. Cue the RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: The player's journey is intersparsed with cutscenes of the Kingpin sitting at his desk, playing pinball, and generally lounging around.

* NintendoHard: This game is ''really'' hard, even by the high standards of its era. The resource management aspect of the game is particularly unforgiving of careless gunplay, especially in the early levels. It's comparable to its contemporary, ''SystemShock 2'', except unlike ''System Shock 2'' you can't avoid most combats.

The game is available on both {{Steam}} and [=GOG=].com. Bear in mind that playing the game in widescreen on a modern system involves altering the game's .exe file, which can cause conflicts with Steam's authentication procedure. A fan patch has been made to allow for widescreen resolution, with a separate steam version of the patch to address the authentication problem.

* CityNoir: The urban locations in ''KingpinLifeOfCrime''. Features everything between desolate ghettos and classy, but equally vile Radio City with it's Art Deco architecture (bearing a suspicious resemblance to some places in ''Film/{{Payback}}''). Also noteable for a weird mix of modern as well as 20's, 30's and steampunk-scifi styles (Cypress Hill music, Tommyguns, and thugs with cybernetic facial modifications all in the same setting!).

''Kingpin: Life of Crime'' is a FirstPersonShooter based on the ''QuakeII'' engine and released by Creator/InterplayEntertainment in June 1999. It was developed by Xatrix Entertainment, also known for ''{{Cyberia}}'', ''RedneckRampage'', and the single-player portion of ''ReturnToCastleWolfenstein''. You play as a thug who refused to pay Nikki Blanco. For that, he gets beaten up, dropped off at Skidrow and is told to never show up in Nikki's territory again. Cue the RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* ArtificialBrilliance: Compared to other games of its era, ''Kingpin'' has remarkably good NPC A.I. Both enemies and allies can navigate the entire level relatively intelligently instead of being limited to a single area, and are reasonably maneuverable in combat instead of just standing and firing. Injured or outmatched enemies will even run off and hide, or run to another area to look for reinforcements. They can even climb ladders or leap from ledge to ledge, which was quite a feat in its day. Overall they behave a lot like a multiplayer bot, and in fact the A.I. was written by the same guy who made the [=EraserBot=] for ''QuakeII''.

* CityNoir: The urban locations in ''KingpinLifeOfCrime''. Features everything between desolate ghettos and classy, but equally vile Radio City with it's Art Nouveau architecture (bearing a suspicious resemblance to some places in ''Film/{{Payback}}''). Also noteable for a weird mix of modern as well as 20's, 30's and steampunk-scifi styles (Cypress Hill music, Tommyguns, and thugs with cybernetic facial modifications all in the same setting!).

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Recruitable gang members all dress entirely in blue, to help you identify them as friendlies during frantic firefights.

** Poisonville is a refernce to Dashiell Hammett's ''Red Harvest.''

** There are a number of shout outs to ''Film/{{Payback}}'': The Art Nouveau Crystal Towers at the end of the game rsemble the "Outfit" building, and the ringing telephone in the street that explodes if the player answers it is a reference to the scene in the movie where Porter tricks the gangsters into picking up the phone in his apartment that was wired with explosives before by other gangsters.

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* FanNickname: At least one Website/YouTube comment refers to the player character as "Thug". Hey, it's a MeaningfulName!

* ScrappyWeapon: The grenade launcher from this game. Most grenade launchers in video games either fire grenades that explode on contact with enemies, hold more than three rounds in a magazine, let you carry more than 18 rounds total (especially if the game's bazooka has a clip of five shots and an ammo cap of one hundred rockets), take less than four seconds to explode, exist in games where enemies aren't smart enough to run like hell before the 'nade goes off or some combination of the above. Kingpin's grenade launcher is not any of these things. It's so bad that not even the AI can figure out how to kill you with it.

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