In a world full of laws, rules, ethics, morals, codes, regulations and all the other commands that attempt to keep peace within our societies, there are always those who live outside of the drawn lines. The intrigue of power, wealth and fame, obtained in less time and with less energy than is typically normal, binds wavering souls into a tapestry of destruction. While the majority of us refrain from excessive debauchery, there is no denying the allure of the glamorous portrayals of a life of crime.

Since the explosion of the hit video game series Grand Theft Auto, especially since the release of the third game, gangster simulations have been a hot ticket. Most of them though have taken place within the U.S. gangster canon, as are most of the ones coming down the pipes. Sega decided it was time to change that, bringing to digital life one of the most notorious mafias in all the world: Japan's own Yakuza. With a cinematic story, brought to life by award-winning Japanese author Seishu Hase and producer Toshihiro Nagoshi, featuring an authentically reproduced Tokyo nightlife district to explore, along with "deep gameplay" and a "stylish" fighting system, Sega seems more than prepared to make their mark on the territory held firmly by the likes of Rockstar and EA.

But that's just what a piece of promotional paper is telling us; anyone who has ever followed sports know that a team that looks good on paper means absolutely nothing until they actually start playing. Video games, and in this case, Yakuza, are no different. If there is one thing (barring no major screw-ups) that Yakuza will be remembered for, it will be its storytelling abilities. To be honest, nothing I write here can hype it up in the same way as watching the newest trailer from the official site can - but I'll try. Using a gritty, realistic graphic style and professional, Hollywood-quality directing and editing, the cut scenes that push the story along are jaw-dropping. Not only are the characters excellently rendered and detailed, but they move, speak, react and act just as filmed actors would; you'll soon forget you're even looking at digital characters. At times during the cut scene montage, I began thinking what an awesome movie Yakuza would make if the cut scenes were real. While my demo still had the Japanese voice acting, the U.S. version promises a stellar, Hollywood cast including actors Michael Madsen (as Yukuza boss Futo Shimano), Rachael Leigh Cook (as hostess bar owner Reina) and Mark Hamill (as Yakuza lieutenant Goro Majima).

I promise to keep this next part as spoiler-free as possible. The story itself is a mix of discovery, action, loyalty and revenge (some mentioned here, some left for you to find on your own). Playing as Kiryu Kazuma, a former up-and-coming Yakuza member who has recently been released from a ten-year prison sentence, you travel around Tokyo trying to find the whereabouts of your missing childhood friend, Yumi Sawamura, who recently went missing. Akira Nishiki, another of your childhood friends and a member of the Yakuza, brings you back into the Yakuza fold just in time to catch his missing report of not only Yumi but also of ¥ 10 billion of the Yakuza's own money - essentially all their assets. From there, the story unfolds as Kazuma, who had once hoped to rebuild his life, now has to fight for his and Yumi's lives as he digs deeper and deeper into the underbelly of the ruthless Yakuza to discover the whereabouts of his friend, the missing money and the true intentions of Nishiki.

To do those things, you must explore the wonderfully recreated Tokyo nightlife district, which is busting at the seams with things to do and people to meet. The sound of conversations and nightclub music blares out of my TV, making me feel like I'm actually walking down a busy street. I had to nudge, or push, my way through the crowd to make my way across the district. If I was in someone's way, they had no problem pushing me aside. Neon-lighted store fronts and nightclubs, many of which are real, officially licensed places, emit nearly as much light as the street lighting, tempting me to stop by to enjoy a snack or a drink, take a break to play some games or maybe read a magazine. Garbage is randomly spilled about, road lines are damaged and faded from being driven over - this list could go on and on. The bottom line is that the amount of work spent on making you feel like you are actually in Tokyo's nightlife district was without a doubt well spent.

Actually interacting with the district is another story though. To fill the screen with characters, not to mention stores with moving and blinking lights along with moving and blinking signs, means that something had to take a detail hit. In Yakuza's case, it's people; the passers-by look downright awful. When you talk to someone important, they look better than normal, but still nothing remotely close to the level of the cut scenes. The animations of people talking to you are not only unrealistic, but they're down right ridiculous. For example, the guy who was my tour guide for the game flailed his arms in absurd, over the top ways, as if he were explaining a cartoon instead of what modes I could try out.

As for the gameplay, Yakuza steals many a page from the console RPG handbook. You walk around town and talk to people with green arrows on their heads, or automated scenes take place when you walk to a certain area or talk to a certain character. Sometimes you are challenged to a fight, which happens on another screen, basically a scaled-down version of the area you are currently in. You beat people up, and if you win, you're awarded experience points to spend on learning new skills. Other times you're given something or someone to look for, which generally has you looking for people with green arrows and beating people up. Think of it as Final Fantasy: Yakuza.

What does not play out as a RPG is talking to non-playable characters. If the person has no green arrow on their head, you can do nothing more than run into them and push them around. Every once and awhile some random person you walk past says something to you, or you'll overhear someone else's conversation and it pops up as a text bubble. The problem is, most of the time you have no idea who the thought bubble belongs to, as they never seem to be connected to the person speaking. Maybe I expect too much, but when I walk down past a hundred or more people and I can only talk to one of them, or I enter a busy restaurant and the only person who will talk to me is the employee who takes my order, I feel let down. I understand that not every person can, and should, talk to me, but limiting it this severely not only tightens the linear hold of the game's progress but a takes a giant step backwards in game design.

Exploring stores is also a bittersweet experience; the demo was very limited in which buildings I could enter, and I'm hoping this isn't the case in the final game. Regardless of how that turns out, the real problem appears not to be the amount of open buildings, but the utter lack of interaction once inside. Restaurants don't suffer from this problem, as there isn't the expectation to do anything but buy something from the employee behind the counter and mingle with customers. Stores are another matter though; a local convenience store, which has a very detailed interior, with aisles of items and glass cases of cold items, had one magazine I could look through (containing three photos of a girl in a bikini) and some food items I could buy from the guy at the counter. It felt pointless to have even entered the convenience store if everything was essentially a cardboard cutout. Another example of this is the arcade, Sega World. Upon first entering you see a room full of video and pachinko games and UFO catchers; you can only play the UFO catcher. Sega could have pulled an Animal Crossing and added classic Sega arcade games to play and waste time with, or even developed some simple original games, but again went with the cardboard cut-out approach.

Again, this is a demo version, so these may be complaints that won't exist in the complete version, but as of now, they are serious concerns that I hope Sega addresses before release. Just as with the NPCs, I realize not every item can, and should, be interactive, but one three page magazine being the only thing I can look at in a stocked store is ridiculous for a game priding itself on a realistic, immersing city.

In pre-release info from Sega, Yakuza's fighting system was touted as a "stylish new fighting engine." After spending a few rounds trying out the fighting part of the demo, I'm left wondering if Japan isn't in a different time zone but a different calendar zone; the fighting feels like it was created back when Kazuma went to jail ten years ago! It's very simplistic and at times mindless - punch, kick and beat people with objects lying around until your heat meter fills up, then unleash a power move, and repeat. To go along with ancient gameplay, there are also a host of outdated problems plaguing the fighting. You cannot change your direction while attacking - you go in a straight line until you stop hitting buttons, leaving you open for cheap shots or attacking empty air as the enemy stands there, wondering why you aren't beating their face in. The levels are 3D, but the camera doesn't seem to realize that; you can't whip the camera around as you please, you can only center it behind Kazuma, which constantly leaves you at the mercy of off-screen enemies when surrounded. Items have a limited amount of hits they can take before they break, which is fine, but a box counting that number down is pointless. In all the levels I fought in, the backgrounds were static, as were nearly all of the items within it. There were desks I couldn't pick up or throw people into, boxes I couldn't pick up but could move around with my feet and soda machines I could slam guys face first into that reacted no differently than a wall.

So, stylish isn't in the fighting, but maybe it's in the graphics? If only! Each of stages I fought in looked just as great and realistic as anything else in the nightlife district. Carpets have clear and varied patterns, as do walls, desks and other static objects. On the other hand, the enemies you fight are only slightly less hideous than the NPCs walking the streets. I felt like I was fighting reject bad guys from a last generation PSOne game. Their clothes are all one texture, so they stretch in abnormal ways. With less characters and blinking things on the screen, I had high hopes that the character models would see an increase in polygons and detail, but that was not the case. They lack the well-placed details that the levels and cut scenes have, making them feel like nothing more than moving punching bags. And, for some reason unknown to me, one of them had on a white jacket that said "Fart" on the back, with a green circle below it. I know nothing strikes fear into my heart and gets my knees shaking like a thug wearing a "Fart" jacket.

I can only hope that boss battles, shooting stages and more varied locales, along with the new combos and techniques you can learn along the way, will give this antique fighting system long enough legs to keep gamers interested throughout the entire game.

Ever since Yakuza was first announced, it has been connected to Sega's currently dormant Dreamcast (and to a lesser extent, Xbox) franchise, Shenmue. The comparisons have been pouring out since day one. I have refrained from making those comments throughout this preview, as the games, while sharing one giant similar aspect - both taking place in highly detailed, living cities with lots of stuff to keep you busy in and outside of the storyline - they really have very little in common from what I have played, and for the worse. There are so many aspects of immersing players in a living city that Sega hit right on the nose with the first Shenmue, almost six full years ago, that Yakuza fails to deliver. That's not to say Yakuza doesn't do things better than Shenmue, as the city looks much more realistic while standing still, and admiring any piece of it that serves to the backdrop of a more focused, mature story. But the lack of world interaction is embarrassing, not only because of the age of the first Shenmue, but because they both come from the same company.

As it stands now, Yakuza is teetering on a fine line between mediocrity and greatness. I can only hope my demo was early enough in development that many of my complaints have be addressed in some way for the better; especially the character graphics. Without doubt the cut scenes have set the bar to an almost unattainable level for the in-game graphics to reach, but that's no excuse for the characters outside of those to look this wretched. If left as is, the amazing tale of Yakuza could get skipped over by gamers who can't force themselves through the gameplay hodgepodge and bland graphics to get to the next awesome cut scene - which would be an absolute shame, as this is one story that deserves to be told.

Previewed by Tony Peters for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).