'Drug Wars' offers fresh start for Merchants of Brooklyn

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jul 2nd 2009 at 7:55PM }

If people can clean their hands with a simple name change, then why can't games? Paleo Entertainment recently re-dubbed its bargain-priced shooter, Merchants of Brooklyn, as "Drug Wars." Currently exclusive to Steam, Merchants of Brooklyn suffered an embarrassing release in mid-March when an alpha version was mistakenly sold in place of the final code and apparently failed to recover any credibility. Its Metacritic score of "36" ranks near the bottom of all 2009 games to date. "Drug Wars," on the other hand, ranks decidedly better with a "No Score Yet" rating.

The new name wasn't exactly pulled from thin air (well, at least not this time), as "Drug Wars" was adopted from last month's free, beta-release multiplayer update by the same name. Paleo is clearly shifting focus away from the original single-player campaign -- which has since been "reworked" -- and toward the Drug Wars multiplayer mode. Of course, the fresh start also means building a player base from scratch. Currently, we count three -- and a fourth player who "can't find it to play it." Sounds like this is one of those cold kinda wars, eh?

Keep that fire burning, Mr. Elite Neanderthal Fighter. Keep that fire burning.

Tags: cryengine-2, drug-wars, merchants-of-brooklyn, paleo-entertainment, steam

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Einhanderkiller @ Jul 2nd 2009 8:02PM

If they made it free and ad-supported, maybe people would play this.

Damon @ Jul 2nd 2009 8:06PM

What's funny is i probably would never have heard of this game if it weren't for the botched release.

"Merchants of brooklyn" is still a much, much better name.

Sly @ Jul 2nd 2009 8:31PM

agreed.

TehQ @ Jul 2nd 2009 9:46PM

The game's leaked "Alpha" was really a coverup due to how glitchy the game was.

The Dark Wayne @ Jul 2nd 2009 8:22PM

Whoever thought that inflammable meant flammable?

sederien @ Jul 2nd 2009 9:19PM

The Dark Wayne, I'm surprised at you. You of all people should know a words Latin origin.

Just about the entire world read "inflammable" (in- being an intensive prefix and NOT a negative one) as extremely flammable until we Americans came along and decided that people could misinterpret inflammable as "not flammable." (Apparently it was our insurance industry.)

So now, thanks to us, we have both inflammable and flammable labels that mean the exact same thing. So remember, when you see two gas tanks and one is labeled "inflammable" and the other "flammable," they'll both serve as adequate distractions as you infiltrate the enemy's hideout yet again.

Shmil @ Jul 2nd 2009 9:20PM

Inflammable means flammable? What a country!

Derek @ Jul 2nd 2009 10:34PM

Don't worry, it's IN-flammable

NeilNaS @ Jul 2nd 2009 9:14PM

This game looks terrible.

Shmil @ Jul 2nd 2009 9:24PM

Wait isn't this about the frozen caveman who was thawed out and given a robot hand so he could fight in an underground tournament. Only to break out and then wreck havoc on the city? It looked like a classic id or duke nukem game. And now its being renamed "Drug Wars?" WTFmate?

The Dark Wayne @ Jul 2nd 2009 9:27PM

i think the cyborg caveman worked for the mafia? Maybe?

Shmil @ Jul 2nd 2009 9:35PM

ah, that might be the case. I really don't know. I didn't even hear about the botched release (trying to think of a funny yet tasteful miscarriage joke.) All in all this has to be one of the funniest game release stories out there.

TheBrainninja @ Jul 3rd 2009 12:58AM

I wonder where that leaves those of us who bought it. Is it an update to MoB that will overwrite the old game files? That would be cool, though I'm not sure of the exact logistics behind that.

Hmm. I'd be willing to give the game a second chance.

TheBrainninja @ Jul 3rd 2009 4:07AM

...If I had paid better attention, to either the article or my steam games tab, I would've known that MoB is no more. A happy-faced Drug Wars icon takes its place.

I'm sure this is of interest to the zero people who bought it and haven't looked at Steam in a while.

Sixcolors @ Jul 4th 2009 8:20PM

Wasn't Drug Wars the name of that text-based game for Windows/DOS that was kinda sorta popular back in the 90's - early 2000's? I remember my brother having a copy of it on an orange 3.5" floppy.