Gangster!

for Different Worlds magazine and stated that "should a Gamemaster find that his group has fallen into a rut, and castle walls and twisting caverns have become so familiar a setting that there is boring repetition rather than fresh adventure, he would be well-advised to 'check it out' with Gangster.

"[7] In the March 1980 edition of Dragon, Kenneth Burke generally admired Gangster, although he was disappointed that the game did not supply the three six-sided dice and the twenty-sided die required for play.

"This attitude towards melee I find refreshing; role-playing games too often have rules that reduce the true effect of weapon hits, making combat the 'easy way out.'

Costikyan called the rules "fairly simple, but cover many areas — combat, prostitution, and numbers running, for instance and include much information that gamemasters generally wouldn't otherwise know — such as how police respond to reports of crimes, what federal and typical state laws are like, and so on."

It lacks the sophistication and versatility of similar reality-based games such as Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes and Top Secret.

Worse, there's little help for the referee; there are no clear instructions for putting together adventures or staging burglaries, bank robberies, and other criminal activities."

Swan concluded by only giving the game a rating of 2 out of 4, but noted "Lucid and informative, the sourcebook material could add a touch of authenticity to any RPG with a contemporary setting.