CalBear:
Kingpin's roots lie in the Quake 2 engine, but that's not immediately obvious by looking at the game. Kingpin's graphics are fantastic - with quality well above Quake 2's and comparable with Half-Life. Many others have commented that the game does look a lot like HL, but with dynamic lighting and shadow effects, Kingpin's visuals stand out on their own with no need for comparison. All the textures look exquisite, and the blood and gibs from your kills look quite convincing. The palette used on the textures focuses a lot on grays to give the player a sense of dinginess and urban decay, but there's enough color in the game from neon signs and such that show the engine is capable of being flashy too.

Kingpin includes just a couple of models, your basic beefy looking thugs, and a female model that definitely communicates toughness. No waify supermodel or Lara Croft types here! The women in Kingpin look like they could kick some serious ass. Xatrix included a number of different faces, torsos, and leg types for each model so you don't feel like you keep running into the same guy. These are even configurable for your player in deathmatches so you can have a unique look. Kingpin also features location based damage, and although it's not quite as sophisticated as Soldier of Fortune's, it's still quite satisfying to take off an arm or a leg with a point blank blast from your shotgun.