The player character arrives in Crime City, the fictitious setting of the game, and is pointed by a character (probably the aforementioned Kingpin) to the neighborhood of Crank Marshall, an old 'brother' (friend) of his, who gives the player jobs to do; the first is to learn to drive in the game, the second to kill Marshall's nephew, who has quit working for him, the third to steal a car from some rival gangsters, and the fourth to kill some ex-employees of his (who have also presumably turned against him). After that, recognizing the player's potential, he sends him to do some jobs for police officer Inspector Barnes, a "good friend of [his]", who he says "[is] deep down a chilling cold gangstah just like [them]". On the way, the player is told by an associate of the Kingpin to stay away from Marshall; he claims "his friends have a habit of finding themselves dead". Barnes, initially underestimating the player, assigns him to escort an associate of his to the garage at the southern part of The Docks to buy a/some car(s). They are ambushed by police there, and escape them. Barnes then tasks the player with retrieving drugs from some drug dealers and killing them (using a shotgun). Now having recognized the protagonist's potential, he gives him more missions, including killing patrolling police, killing another gangster along with his bodyguard using a sniper rifle, running over and killing members of the Viperz gang, retrieving his stolen car from some other gangsters and killing the culprits and then escaping before their fellow members get alerted, then killing criminals who are assaulting his office and destroying their cars (introducing the player to and giving them a bazooka), and racing with him; winning the race will earn the player more cash (Barnes informs the player of other "secret" races after the race; from this point on, more racing missions are available to the player, including another main race assigned by Shug, a member of the Viperz, later (after all of Barnes's missions are complete)). He gives another mission to kill three more gangsters in a drive-by shooting (these gangsters are probably from the same gang which had assaulted Barnes's office). The player character then heads back to Shug, who he was supposed to capture in a previous mission but helped her by taking a member of her gang to Barnes's custody so Shug isn't imprisoned, after she offered him a bribe, and is tasked with killing some police officers in the northern part of Downtown Crime City so Shug's gang may freely roam around, then with rescuing a kidnapped member of the gang named Leshonda before she is executed, and then with killing the gangsters who have presumably caused harm to said member. The player is then tasked with protecting an associate of the gang named Darren, who is attempting to purchase a restaurant, from police sent by Barnes. Later, Shug, fed up with opposition from Barnes, tells the player to take a "special" (rigged) car to his office, avoiding or killing his guards and getting away before the bomb explodes. Next, Shug tells the player to steal a bazooka from the Docks. After doing so, the player character is chased by police; he is able to escape in time and head back to Shug.