You play the part of Pedro who, along with his partner in crime Juan, are on the run for an opening bank robbery and are out to make a name for themselves in the gang wars of L.A. This opens the door to 50 gangbanging missions of tremendous variety that you receive from various low-life figures not to mention the optional street races, delivery jobs, cop chases, carjackings and pedestrian killings that keep you amused while hanging out on the mean streets.
It’s surprising such an amoral playground made it into the app store. Perhaps what couldn’t be ignored was the ground-breaking nature of Gangster. While GTA fans will find nothing new in terms of game play, to have the hustle of the city brought seamlessly to life on a mobile phone is a major accomplishment.
Gameloft games usually handle well and Gangstar is no exception. Walking or running around the city is handled nicely with their trademark on-screen joystick while you tap to target and hit the bullseye to shoot. The default driving controls are motion turning with a touch accelerator and brakes. You also have the option to use a steering wheel or horizontal stick for turning. Swiping right or left changes your viewpoint. Don’t feel like driving to your next race or mission house? Then simply tap the mini-map and jump to where you want. Gangster handles like hot-lead thru melted butter.
From the opening riff to the great selection of radio stations in all the vehicles, Gangstar provides, quite possibly, the best music ever put in an Iphone game. You won’t need to listen to your own tunes while cruising these streets. In fact, all the sounds of the city are exceptional as you throw screaming drivers out of their cars or cause massive destruction on the streets with real-time vehicular damage.
I found the racing missions to be the hardest as the aggressive driver’s really knock you around while the shooting missions seemed rather easy as an auto aim and your ability to take damage make you a real butt-kicking rambo. You have the ability to buy weapons or cars and get repairs. Although I never saw the need to buy or repair cars since you can jack any vehicle on the street. Your available weapons include the shotgun, uzi, sniper rifle and rocket launcher. If you’re busted you have the option of buying back your weapons for a price but if you die you lose your stash.
The city has a large feel with wide streets, bridges to different sections of town and a long freeway for some high-speed fun. Unfortunately, you can’t go in any buildings but you can go on some rooftops. If you tire of the missions it’s a great environment to explore, blow up cars, take big jumps and cause general havoc. The cops will eventually be after you which you can evade by picking up heat shields or just shoot it out. This type of game gives players a lot of gaming ideas. I wanted the game to call me on my Iphone and have some mob boss give me instructions. That would put it over the top.
Gangstar is understandably demanding on my Iphone 2G. I found that if I didn’t start the game on a clean reboot I could be subject to freezing and the initial load screen is rather long. There are some clipping issues and you can get stuck occasionally as I once jumped out of my car and got stuck in the flatbed of a train and another time my car jumped through a freeway overpass and stuck vertically nose down on the street. These don’t happen regularly and are more amusing than anything.
Despite the minor glitches Gameloft’s Gangstar - West Coast Hustle kicks down the door to open-world 3D gaming on the Iphone and gets a 4 ½ star recommendation for the criminally inclined gamer.