Archive for August, 2009

Obviously, it’s got a foul name – and that’s ignoring the fact that much of the time the name appears as “Gang$tar”. Awful. At least it tells you want you’re going to get, which is troublingly steteotypical gangsters and a story that’s a flimsy excuse to go and drive around and shoot people. But, hey, The Beatles is an incredibly awful band name and those chaps did okay for a while. Let’s look past the name. What have we got?

Well, it’s GTA. It’s closest to GTA 3, though set in a sparsely-populated Los Angeles, rather than a bustling Liberty City. Let’s not patronise it by being impressed that it’s running on a mobile phone, let’s just look at how good it is.

Well, it’s really pretty good. There aren’t many pedestrians, but there’s always one or two around. There’s not a lot of traffic, but you’ll never be short of something to steal.

The controls work surprisingly well. I’m not cutting them slack for being on a touch screen – they genuinely work. Running around is easy, with the best virtual stick I’ve used. Tapping a target to lock on to them isn’t trouble-free, but works better than targeting in many other GTA-type games, including those on the PS2. The tilt controls for steering add to the immersion and don’t get in the way. The only real problem is that the camera moves far too slowly, so trying to look behind you is something of a trial.

Missions I can’t really comment on, as I’ve only done a few of the early missions. I’ve only had to kill two people so far.

I’ve killed a lot more, though. I’ve mainly being going around, stealing cars, shooting people and being busted by the cops. I can’t really call it causing mayhem. If GTA is mass-murder, then this is a lesser crime. Scrumping apples, maybe. It keeps me occupied.

Though cut-down and somewhat empty, it’s a genuinely fun little game, even ignoring the whole “it’s a 3D GTA-style game on a phone!” thing.

There’s only really one thing wrong with it.

It’s a pretty big thing, though.

Let’s illustrate the problem with the magic of pictures.

Here I am, standing in a parking space.

Now let’s take a step forward.

You see the problem? Ignore the car, that just drove up between shots. Look at the big, solid piece of scenery that’s appeared right in front of me. Look at how a sliver of building on the right has become a whole office block.

Yes, the draw distance is terrible. Large buildings pop up quite far away, smaller scenery objects closer. Textures pop in all over the place. It looks horrible. If you look more than a few feet away from your character, the city becomes one massive, ever-changing mess. When driving it causes real problems, with things popping into existence too late for you to plan a route or avoid smashing into them. It’s really, really bad, though it doesn’t ruin the game. It does its best, but I’ve still been playing whenever I can.

Bottom line, my first impressions suggest that it’s worth four quid if you like this sort of thing. It’s never going to convert anyone to the joys of the crime sandbox, but if it’s a genre you like, this will be a game you like. Maybe not love, unless you’re fourteen and think throwing gang signs is, like, really cool, but definitely like.