Today I finally got down and dirty with Gameloft’s new GTA-a-like game ‘Gang$tar’ at their London office.
The first thought that popped into my mind when I saw the game in motion, was ‘Hey, this looks just like GTA!’… By that I meant the PSP ‘Liberty City stories’ version of GTA. On closer inspection it’s not quite as good looking as that game, well, not yet anyway… I was told that it is still very much in development before a mid to late August release. But, even still, there’s no denying the game tries it’s damnedest to replicate the experience of Rock Star’s games and for the most part looks to be doing a pretty good job.
I was dropped straight into the story, with my character having just arrived in the US from Mexico. Straight away I stumbled into a brawl in order to use a phone painted in the local gangs colours before I could use it to call my homie. Controls on foot work very well, utilising the exact same controls as Terminator Salvation, with a left thumb stick for movement, and an action button for punches, shooting weapons, etc… To control the camera you can touch and drag anywhere else on the screen and get a good look around the environment… I paused to check out the sunset over a carousel on the beach… very nice!
Just like in GTA, during a brawl you auto lock on to enemy, with a small crosshair appearing over the character, from here you can punch and kick them to your hearts delight. After taking out some fools, as well as some perfectly innocent passers-by, it was time to get behind the wheel of my first car. A good thing too, because it seems that the police had been monitoring my violent antics and had sent LA’s finest after me. I jumped into a little Mini-like vehicle and fled the scene. To begin with I tried out touch controls for driving, here your joystick turns into a slider – similar to Car Jack’s – you simply slide it left to right to steer, and it’s pretty responsive. Gas and Brake pedals appear on the right as an overlay, a bit like Real racing, and again work as you would expect. On trying accelerometer controls, the car seemed a little heavier around corners, but to be honest I prefer this control scheme, as they just feel more realistic. However, it really comes down to personal preference for which you will use, and both options stand up well.
While sliding and weaving around the city limits, I got a good indication of how well the 3D engine was holding up. I was playing the game on an old 1st Gen iPhone, and the frame-rate was holding together well, rendering buildings, trees, pedestrians and cars at a good rate… Sure there is some pop up, and the streets aren’t as busy as say GTA 4, but that’s to be expected on a hand-held. The texture work isn’t as solid as Terminator Salvation and Prince of Persia, but in this game there is a pretty sizeable city to stream and render in real-time, with much greater level boundaries that you would find in those games. Speaking of the city’s size, you can access a map in the top left corner, which acts as your GPS in its mini mode. Click on it and it jumps to full screen, where you can drag and pinch it in full multi-touch goodness to get a good look of your new surroundings. The city is broken up to five main areas; Beverley Hills, the coast, the burbs, Harbour and Downtown. Each has a variety of neighbourhoods, like Industrial Parks and areas such as Chinatown and Latino streets.
As well as the map, your radio controls can also be accessed from the top of the screen. It’s shown as a tiny car stereo facia, and you can tap it on or off by hitting the on button, and to change stations, simply swipe left or right to scroll through them. As with this type of game, the music fits the scene well, with a good mix of rock, latino, hip hop and pop to choose from, as well as DJ banter in-between tracks. In the final version you will also be able to access your own iPod play lists while smoking some fools.
Next it was time for a change of scenery, and to demonstrate the game’s many plot points I was whisked off to a prison level, which is presented as a flash back to my characters time in Mexico. A film grain filter effect is added, as a graphical cue that you are playing in the past… it’s a cool effect.
Here I had to earn the respect of the big bosses in the prison, and my first job was to take out rival prison inmates. This played out as a brawling style minigame where I must remain in the marked circle while taking out waves of inmates. After a few one-on-one brawls, and a little wander around the prison, I was whisked once more to another level in the game, where I got the chance to try out the many weapons available.
A cheat was enabled which unlocked all the weapons, allowing me to wreak havoc on the innocent inhabitants of the city. I couldn’t help myself, and jumped straight to the rocket launcher to take out a Hummer. I was a good ten meters or so away, but I still got caught in the blast radius and got cooked… my bad! After a restart I was back on the streets and tested out pistols, ouzis and assault rifles, as well as my favourite, the dual wield pistols… gangster baby! By this time the cops had caught up with me, and after the ensuing shoot-out I was a taken down and dragged away. I let them win! Seriously though in this build the enemy AI was not hugely challenging, which the Gameloft rep soon pointed out, was still in development.
Unfortunately, that was all I had time to play, and the iPhone was swiftly removed from my vice-like grip. My experience with Gang$tar was a good one. It’s good to see a developer moving forward with an ambitious project like this, even if it’s not wholly original. I was unable to gage the full scope of the game and how many hours of play it will deliver, as well as the usual extras such as hidden collectables and mini games that GTA provides. But, what I did see shows tons of promise. With some tweaks in the visuals, the occasional bug ironed out, and the AI upped a notch, Gang$tar could be a real contender for the top of your homescreen this summer season.
Due to the game still being in development I was unable to shoot any video, but you can check out the recently released trailer for the game featuring full in-game action below.
