There's no shortage of Grand-Theft-Auto-inspired games on consoles, but the market is significantly less crowded on the iPhone. That's why Gameloft is bringing their 3D open-world game Gangstar: West Coast Hustle to Apple's platform, which is suddenly the destination for handheld gaming. I had a chance to play Gangstar the other day and wanted share with you five reasons why you should care about Gangstar: West Coast Hustle.
Because a Bitmob preview is different from a preview you'd read anywhere else, I'm not going to rehash PR-talking points and pretend like the work-in-progress that I saw was flawless. In addition to the good stuff, I'm going to detail a few concerns I have about the game and even give you my gut feeling on whether or not I think it's going to be any good. Honest, unfiltered impressions in a preview? That's how we roll at Bitmob!
Watch this brief teaser trailer to see Gangstar in action and then check out the rest of the preview after the jump.
OK, so you've seen the (too-short) trailer. Now here are five reasons you should care about living the gangster life on your iPhone:
It takes place in LA:
Yeah, so did the mediocre True Crime game from a few years back. I can't offer a counter to that point, but what I will say is that nothing beats wreaking havoc in a real city, especially when it's a city like Los Angeles. You simply can't argue that it's not ridiculous amounts of fun to terrorize the Santa Monica Pier on foot or in a vehicle. Um, I meant it's fun to do in a video game setting; you probably shouldn't do it in real life.
Let me tell you a story:
While some people might not like the fact that there's no voice acting, I actually prefer it because it gives me a chance to read the dialogue in my head with my terrible Hispanic accent. This automatically makes it twice as funny -- at least for me. If you're interested in hearing my version of the story complete with terrible accent, I'm available for personal appearances.
Smooth controls:
The developers have put a virtual analog stick on the left-hand-side of the screen and it works amazingly well. I'm as shocked by this as you are, especially because of how poorly virtual D-pads usually work. But that's the difference: it's an analog stick. Since we're conditioned to keep our fingers or thumb on the analog stick at all times, there's none of those "lift up your finger and then miss the button" problems that you get with virtual D-pads. I'm not sure if I'm doing a great job explaining this, but I can assure you that this control method is better than most.
Old ladies are not to be messed with:
My grandmother usually calls me up to make me feel bad for missing her birthday or to tell me a thrilling story about her most recent trip to the doctor. The old ladies that Pedro knows have names like "Senora Butcher." The name alone automatically makes her awesome; the fact that she only calls you when she needs someone with criminal tendencies, is gravy. Thanksgiving at grandma's would be so much cooler if she were a gangster...
Go directly to jail:
I'm a huge sucker for jails. I absolutely love watching prison specials like Lockup, Lockdown¸ Locked Up Abroad... pretty much anything with the word "lock" in it. Given my bizarre fascination with incarceration, it shouldn't come as any surprise to you that I was absolutely thrilled when I found out a few of Gangstar's flashback levels take place in the clink. Does it get much better than fighting a rival gang member while wearing an orange prison jumpsuit? It really doesn't.
While I'm impressed with what I saw of Gangstar, not everything about this work-in-progress blew me away.
Concerns:
While it's great that the city is huge and fully-3D, the draw distance was rather poor. This was really noticeable when the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier kept appearing and disappearing when I got near it. The lack of camera control made it difficult to deal with cops chasing you while on-foot, but I only found myself in this situation once, so it might have been an isolated incident.
My only other major concern is that the game doesn't appear to break any new ground. This is less of an issue on the iPhone than it would be on consoles because it's really the only game of its kind on the iPhone. Still, originality is always a good thing.
With something like 65,000 apps available for the iPhone it's tough to predict if a game is going to be successful. But you and I aren't really concerned about sales; we only care if the game's any good, right?
Prediction:
I honestly think that Gangstar: West Coast Hustle will be pretty good. I like the scope of the game, the short missions that are ideal for quick play sessions (though I think there should be more checkpoints), and I think the developers have done a solid job with the controls (there are three different ways to drive a car), which is key for an iPhone game.
I'm not expecting Gangstar to be a masterpiece and I'm a little concerned about how polished the finished product will be, but all-in-all, I expect it to be a fun way to kill some time (and some rival gang members) while you're on the go.
