Gangstar Vegas Review (GameWoof)

If one game franchise has been imitated a lot in the past decade, it is Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto. For every gaming platform released in the past ten years, there are either multiple versions of Rockstar’s original effort, or a variety of rip-offs (or in most cases, both). The Android platform is no exception to this rule as Gameloft’s Gangstar series has been doing its best Grand Theft Auto impression for four games now. Gangstar Vegas: City of Sin is the latest in these efforts and promises to be bigger and better than the previous games in the series. City of Sin is certainly bigger, with a larger world and more side missions and distractions, but early growing pains and imperfect controls prevent it from reaching the heights of its inspiration. That isn’t to say that we City of Sin doesn’t improve on the Gangstar series, it does, but it fails to live up to the standard set by Rockstar.

As far as Grand Theft Auto Clones go, Gangstar is pretty shameless in ripping from its inspiration. Everything from the graphics to the animation to the style of the cut scenes are reminiscent of Rockstar’s PS2/Xbox efforts. Currently there are two Rockstar GTAs on the Google Play Marketplace, the game that started it all, Grand Theft Auto 3, and its critically acclaimed follow-up, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Both of those games, if a physical controller is attached, are superior titles to this Gameloft effort. Not because they have more features, Gangstar gives players access to all sorts of vehicles, from mopeds to jet skis to airplanes and helicopters.