As a new arrival in Crime City, you are eager to put the past behind you. As with any criminal tale, history is a tough drug to shake. Indebted to King pin, the top dog of Crime City, you must complete a series of missions to earn money and launch your own empire. Gangstar spins a fairly basic story that deals in staples and stereotypes. The dialogue is rich for lampoon. It is so over-the-top in its ghetto-speak that you'll wonder if the writer's keyboard has the S key permanently replaced with a Z. I eventually just decided it was on purpose and rolled with it, chuckling from time to time as "they" replaced "their" and Crime City's denizens repeatedly asked if I indeed felt them.
Much like GTA, you can choose to either race through the city in a stolen car or run it on foot. Wheels might be preferred, as Crime City occupies plenty of real estate. As you delve deeper into the tale, you'll visit every corner of this mobile Gomorrah, from the beach to the industrial zone. Crime City is rich with detail, from lush swaying palms to rippling water. Streets are lined with storefronts, residential structures, and more. Even as the sun dips low and Crime City is bathed in darkness, the game remains incredibly colorful. Let there be no doubt, Gameloft knows how to make an attractive game and Gangstar is no exception.
If you have played Glu's previous Driver titles, driving in Gangstar is pretty easy to get the hang of. You can choose your steering options, but I found that using right and left to make turns and up to accelerate was the easiest way to navigate the mean streets. Of course, you can steal as many rides as you want simply by walking up to a vehicle and threatening the driver with a touch of the zero key. You can perform drive-bys, too, which unlocks an afternoon of mayhem. On-foot, your thug uses an auto-aim to make mowing down bad guys -- and the occasional pedestrian -- a cakewalk. You can load up with a variety of guns, such as shotguns and Uzis, to really make the streets run red with blood.
As you work through the sixty missions, you will see no shortage of crimson. You can move through them at you own pace, so if one if particularly troublesome -- and this game loves to throw curveballs at you with some extremely touchy driving missions -- you can opt to work on side missions or just revel in urban chaos. Most missions are about just taking out rivals and you'll use both a vehicle and a gun as your main method of curt diplomacy. The side missions offer an interesting wrinkle, such as launching a recording label or running restaurants. Many people really got into this aspect of Vice City, and it's a good addition here that gives Gangstar even greater longevity.
Whether you want that longevity could be another question altogether. Gangstar does nothing more than ape Grand Theft Auto mechanics. So, if you've had your fill of that style of play, keep on moving through the deck for another download. (May I recommend Gameloft's Tropical Madness?) It would have been interesting if Gameloft had opted to make Gangstar a real mobile-centric title instead of a kinda-clever squishing of GTA to the smallest screen. I understand that was the prime directive here, but when I found myself wishing I was just playing the inspiration instead of Gangstar, I knew something was up.