We have seen Grand Theft Auto style games on the iPhone before (such as Car Jack Streets and Payback), but no developer has ever tried to create a full 3D crime game, with an open world and a third person view until now. Gangstar brings all three of these things, creating an environment comparable to GTA 3 and is thoroughly impressive for the iPhone.

Gangstar is set in Los Angeles where you'll play as the character Pedro or P Thug as he likes to be called. You and your partner in crime Juanito have recently escaped from a Mexican prison to LA and will do various missions here, following a mediocre, but solid, story line. The game is split up into six chapters where you will receive your tasks from various different gangsters and villains. The missions are pretty simple and are familiar to this genre: You'll be killing thugs, making illegal deliveries and even dropping off "models" for their clients. These missions are pretty short and most are easy so you'll have no trouble completing them.

The story itself is pretty average and you'll be work for gangsters, business men and the Mafia. There is even one chapter where you will go back in time and replay Pedro and Juanito's time in the Mexican prison from being excepted into a gang to eventually escaping. While the story line is quite linear and you'll generally have to go from one mission to the next, there is one chapter where you will be able to choose to work for either the Mafia or the Yakuza, who are fighting against each other.

As well as the story missions, there are many race missions which you can take part in and earn extra cash. They get progressively harder and even have their own little story line to them. We actually found that the races were some of the hardest missions in the game, until we figured out that you could just shoot your opponents cars until they blew up, and therefore unable to complete the race. There are also some side missions that you can start in certain vehicles (Taxis, Ambulances and Delivery Cars) and while these are simple, and eventually boring, missions; they do add to the replay value.

The story mode took us a good 5 or so hours to complete and we've spent a lot of time running around the city wrecking havoc so there is a huge amount of content in the game. You can buy weapons with the money you earn from missions as well as renting cars (although it is easier and cheaper to just jack them). You can buy some of the weapons from the services menu but if you want some of the better weapons (RPGs and snipers) you'll have to visit one of the gun shops in the city. While the city is no way near as big as LA itself, it's a decent size and to help you navigate around it there is a mini map which you can also tap to bring up a larger map to pin point your targets or find shops.

You'll be killing thugs, making illegal deliveries and even dropping off "models" for their clients.

The controls in Gangstar are surprisingly easy to use with a virtual joystick to control your character and either tilt, wheel or stick controls to drive. To attack you simply tap on your opponent to lock on and then touch the fire button to shoot with whichever weapon you have selected. The game also runs smoothly for the majority of the time but occasionally we found that the game would lag or freeze for a few seconds. This is pretty understandable for an open world game on the iPhone and thankfully the game never crashed or disrupted our game play much, so it isn't a big problem.

Gangstar looks pretty good, especially for a completely 3D sandbox iPhone game. The 3D world is pretty detailed although things do become a little blocky close up and blurry far away. The cars look great and have visual damage which eventually result in the car catching fire and blowing up if you smash it about too much. The characters also look good apart from in the cut scenes where the animations look a little bad and the small amount of voice acting is painful to hear. The sounds are mostly good and the music is excellent and has a wide selection: In every car you can choose from one of six radio stations to listen to, which are complete with fake adverts, or you can pick your own playlist using the in-app iPod library access in 3.0.

While Gangstar is an amazing game it also has its downsides, one of which is the police. Like in GTA as you commit crimes you will get wanted badges and you have to try and evade the cops. In Gangstar this can be done by hiding, collecting badges dotted around the city or corrupting the cops by bribing them. This is made even easier by the fact that as your wanted level rises; more police come, but there is no SWAT team or helicopters, which makes the game that little bit less exciting. Gangstar also has a pretty small draw distance which is understandable, but can also be annoying since you'll find yourself crashing into oncoming cars that you didn't previously see. We also found the game as a whole incredibly easy and hardly had to replay any missions.

Gameloft have finally brought a GTA clone to the iPhone and we think that it is an extremely impressive game. We also think that many things can be added to make it even better: Since DLC is now available with 3.0 we can foresee add-on packs being available with more areas to explore, vehicles to jack and weapons to buy. Gangstar also has a huge amount of replay value with a whole world to explore and a ton of achievements to earn once you've completed the game. If you are looking for a full fledged GTA style game; this is definitely the one to get and is truly a steal at £3.99.

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Why not try...

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  Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

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  Car Jack Streets

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  Payback