You guys might want to hop onto the App Store and check out a game called “Gangstar” when you have a moment. Gameloft has really outdone themselves this time and produced a very faithful reproduction of the Grand Theft Auto series… in full 3D!
Unlike earlier games, like “Payback” and “Car Jack Streets”, which used the original Grand Theft Auto formula of a top-down view, “Gangstar” uses the Grand Theft Auto 3 approach giving you a street-level 3rd person view. The kicker… the game actually looks and feels like a full fledge console game!
Trust me, you will be hearing about this one for weeks to come. It will probably even become the benchmark on which all other iPhone games will be compared from now on.
Of course, this poses the question of how close can you get to a game like this using Unity iPhone?
I agree with n0mad on this one, I just checked out a video of it and I’ve decided not to buy it purely based on its complete lack of originality. There is inspiration, and there is plagiarism and this game couldn’t really come any closer to the latter.
Would have been nice to see some original thought going into the game design but it seems that all aspects, even down the the targeting crosshairs and 2d concept art style are identical.
Its almost hard to belive it isnt a rockstar game. (in terms of duplication as opposed to originality)
It runs extremely well on my 2nd generation iPod Touch. No stuttering in the game whatsoever. The overall game play experience is pretty much identical to GTA3 on the PlayStation2, only scaled back just enough for the iPhone hardware. It doesn’t even require the 3.0 iPhone update.
Basically, the only drawbacks are that there’s less traffic and pedestrians than you’d get in GTA3, the physics aren’t quite as refined and buildings tend to pop up suddenly off in the distance. Oh, and some items in the environment you’d normally expect to be destructible aren’t.
Still though, the fact that they got this working as well as they have is pretty impressive. Everything in the interface was planned out specifically for the iPhone touch screen and was built from the ground up. There’s very little to the game that feels out of place on the iPhone.
Oh, on a side note… even if it is just a rip-off with no actual “original” content, this is still worth a buy just to experience the technical aspects of the game first hand on the iPhone. The sandbox potential is surprisingly deep for a mere knock off. (At least it’s not another “Road Kill”…)
