So I don’t waste your time later, let me get this out of the way right now. Gangstar Vegas is, in many ways, identical to Grand Theft Auto, from the way missions are assigned to the dialog during driving to the types of missions available.
There are also few differences between this game and the other three Gangstar games, but some of their mechanics have been refined.
In your role as Jason Malone, a boxer who is paid by mobster Frank Valieno to take a dive, you agree to throw the match, but during the first round, you deliver a punch that kills the opponent.
As a result of your victory, you have been placed on Frank’s hit list, although you did not intend to be there. During the interactive prologue, you are introduced to the controls for hand-to-hand combat.
The tutorial introduces you to the game’s main features while documenting your escape from Frank. This is a pretty straightforward process. While you can steer your vehicle by tilting, I found I was tilting my iPad like a wild man and still couldn’t get around corners that easily.
Eventually, I swapped to the virtual button steering option after fiddling with the sensitivity. Each vehicle can have its own control type, should you choose to do so.
It is fully voiced and reaches a level of quality that can be compared to that of Resident Evil (1996). There are a lot of ups and downs with Jason. There are times when it sounds like he is engrossed, and other times it sounds as if he is bored and wants to take off the headset.
Vera, Karen’s boss, and Karen, one of the first characters you meet, are convincing. With the exception of E-Man, the rest of the cast is amateurish but does a good job. I would torture him constantly if I was Jason to get him to stop talking. He’s an annoying character.
The process of controlling Jason is a bit painful, and will require some practice. Running is a hassle, and it’s overly sensitive (even with the sensitivity turned down). When you move in the opposite direction, he runs into the wall before he finally gets his feet. He tends to walk into walls often.
The situation gets worse when sprinting is added to the mix. I find Jason likes to jump over anything and everything even when I’m not near the obstacle. Sprinting is the way to climb obstacles, but I find that he likes to jump over everything and anything.
Walking and running are much easier to handle than driving, but it feels both sloppy and stiff at the same time. The vehicle manages to magically right itself after completing a turn after drifting around corners or doing 180’s is slightly frustrating. There are no horns on vehicles in Vegas, it seems.
It is a well-designed game from a graphic standpoint. There is a lot of attention to detail on the faces and bodies of the characters, and they all have distinct characteristics. A good deal of reflection occurs, water ripples nicely, and your tires emit an appropriate amount of smoke and squeal.
It does, however, have a few minor glitches. There will be car doors that seem raised or lowered above the rest of the car body, you’ll fall through the world quickly just to pop right back up, and cars will be “impalaled” with curbs, trees, and other random objects.
It’s not that great when it comes to collision detection.
My biggest gripe when it comes to graphics is when cars, people, and objects appear right in front of you. When you’re driving along nicely, it’s easy to crash into something you didn’t see a second ago.
Does iOS have a memory limit, or is it just poor programming? Eventually, you’ll learn to anticipate and adjust your car accordingly, but it’s still annoying at first.
In Gangstar Vegas, there is always something to do, and you will never run out of things to do. I liked that story missions could be started directly from the map screen, which is easy to identify.
You can start the event without driving to a start point by selecting the story mission on the map and selecting the start point.
After the cut scene that introduces the mission, the game begins. As well as primary games, secondary games must meet the same requirements.
A mission can be completed with the help of friends. You will have to ask E-Man for the money if you do not have any friends. The price starts at $100,000 if you have no friends. If you ask a friend for help, you will not only receive help, but your friend will also receive a reward.
There is nothing complicated about gun play. It does not have a free aim mode; instead, you view the area where you want to aim, then tap on a person or object to target, which paints a blue crosshair over it. It is then possible to fire.
Besides crouching behind objects and shimmying along walls, Vegas also features a cover system. Even though this is an excellent feature, most firefight missions devolve into crouching, firing until ammo runs out, crouching, reloading, firing once more, and repeating this cycle.
As you commit criminal acts, your record will be tallied and you will eventually receive a badge icon, indicating that the police are after you.
When you gain one star, you’ll have one or two cops after you, but as you gain stars, they become more aggressive, and by the time you reach the maximum (five), you’ll have cops, SWAT, and the army after you.
However, there is no need to worry. Getting resurrected will leave you with some hospital bills if you die. It seems odd, but the cops never want to arrest you. The star was triggered by me beating up a man in front of a cop. As soon as the cop arrived, he started beating me.
I sat back and watched until I died… for testing purposes. It is sometimes impossible to target objects due to the AI getting stuck behind or in them. The game didn’t let me advance in two missions because I couldn’t kill what I needed to do so.
The other cars throughout the world have this weird habit of stopping, backing up, and then driving into barriers, without any apparent reason. If they need to cross a bridge, they will do so. It is also possible to stop on the side of the road. There is definitely a lot to be desired regarding the AI.
Your character advances as you play. You get skill points with every level you reach, which you may spend on improvements. There are also a tonne of improvements, boy.
There are several weapon categories, including hand-to-hand, pistols, shotguns, rifles, etc., and you may raise various ratings under each category. You have three options: lengthen the clip, deal more damage, or speed up reloading.
Additionally, you may raise your carrying capacity for health kits and armour kits as well as your resistance to fire, explosives, and bullets.
Additionally, you may improve the handling, acceleration, and top speed of each type of vehicles (cars, boats, motorcycles, planes). Vegas offers you a virtually limitless amount of personalization in this way.
You may personalise Jason with the stuff that will randomly drop from completing tasks and killing enemies, or you can buy brand-new goods at the pawn shop. For instance, you can utilise “Shave Cut #2” to alter Jason’s hairdo if that kind old lady drops it.
The pawn shop is where you can find rare things, but the regular store is simple to get to and lets you buy new guns, ammo, vehicles, health, or armour (even when in the middle of a story quest).
You’ll need to have components of the item you want to buy already collected to achieve this, or you may pay for it with some of your blood money.
Some of the necessary parts may be obtained by searching for high value targets, who are typically seen loitering or driving limos while carrying briefcases above their heads.
Every thirty minutes, the pawn shop’s inventory is updated, and Connection Johnny (yep, that’s his name) will ensure that there are always products available.
Feel free to attempt one of the many other events going on once you’ve finished the narrative or just want to take a break.
Street races, aircraft checkpoints, boat races, ring challenges, time attack races, and stadium motocross circuits are just a few of the events that may be unlocked by progressing through the plot.
Depending on whether you finish each side mission within the allotted time or goal criteria, you are rated on a scale of one to three stars.
Along with racing, you may take part in combat competitions, multifaceted bank heists, try to survive a constant barrage of adversaries, and, my personal favourite, Carnage missions, which essentially ask you to destroy as much as you can in a predetermined amount of time.
You may steal vehicles and sell them to garages for cash if you don’t feel like racing or killing, or you can play several casino games including blackjack, slots, and video poker. Why not check out the dollar shop, a nightclub, or one of the nearby restaurants?
Or, you may buy real estate. Vegas is divided into five districts, and there are four properties accessible in each one. By purchasing one, you create revenue that you may occasionally cash out.
Some are possible to gather in as little as thirty minutes, while others can take twelve. Additionally, you have free access to rapid transit to any of your properties.
Don’t worry even if you believe your efforts were in vain. Along with a leaderboard that displays your progress, the game also tracks a tonne of stats, like the number of cops, enemies, and pedestrians you’ve murdered, the distance you’ve gone on foot or by automobile, and the number of times you’ve been killed or passed away. It’s fairly comprehensive.
Additionally, Gangstar Vegas has tattoos that you may acquire; these are given out at the conclusion of a mission and raise your score overall.
For instance, during a task, kill 25 members of a gang. There are tattoos outside of the mission framework as well, such driving a car and leaping off ramps 25 times.
Additionally, there are 180 pickups in total, with 60 of each type (clothes, weapons, and wheels). You may earn around $500 for each one you collect, and you can receive a special gift if you collect all 60.
In Gangstar Vegas, you have a choice between three different IAP options. If you don’t want to gain skill points through playing or just want to make Jason a badass, you can also purchase such things.
You can buy money outright. Last but not least, you may purchase keys to open boxes that may hold fantastic things.
When completing tasks, keys are quite infrequently discovered, but if you bet enough, you can get them. None of the IAPs are necessary to play the game, whether or not you decide to purchase them.
The main truth is that Gangstar Vegas is a fantastic, open-ended game that will keep you playing since it offers a tonne of diversity and things to do.
The acting is the only thing that makes the dialogue, news stories, and in-car chats laughable. The races will keep you going back, and if you’re anything like me.
The graphic flaws and consistency issues won’t stop you from attempting to get a perfect three-star rating on every race, challenge, and robbery in order to see your game completion status increase to 100 percent.
