Review: Grand Theft Auto on iPhone a Near-Perfect Match

Way back when the iPhone was the much-speculated upon Apple product of the future, I took the liberty to imagine a time when the iPhone would be a legitimate mobile gaming competitor, tackling Nintendo and Sony head-on. It was a fun bit of predictification back then, but it’s science fact today. The clearest evidence yet that Nintendo’s dominance of portable gaming might be threatened is Rockstar Games’ much-anticipated Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, an epic, multi-hour crime game that is deeper than anything I’ve seen on the iPhone to date.

I bought the game last Thursday, my first game purchase of more than $3 on the App Store (it was still only $10, a steal compared to at least $16+shipping for the Nintendo DS version and $28 for PSP), and it’s a complete revelation. The production values, gameplay, and storyline are involving and addictive, and the game is bite-size enough that you can make meaningful progress during a short subway ride. Honestly, it’s a complete must-buy.

Storyline: Controlled Mayhem with a Mission

GTA:CW places you in the role of Huang, the son of a murdered Chinese Triad boss who has recently arrived in New York analogue Liberty City out for revenge and answers. A series of different mob leaders, from your uncle Kenny to the son of the American kingpin to corrupt detectives, issue missions to you that need to be accomplished in a certain time period. You might be throwing Molotov cocktails at a rival’s restaurant, stealing vans loaded with drugs, tailing an assassin or rescuing a friend. All the rest is up to you: how many innocents will fall in your wake, which car you steal to use on the job, whether to antagonize cops, and if you take on side missions for cash. The characters are well-developed, and the struggle for control of a disputed territory makes for endless variety and interest. It’s a bit old hat if you’ve played every minute of GTA IV on PS3 or XBox 360, but it’s thrilling on a phone.

Gameplay: Easy to Pick Up, Frustrating to Master

GTA:CW‘s greatest strength and weakness is its gameplay. For a pure touchscreen game, the experience is surprisingly good. Touch challenges (remove screws by swirling your finger, tap the screen to break glass, etc.) work very well and are more fun than regular controls. The virtual joystick that controls Huang on foot is very accurate and responsive, and the soft buttons at right (punch/attack, kick, jump) are nearly perfect. It’s very easy to forget that you don’t have any physical controls to latch onto.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the game’s driving sequences, which use left and right arrow buttons to steer your vehicles to much less-satisfying results. It’s almost impossible to drive without side-swapping other cars, nailing bystanders and genuinely behaving like a drunk. That wouldn’t be quite so annoying if such behavior didn’t bring the cops down on your head to disrupt your missions. I can say with certainty that I won’t mind a bit if Rockstar issues a software update to swap in a soft steering wheel in lieu of the current steering mechanism.

Production Values: The Most Impressive Game on a Phone Ever

Let me be very clear. The look and feel of this version of GTA:CW are the best of any platform. It blows away the DS version it most closely resembles, and I would even argue it looks nicer than the PSP edition that has slightly dialed-up media. The music tracks are crisp and clean, the graphics are fluid and clear, and the game just screams attention to detail and quality. I’ve been shaking my head the whole time I’ve been playing it as I realize that something this nice could be on my phone and not on a dedicated games platform.

Verdict: Nearly flawless, but drunken driving mechanism stops GTA:CW short of masterpiece status.