Gangstar: Miami Vindication

Cities aren’t just individual masses born out of thin air, but villages and communities that have been absorbed over time as the central mass expanded out.

It’s part of the reason why one road can be utterly different in looks, wealth, and feel from the next one. Yet despite all these different areas, there’s always a general ‘feel’ from every major city in the world that’s unique to that place.

The third entry in the Gangstar series takes place in one of America’s most diverse cities – Miami – and while there are a lot of areas that could be stronger, the general feel of the world it inhabits is one of the best for an open-world mobile game.

The plot this time revolves around Johnny, a country bumpkin (according to other characters anyway), who comes to Miami to find his little brother. Johnny has fallen into a little bit of trouble with one of the biggest gangs in the area.

In true Grand Theft Auto style, to do this he has to complete seemingly unrelated tasks for a series of characters, before being led to the next person of interest slightly higher up the underworld food chain.

The missions themselves are varied and well done, often taking the form of a driving section (or two), cover-based shooting, and sneaking around, although there’s plenty of variation on these themes over the course of the 70+ missions.

Taken as individual sections, Gangstar’s gameplay isn’t quite as compelling as more focused titles.

The car controls are a little too sensitive, the shooting is fairly plain, and the stealth sections, while fine, are nothing special.

It's the world around it and the way these separate gameplay elements work together that makes Gangstar: Miami Vindication such a compelling game.

One moment you’ll be leaping off a boat onto a jet-ski, the next you’ll be tearing it down the street in a stolen sports car with the cops hot on your heels, leaping out to plug a few mobsters before diving behind cover.

It doesn’t hurt that the graphics are detailed and well animated, or that the script is one of the best I’ve seen for a Java title for a long time.

This being a sandbox title, there’s more than just the characters and missions to the game.

If the presence of street races and a drug-trading mini-game doesn’t float your jet-ski, there’s always the opportunity to wander around blasting civilians and out-running the cops (or shooting them and hijacking their cars, of course).

Even if the individual elements may not be strong enough to carry a game on their own, the overall experience vindicates a high score.