Car Jack Streets - iPhone Review

Car Jack Street is what I have always dreamed a Grand Theft Auto inspired game should look like on the iPhone. The only thing that could surpass this would be if Rockstar (GTA developer) should port the original game on it.
There has been another port for this game called Payback, which in his own way was a pretty decent adaptation of GTA, but it felt like it needed a lot of polish. Car Jack Streets addresses this problem, by copying the graphics of the original GTA first games, and adding some 3d elements (the buildings for example).. Even the storyline is well rounded, a lot better than the one from Payback.



The Good:
The visuals are fantastic, honestly this game deserves the full price only for the level of detail that has been put in the city. This is due to the fact that the city itself is a good size and has been lovingly created by the same fair hands of the guy who worked on creating the original Vice City in GTA. It’s fun just to cruise or walk around and enjoy the scenery.
Beside the great graphics the game also offers a great soundtrack, rarely found in an Iphone game, brought to you by some great unsigned music talent ranging through genres like pop, classical, rock, hip hop and even country. These tunes are played on different stations with names raging from the likes of Beat 101 to Cathedral FM. Also adding to the atmosphere are the great sound effects. These simulate perfectly the hustle and bustle of a big metropolis with car horns and other traffic noises in the distance. Even the weapons sound great, the only disappointing part being the sound of the car engines that are a little bit to whiny.
The gameplay is GREAT, with a big variety of missions that help the game not feel repetitive. Of course they don’t have the depth of the GTA series, but Car Jack Streets offers one of the most rounded stories for an iPhone game. Even the selection of cars is an impressive one, each of them having a different fill to them.

The Bad:
Being a new release it does have some problems, which can become very irritating. Although the beauty of the Iphone App Store platform, is that after you buy a game you also receive regular free updates for that game that address different bugs or add to the gameplay core. The problems that I will list below from Car jack Street, may seem significant, they are surely to be addressed in future updates:
-Collision detection - needs to be fixed, this is why I didn’t enjoy driving in Payback before, it is very annoying when you hit a car, even if it is a small hit, and you bounce around like crazy.
- Absence of a map, a necessary thing to have in a sandbox game.
- Guns disappear when you restart the game, I know it’s a conscious decision to only have one gun, but we should be able to keep the guns we got from our last playthrough
– while in a car the controls are horrid and take a lot of getting used to , instead of the D-pad you get in walking mode you get left and right controls on the left side of the screen and forward and reverse ones on the right side.

Apart from this, the visuals, the great soundtrack and sound effects, the smooth framerate, and the level of polish all receive a tick from Gamedroid. For the price it’s offering on the App Store, it’s a must buy.

PROs:
- great visual and sound fx that give the game a great atmosphere
- fun yet challenging gameplay
- offers a lot of variety
- smooth running (good fps)

CONs:
- Collision system is to sensitive even a small bump bounces your car off course
- Controls while driving
- No minimap ( you tend to end up in dead ends)
- You can’t keep all the guns you find



Gameplay video: