Gangstar Rio: City of Saints

Gangstar Rio: City of Saints is not just a GTA clone but it represents a work of optimization by Gameloft, with a better control system and a lot of enjoyable missions. Rio de Janeiro is also an original setting and the sandbox-game fans should give it a try.

All problems aside, Gangstar Rio is a decent open-world adventure. It's not the best, but it's also not the worst.

Borrowing a number of features from San Andreas and generally improving upon a decidedly successful formula, Gangstar Rio continues the tradition of profane, violent, sociopathic entertainment on a mobile platform.

The Gangstar franchise is an IOS tradition at this point, known for both its open world driving and its extremely adult environment. Rio is more of the same with a few improvements.

It's no GTA by any means, but Gameloft have still managed to build a city worth playing in, especially if you have the new hardware to experience it in its full glory.

Rio's improvements to the core gameplay system, combined with better visuals and good music make this game the best yet in the series. However, much like the previous iterations, there are a few issues that prevent the game from living up to its full potential.

One more of the same in a series that is already well known. If you loved the previous chapters, you'll like this too.

Another slightly cynical but neatly executed take on the GTA format.

If you're looking for an insane playground filled with guns and cars while on the go, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints may be an option. But it does feel like a missed oppurtunity due to awful voice and over, and that's a shame.

While in many aspects Gangstar Rio goes for broke and is bigger and better than its previous incarnations, making it the most comprehensive sandbox style game currently available for iOS, it fails to satisfy thanks to bugs, physics issues and a combat system the needs to be completely retooled.

Half-hearted and without any direction to speak of, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints is evidence of little else than Grand Theft Auto's greatness, serving up a forgettable and muddled entry in the sandbox genre.

Gameloft have proved again and again that they are the masters of technicality, pushing the games that appear on iDevices onward with great graphics and touch-based controls (Modern Combat 3 and Tin Tin are the latest great releases)... but too often they stumble to combine their technical output with their creative output, resulting in a severely lackluster experience (Sacred Odyssey and Silent Ops are examples of this). Gangstar Rio: City of Saints falls into this camp.