Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on iPad

December 16, 2010

I just finished the game. And by “finished”, I don’t mean that I completed every corner of this truly deep game; I just finished the main storyline and saw the credits rolling.

This was the best gaming experience I’ve had so far on iPad, and the game took me many months to complete. I, of course, didn’t play it all the time; I had a break of several months inbetween, and played it just a mission or two at the time.

I haven’t played all the GTA games on the PC, as they’re a bit too long and deep, but on the iPad, it had a really great correct balance and depth for me. I was surprised to find out, though, that the game ended when it did: I thought I was only halfway there. See, the savegames show you “percent complete,” and I thought it means percent of the storyline, and you have to get to 100% to get to the end. But apparently it shows you the % of the total game you have explored, as there are many side missions and non-essential activities. I focused on the main missions, and ended the game at just a bit above 50%.

I actually started GTA CW on iPhone, and the iPad version seems to be pretty much the same game with blown-up and remastered graphics. That’s fine by me; the iPhone version felt a bit crammed. But I was at around 30% on iPhone and had to start over on iPad. It would be great if the savegames could be shared (through Game Center?) if the two versions on different devices are really equivalent.