If you haven't played Gangstar Rio, it's basically Gameloft's attempt to recreate a popular existing franchise. That describes about 95% of Gameloft's app library (I'll stop teasing them when they start having ideas of their own), but in this case, it's a riff on Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row, and the rest of the open-world crime genre. The sequel, Gangstar Vegas, was just published in the Play Store. Seven bucks gets you a bigger, better crime simulator, assuming your device is compatible and you've got a whopping 2.5GB of free space.

[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/K6EeioN9k4w

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As the title implies, the new game moves the crime-driven story to Las Vegas, or at least simulacrum of the entertainment capital of the world. The story follows an ex-MMA fighter who gets on the wrong side of a few gangsters, and has to resort to various driver jobs, heists, and grizzly acts of violence to get by. In a rare show of the story actually affecting the gameplay, your character uses his MMA skills for some punishing hand-to-hand combat while on foot. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from using good old-fashioned lead or a handy cement truck (the gentleman's weapon) to dispatch your foes.

The game's play area is nine times larger than Gangstar Rio, with some familiar, off-brand Vegas casino landmarks all along the strip. The buildings from the screenshots look like The Berragio, Nero's Palace, The Luxxor, et cetera. Graphics are pretty good, though the huge nature of sandbox games is limiting in that respect - I'd say they're a bit better than the original Xbox, with the popular Havok engine handling game physics. In addition to the standard open-world carnage and achievements, you can kick back with a series of casino mini-games. Gangstar Vegas features full voice-over and a soundtrack from Skrillex, Kavinsky, and Chromatics, among others.

[EMBED_APP]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftGGHM[/EMBED_APP]