GTA: Chinatown Wars

October 29, 2009 by Alex Seedhouse
Filed under Nintendo DS, Reviews, Sony PSP

As i’m sure you are probably well aware Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was initially released on the Nintendo DS earlier this year, soon becoming, and still retaining, a position of being the highest scoring title for the handheld on Metacritic. PSP owners were surely disappointed that following the huge successes of both Liberty City and Vice City Stories, the new title had not been initially planned for release on the console.

However, having read so many positive views on the DS version, news back in June that the title was being improved and ported to the PSP for release in October was not only an exciting day for me, but also all the other GTA fans as we would finally be able to see exactly what we were missing out on.

Within the storyline of this entry in the franchise you play as Huang Lee, a rich and spoiled son of one of the infamous Triad leaders, who returns to Liberty City following his Fathers horrific murder. However, your arrival at Liberty City’s airport is immediately met with an ambush ending up with Huang beaten to a bloody pulp before being dumped and left for dead. If this wasn’t problematic enough, an intricate sword that was an heirloom of your family, that you had been tasked with returning to your Uncle has been stolen by your attackers – meaning that when you first meet him, he isn’t in exactly the best of moods! It becomes a storyline similar to others within the series, of a character generally doing dirty work for those that won’t do it themselves with Huang continually searching for those that will be held accountable for his Father’s murder.

Whilst many are now accustomed to the voiced dialogue of recent entries within the franchise, a disappointment here is that all of the cutscenes and dialogue within the game is only available as written text. However, the gloriously strong anime/ cel-shaded art style of the cutscenes prevails in providing the game with plenty of the character that has become a staple of the series, with all the usual humour and twists that fans have come to expect.

What will come as the biggest surprise to gamers that are only used to the series’ titles that are played from a third-person perspective, that inevitably saw the series sky rocket even further to fame with Grand Theft Auto III in 2001, Chinatown Wars returns the series to its roots of utilising a more top-down view, alongside subtle but well defined cell-shaded graphics.

Having been a fan of the series since the original Grand Theft Auto, I was pleased to see a return to the overhead view but was sceptical that the more recent fans would be turned off by how different an experience it provides. Yet here I find the game provides a fresh appeal, amidst a range of innovative ideas that not only make it stand above some of the console iterations but also proves just how fantastic a gameplay experience GTA can provide on a portable system.

Although designed to exploit the Nintendo DS’ touch screen, scattered throughout the game are instances that require you to perform on-screen commands/ actions to achieve certain tasks. This is one of the most particularly enjoyable and successful elements of Chinatown Wars that wholeheartedly make the experience stand out within the series, and whilst I would rather you discover these yourself it’s probably best that I give you a few examples!

An early mission sees you being sent to attack a business with Molotov Cocktails. Rather than purchase these, you make a trip to a local petrol station where a window pops up and a ‘mini-game’ type moment occurs in which you must use the analogue nub to aim the pouring fuel into a glass bottle before then having to pull down on the nub three times to push the cloth into the bottles neck. Obviously, the fuel is limited and the faster you can do this – the more Molotov Cocktails you will assemble. Another example is simply when attempting to steal parked cars. Here you must attempt to jack the car, with the more modern cars requiring you to enter a timed sequence before a timed meter runs out and sets the car alarm off. Older cars require you to unscrew the panel, by rotating the analogue nub before using L1 and R1 to hot wire the car. These situations can be made all the worse as you attempt to jack a car before a policeman manages to catch up to you – it certainly adds a whole new side to the game. It is great therefore that there are an incredibly broad quantity of these within the game, each offering variety and an innovatively fresh approach that provides the title with one of its most enjoyable features.

Fleeing from the Police has often been one of the most fun experiences within the series, and here it is no different but with an additional element. Whilst at speed, if you ram a police car hard enough into a wall or force them to smash head first into a passing building or obstacle it’ll cause the car to be deactivated, signalled by their siren stopping and a cross appearing over the top of them. This feels particularly electric in-game, knowing that you could force a police car out of action to ease your escape from the law adds a whole new level of drama to the experience and i’d hope that the next console entry in the series will include something similar.

Another new feature, and one that provides the game with a form of trade system, is that of Drug Dealing. Scattered across Liberty City are dealers that will frequently email you with tip-offs as to those selling certain drugs for low prices, and if you wish you can head over to them to purchase drugs to then sell on to other dealers for profit. Whilst this continues to add variety, players will find that it is something that becomes slightly more enjoyable later in the game when they’ll have the additional cash available to invest in making larger sums of profit from the game mechanic – rather than being rather strapped of cash to be able to make it worthwhile early on.

Your PDA provides similar mechanics to that of the Mobile Phone within the phenomenally successful GTA IV. Here, you’ll receive contact regarding missions via email rather than phone calls, as well as being able to access the GPS for navigating the map, and placing orders from Ammu-Nation who now deliver weapons to your safehouses. Unique to the PSP version, is the inclusion of the ability to access the Rockstar Social Club that also allows you to connect wirelessly with a friend to trade drugs and items, as well as enjoying a range of mini-games. The website itself also provides a map of the islands within Chinatown Wars which will allow you to see the location of each drug dealer, stunt jump and hidden collectibles within the game.

The multiplayer element within the title only accomodates two players, yet the selection of modes allows for plenty of humour. These range from Deathmatch modes to Racing modes in which you’re tasked with destroying each others vehicle – it’s a shame that this couldn’t be expanded to allow for more players, yet is welcome alongside the core game.

To address the portable nature of the title, missions tend to be much shorter than those encountered within console titles in the series. Each still provides their own challenges, yet are tailored more to those that regularly play in frequent but short bursts, meaning that even if you’re quickly nipping on whilst on a bus journey you still have the possibility of being able to complete a couple of missions without the worry of having to abandon your progress part of the way through.

The only issues that I found with the title were with the camera when driving. Whilst passing some of the taller buildings, on the odd occassion your view can become obscured – which, whilst only for a brief moment, can often cause one too many occurences in which you find yourself bashing into one to many cars or walls!

Another camera issue came from the games settings initially having ‘Auto Reverse Vehicle Camera’ turned on. This causes the camera to try to reset itself to allow you to see as much as possible in the direction that you are travelling, but more often than not caused the camera to auto adjust when unnecessary – you could be driving towards the top of the screen, for it then to flip so that you are then driving downwards. However, once I had turned the option off it made driving within the game far, far easier … and less stressful!

Compared to its DS counterpart, the PSP version of the title seems to easily become the definitive version. With the developers making use of the stronger technology within Sony’s handheld, the game looks a whole lot sharper with the wider screen being used to great effect in allowing the player to see far more at any one time. The title really looks stunning, although maybe not to everyone’s tastes, but new lighting and textures provide Liberty City with all the character you’ve come to expect from it. There is also an incredibly funny set of exclusive missions to the PSP version, involving wannabe tv reporter Melanie Mallard.

Chinatown Wars easily becomes another of the greatest additions to the PSP catalogue, and it’d be foolish to not purchase such a vibrantly fresh entry within Rockstar’s infamous crime world. The variety of new elements easily make it stand tall amongst its console cousins, but make no mistake – this is just as good a GTA experience as you’ll ever get.

Lost Gamer Verdict: 9/10