Released in October 2009, this was the latest addition of GTA games to the PSP. Many people liked that there is finally another GTA game, after all, who doesn’t like playing GTA? However, there are many people who felt that the top-down view wouldn’t be as nice to play with when they saw it, and that’s understandable, considering the last two GTA games for the PSP were in full 3D third-person view. I myself didn’t like it, but when I started playing it, things changed.
You start out as Huang, the son of a leader of the Triad of Liberty City. You learn that your father has been killed, and you are shown a video of you arriving in Liberty City to deliver the family heirloom, only to be ambushed by rival triads. You somehow manage to escape, and you start your first mission at your uncle’s place. The heirloom is missing, and the story begins. Power struggles, rats in the triad, drugs, crazy television reporters, blowing stuff up, throwing new drugs at people, and using sonar pulses to find stuff underwater are just a few of the things you get to do. There’s definitely a lot more than this.
The biggest change one would obviously notice about this title is the top-down view that the game is played in. No third-person view we’re all so familiar with, its back to the roots of the very first GTA. Driving needed a little getting used to at first, and getting a hang with the auto-steering system that aligns your car parallel to the road would help you a lot. Targeting and shooting works well, using one of the shoulder buttons to target, then pressing the trigger button to shoot. There is now a GPS system included, which highlights the road which you should travel on in order to reach your destination. However, the GPS system doesn’t always show the best or fastest route, since it has made me drive unnecessary roads before. Here’s an example. Imagine a square. I could have simply traveled along one length of the square to get from one corner to the next, but the GPS system made me drive the long way around, across the three other lengths to reach the adjacent corner.
Getting into vehicles also allows you to listen to music, and I was rather disappointed to find out that all they had were music tracks. Having played four other GTA titles before this, I really enjoyed the radio stations featuring talk shows and stuff, as they usually are really funny and nonsensical. The music was also rather bland, with most of the songs with no lyrics at all. The rather limited number of songs also resulted in you needing to listen to the same thing over and over again. This actually caused me to turn off the radio, especially near the end of the game.
The game also features drugs, and you can trade drugs with traders found all over the area. You can decide to keep them in your stash, or sell it for a profit. Occasionally, your PDA will inform you of a desperate buyer or seller, who will offer drugs for a much lower price, or buy them at a very high price. This made earning money a lot less of a pain. The usual vigilante, ambulance and taxi jobs were also present, as well as a few additions such as working in a tattoo parlour, gambling on the lottery, and rampage levels.
The Nintendo DS version of Chinatown Wars featured many actions that you could do with the stylus pen. In the PSP version, most of these were done with the analog stick, as well as both the shoulder buttons. Some of the more interesting actions included putting together a sniper rifle, and hot-wiring a car.
Escaping from the police is also different now. No longer are there stars left around to acquire to reduce your wanted level, and spray-and-paint services are much harder to come by. There are less of those found around the city, and you can’t use it if there are cops near you. Instead, the most efficient way to reduce your wanted level is to cause the police cars to be destroyed. However, there is a catch. You can’t use any sort of weaponry to destroy them. You either have to ram into them hard enough, or cause them to crash into something to destroy themselves. This made the whole wanted level thing a less risky business, since its much easier to get out of being wanted.
The graphics and sounds were really smooth and slick, and gameplay was fluid and lifelike. Driving across the beautifully lighted bridges at night at high speeds is a sight to remember. Hardly is there any sort of lag or waiting time, though I’d really wish that the in-between screens while navigating the PDA could be removed somehow. I doubt anything is even being loaded - its just there to make the PDA feel real. Toll gates are also a little buggy. Drive slowly through the toll gates, and you get a $5 toll, and continue your journey. Drive fast through it, and you get a 1-star wanted level. However, there were many times where I did drive through very slowly, but still got a wanted level. It may have been because I slowed down very abruptly, causing the game not to understand that I was actually moving slowly.
The cut scenes were pretty well-done, featuring pictures of speech between people. However, all this speech are just found at the bottom of the screen to be read, and I wish that they did voice them out. Its just a personal gripe, since the game is still great without the voice.
Overall, this game has a solid storyline which flows out perfectly, giving you many other things to do while you’re not at it. Mini-games, drugs and taking down cops just make things even better. The few small problems such as crappy music may annoy you a little, but that’s not going to make the game bad. Such problems are forgivable considering its on a handheld, and its a whole lot of fun anyway.
GTA: Chinatown Wars Trailer (1:09)
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 8.5
Gameplay: 9.0
Lasting appeal: 8.5 (I didn’t test out multiplayer)
Overall: 9.3
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