| Product: |
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP) |
| Date: |
22/05/07 (99 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: long life, great game play, addictive
Disadvantages: not a truely new GTA title, some "fogging"
WOW I can not believe that there are not more reviews for this already. I mean not only is the Grand Theft Auto name probably the most well known and popular series at the moment, this is the best game available on PSP to date. However that may all change when the latest version (Vice city Stories) is released in about a months time.
I suppose I should try to start with a description of exactly what the game is about and the types of game play involved. However that is almost an impossible task in itself because this game is just so detailed and huge.
You play the role of a young, low life mafia thug (Vincent Vinchetti I think but i may be wrong) that lives in liberty city. Your task (at least to develop the plot of the game, theres more to the game than this but i will come onto that later) is to complete a number of missions given to you by local mafia bosses and low life scum. These mission vary in their difficulty and diversity but generally can be considered as either driving missions or killing missions. As you progress things start to get tricker, for instance you may have to spy on someone without getting caught and then sniper them from a rooftop. Similary you have have to drive around the city collecting drug money before the cops catch the dealers.
I think that the best way to convey the pure genious of this game is to describe liberty city itself. The GTA maps are some of the biggest ever created and this one definetly is on the PSP) which simply have a life of thier own. In many respects they are just like a "real" city, where you have the freedom to explore every single little allyway, back street or anything that takes your fancy. No other video game gives you this kind of environment and freedom (gangs of london comes close but its not GTA).
In-terms of game play very little has changed from the liberty city on the Ps2 (with the notable inclusion of bikes). This was mainly because there was nothing wrong with it to start with. Its still very easy to control your man on foot and the driving is simple and easy (certain cars handle better than others, but that just adds to the realism).
Graphically there has been some reduction in quality, with the draw distances and "fogging" being more of a problem than I would have liked. However its at this point I realsie I am probably just being a spoiled child complaining at such a minor imperfection. Somehow the designers have managed to cram the entire city onto just one UMD. That is a pretty amazing achievement to say the same city was seen as a ground breaking jump in next gen technology just 5 years ago.
Overall this game will have you playing for months and months on end. there is just so much to do and see, wether it be the main "plot" missions or the numerous sub missions. These include such things as collecting the 100 hidden packages spread out over the entire city, setting a fasted lap on the dirt bike course, playing taxi driver and many many more.
A few people have complained that this game has short changed the PSP community because it is simply new missions set in an old game rather than being a truely new title. However I disagree with this entirely. If somebody had said to me three years ago as i was playing 2D mario on my GBA that I would be playing full on GTA soon on a handheld, i would have just laughed at them. Secondly I think the return to a familiar setting adds to the nostalga of another classic game. I actually enjoyed going back to the little side streets and locations which i had forgotten about.
Summary: Only bettered by vice city stories as the most advanced handheld game todate
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