 | Liberty City Stories is the
PSP's exclusive new
Grand Theft Auto title |
|
In recent years, Grand Theft Auto has become one of the most well known, not to mention most bankable gaming licenses around, so it was only natural for Rockstar to attempt to recreate the phenomenon on Sony's little handheld wonder known as the PSP. The game - subtitled Liberty City Stories - is set three years prior to the events of GTA3, in the same city we all fell in love with back in 2001. You play Tony Cipriani, a man working for the Leone family, who's been laying low recently after killing a made man. The game kicks off with Tony's return to Liberty City, diving straight back into the seedy criminal underworld which he once inhabited.
Gameplay-wise, things start off reasonably slow, with you partaking in somewhat menial tasks, like wiping out low-level rival gang members, and playing getaway driver to the odd heist. These act as a good introduction to the game for those new to the series (if such a thing exists), but veterans will breeze through 'em in no time at all. Through the completion of these story-driven missions, you'll ultimately rise in standing within the Leone family and gain access to more difficult missions and additional parts of the city.
In this respect the game plays almost identically to GTA3, with only the Portland area available at the start. Even though this "unlocking" of new areas could be viewed as an annoyance for a game that boasts open-ended gameplay, it gives the player something to aim for, rather than simply letting 'em loose without any sort of defined course to follow.
 | | GTA: LCS features all the old cars from GTA3, along with a bunch of added beauties on top |
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Speaking of that open-ended gameplay, even here on the PSP it remains thankfully intact. All the previous wealth of activities from the original GTA3 make a welcome return; not too bothered about doing the next mission for mafia Don Salvatore? No probs, make some extra cash as a taxi driver instead, or boost your finances further with the odd street race. Better yet, just steal an ambulance and take some of those people you've run over to the hospital.
There's also 100 hidden packages that, when found, unlock extra weapons at your safe-house, not to mention tons of unique jumps dotted around the map, as well as a bunch of costume unlocks which, if worn in a particular area at a particular time, give you even more missions on top of all this. That's not even counting the "Rampages", where you're given a weapon and a selected target to wipe out in a set time limit.
Probably the most fun activity of the lot though, is simply increasing your police "wanted" rating, then trying to outrun a city full of cops from all angles. Or heck, you could do the exact opposite, jump in the nearest cop car and go all vigilante instead. This is what makes the GTA series so appealing; the sheer amount of in-game content. At this stage I've completed the main story missions, yet my game completion level is only at 43%.
Even though the city is the same one featured in GTA3, don't make the mistake of expecting a simple PS2 port. Yes, the two games share similar areas, with some of the previous cars making a welcome return, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. The missions are completely different for one, but all the secret bonuses such as unique jumps and hidden packages are in different locations too. If this game was indeed just a port of the old classic then I would have been more than happy, but the fact that Rockstar have essentially built it from the ground up more than proves their dedication in releasing a quality product, as opposed to a mere rehash of former glories.
 | The game does an
amazing job with the
visuals |
|
Upon first loading the game, I was amazed at how good it looked. Liberty City Stories' visuals are just as good as a PS2 game, with no cut down textures or scaled back action to be seen. Sure, it doesn't look
quite as good as San Andreas, but it sure looks better than GTA3 ever did. The draw distance is also breathtaking, and for the most part, frame-rates remain high too. Very occasionally the action will lag just ever so slightly, but it's far from a terminal problem and doesn't taint your overall enjoyment of the game by any means.
The series has always been well known for its exceptional soundtracks. Sadly, while still enjoyable, the radio selection doesn't quite have that wonderful fluidity to it found in previous GTA games here. The talk radio station is still as hilarious as always, as are the ever amusing adverts, but the tune selection just doesn't have that same wow factor that I got from Vice City.
This, however, is not a major problem, as Rockstar have released custom soundtrack software that allows you to convert your own music for in-game use now. Unfortunately it only rips music from official CDs - no home burns or MP3s I'm afraid, a bit of a pain for those of us with our entire music collection in MP3 format. Even more bizarrely, after your tracks have been ripped for play, the PSP lists them as corrupted data on the included explorer, with the tracks unplayable on the system's MP3 player. Still, being able to spin your own tunes in GTA is a pleasing feature, even if its implementation is a little off.
While LCS is a joy to play, my biggest gripe is more down to the PSP itself. More specifically, its lack of a second analogue stick. The camera can be described as temperamental at best, however Rockstar have done a reasonably admirable job in overcoming this by utilising the left shoulder button in conjunction with the analogue stick to control the camera when needed. While this works fine when you're standing still, minding your own business, it doesn't work so well in the middle of a crazy fire-fight, as you can't move and rotate the camera at the same time.
The enemy lock-on feature has been heavily improved thankfully, so that you only have to press left or right on the D-pad to flick between targets. On more than one occasion, you'll still find yourself targeting the wrong character, but to compensate for this Rockstar have included a manual targeting option on top, thankfully. While this is yet another button press away from letting your guns do the talking, it's at least possible to get pin point accuracy in your fire-fights now, and is a nice touch.
My final gripe is down to the PSP's battery life. GTA drains that battery way faster than any other game I've played on the system so far. With Burnout Legends, you can typically get around six hours of gaming in before a recharge is needed, yet on Liberty City Stories, you're looking at no more than four. Any problems I have with the game are all rather minor though, simply taking off some minor sheen from an otherwise quality, must-own title.
 | | Libert City Stories is the first fully 3D GTA game we've seen on a handheld. It doesn't let us down |
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To put it simply, this is fantastic fun; a fully realised 3D world on a handheld, with countless hours of enjoyment and endless replay value. You can spend hours just wandering the streets, taking in all the amazing sites and laughing at the amusing shop signs. You can spend days tracking down those elusive jumps and hidden packages. You can even spend weeks just trying to perfect your best wheelie attempt.
If you're a PSP owner and a responsible adult, then you owe it to yourself to buy this game. You will need PSP firmware 2.0 or higher, ruling out users of homebrew and "back-ups", but a downgrade can always be performed again later, bear in mind, and it's more than worth it for this game.
Before I sign off, I'll leave you with one final tip. If you manage to complete the game, you can actually unlock a new costume for your character, titled "The King". Without giving the game away, causing chaos and destruction on the streets of Liberty City with this thing on is just way too funny for any description of mine to ever do justice...
...although its name alone should drop a few hints.
