Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars: PSP/iPhone Review

Rockstar’s handheld masterpiece Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is about is to be released on both the PSP and the iPhone. So now like seemed an appropriate time to review the game on the platform it was built for, the Nintendo DS.
Developed by the makers of the PSP version of GTA, Chinatown Wars can be best described as modern take on Grand Theft Auto II, applying lessons learned in the post-GTA III era while still resembling the older game. The Liberty City of GTA IV is still fully 3-D but now the camera has been tilted 90 degrees and the action is viewed form a top-down perspective.

Old GTA games, or all GTA games on the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance, were strictly 2D affairs but this one uses its polygons for added depth, lightning, physics, and more flexible camera movement. How well the city is presented is crucial to an open-world game and the huge city of Chinatown is impressive not only on a technical level but on an artistic level. The graphics are slightly blocky but more stylized with some more color to go along with your thoroughly M-rated murder and mayhem. The higher camera also prevents the player from noticing any missing details or muddy textures. By making some intelligent changes, Rockstar made an exceptionally well realized urban sandbox to explore on the limited 3D hardware of the Nintendo DS and laid a strong foundation for the rest of the game.

Right from its slick title Rockstar-style title screen, Chinatown Wars thrusts you into the world of Huang Lee, spoiled son of a Chinese gangster about to embark on violent, funny and somewhat stupid adventure in a fake version of New York City. Characters and dialogue are good enough to not be distracting but crooked cops addicted to smack are not super original or memorable. Cross-dressing Italians aside, the Chinese flavor added to the typical gangster story provides the only interesting plot quirks. Also be on the look-out for the Lost biker gang from the Lost and Damned expansion. The narrative, along with the music heard on the various radio channels, suffer from not having any spoken dialogue. Good voice actors could have really brought the Chinatown Wars script to life but as of now, it remains the part of game that has suffered the most from the limitations of the DS.

However, the open-world gangster gameplay of the Grand Theft Auto series that has captivated so many, sold millions of games and spawned countless imitators, has been beautifully represented in Chinatown Wars. Playing this game and then going back to GTA IV and GTA II has shown that although the camera is in different spots, the gameplay is largely the same. You still steal cars and shoot guns, now with helpful steering assists and lock-on aiming. That may sound simple but through the varied missions, and a creative mind, those things can lead to hours and hours of fun tasks to accomplish and challenges to take on. Completed missions can be replayed at any time which is new and there are plenty of side quests to uncover in fake Time Square or fake Ellis Island. Steal a police car? Go capture some criminals while escaping the real cops for some extra cash. Find a skull icon? Then get ready for a minigun killing spree contest for you and even a wirelessly connected friend. 

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A big feature from GTA IV that has made the portable jump is the ability to go surf the internet. However, in Chinatown Wars you can go online through a laptop as well as through the new PDA. The PDA can be also be used to order weapons, plan GPS routes and respond to your various contacts. These contacts include drug dealers who are essential to the best new feature of Chinatown Wars: the drug economy. There are six drugs to deal and the point is to buy low and sell high. But managing several deals at once in a timely fashion while avoiding the police is not only fun but allows you to gather enough funds to pay for you other endeavors, like buying a tank or a sword. In addition to controlling the PDA, the touch screen is used for a few touch screen minigames. These activities, such as hotwiring a car or building a rifle, are fun and take full advantage of the platform but as far as being an evolution to the series formula, the drug trading blows it away. 

At E3 this year, Nintendo highlighted a DS game called C.O.P.: The Recruit. While the plot looked dull and generic, the footage showed an open-world game on the DS using a GTA IV style behind-the-back character perspective. If Ubisoft was able to pull this off it seems like Rockstar should have been able to too. Still, that game still has yet to prove itself whereas Chinatown Wars is already an amazing, polished experience that does not let its lower specs or slightly-outdated camera placement stop its from a being a rightful member of the GTA family.

Rating: 5 out of 5

- Jordan Minor