Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

THE BAD:
- No flyable vehicles
- Now swimming
- Too short for a GTA game (beat it in 10 hours on my first time!!)
- Most missions are kinda repetitve
- Bad targetting system
- No Multiplayer
- Lack of some characters from the original GTAIII
- Graphics not that good

SUMMARY:
Tony Cipriani is the anti-hero of the game. He’s a member of the Leone crime family, a well-established and well-connected organized crime syndicate with ties to city hall. As usual, the family is involved with territorial disputes with other crime families. Tony’s too low on the totem pole to concern himself with directly with these affairs but as long as he’s got cars to steal, debts to collect and people to kill, he’s a happy camper. Starting at the bottom, Tony accepts a variety of missions from members of his family in addition to other crooks he encounters which includes pimps, dishonest businessmen and corrupt politicians among other low-life.

There is no shortage of interesting characters to interact with. They help move the plot along and allow Tony to earn some money which he can use to help finance his life of crime by purchasing body armor and exotic weapons. Things don’t start out with a bang mind you, Tony has to work his way up through the hierarchy. He begins by taking missions that have him making pick ups and deliveries, collecting debts and other items, hijacking cars, throwing the fear of God into some marks and making the odd hit along the way. These are dirty jobs, but Tony’s gotta’ do ‘em.

Weapons include a pistol, shotgun, mini-gun, machinegun, flamethrower and a rocket launcher. Nothing subtle here. There are two ways to conduct business with most people. One is with hand-to-hand combat and the other involves weaponry. In some instances you will find yourself on the defensive, instead of initiating the altercation or shootout. Early in the game you’ll find yourself under attack by a group of gun-wielding thugs, and another gang armed with chainsaws that literally want to rip you a new one – or two, or three…

You’re not very well armed at the outset and things can get quite frustrating, especially with the auto-targeting system that has a mind of its own; let’s make that half a mind. When put into the use the system doesn’t automatically target the most immediate threat, it will often target civilians or other lesser imposing thugs. While it only takes a second to correct, this second can cost you dearly. If you don’t have much in the way of health left, you’re going to get killed quickly. When you have to start over you’ll lose all of your rare and expensive weapons. To make matters even more frustrating there are limited saves. Put this together with some heavy trial and error missions and you’ve got a recipe for a controller embedded in the drywall.

There is no shortage of action in Liberty City. You are free to roam about and explore the city while you encounter unique characters and are offered GTA-approved missions. There are 10 radio stations that will keep you company, offering everything from rock to hip-hop, talk radio to a station that specializes in boy bands. Okay, so there are nine stations. The DJ’s put their unique spin on things with hip vernacular and smartass comments. You’ll even hear reports of some of the incidents that you caused. It makes the experience more personal and realistic.

Liberty City Stories is a summer time treat for PS2 owners who haven't played the PSP version. Even though it's an almost direct port, the control system is vastly improved on the PS2 and the budget price just seals the deal for this full length GTA adventure. Pack your bags for Liberty City and paint the town red. This game is worth it and it doesn't cost much. It's only 20 bucks. What are you waiting for??!


Graphics= 3.5
It's virtually identical to the PSP version.

Control= 4.5
The PS2 controller is miles above the PSP as two sticks are better than one. The auto targeting system is awkward.

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting= 5.0
Great voice-acting. I love the different radio stations and the DJ commentary. Sound effects are loud and proud.

Replay Value= 4.5
You might want to replay the game to tackle some of the missions that you missed but these will just be minor missions with little depth. It's a full-fledged GTA adventure with no shortcuts. No multiplayer mode.

Overall= 4.0

THE BAD:
The graphics aren't that great.
Some boring missions

SUMMARY:
In October last year they released this game for PSP. Now in June this year they ported this game from the PSP to PS2 with minor tweaks. First of all they took the multiplayer out (Too bad). From what I've heard the loading times are also faster but I can't really tell.

Gameplay: The gameplay in this game is more like Vice City than San Andreas since cops can lay down spike strips again and you change your clothes the same way you do in Vice City. Unlike in San Andreas in this game when you point you gun to the cops it gives you an automatic 2 stars. Wow! Of course their's that free roaming that GTA games always have but their's one thing about this that happens in this game and GTA3: Most gangs start shooting at you automatic when you go near them. Atleast in Vice City and San Andreas they kind of fixed that problem since only 1 gang in Vice City shoots at you. And 2 gangs in San Andreas shoots you but if you kill enough gang members you can take over that whole territory. One feature from San Andreas they have in this game is that you can aim at people without having to hold a gun. The missions start out very simple like at first. Like just having to simply drive a friend home and then they get a little harder as you go on. Like in most of the later missions you have to kill enemies who carry very power guns like an AK-47 or SMG. The best and funnest mission would have to be the one where you take a firetruck and wreck havoc with it. Another mission that stood out for me was this one where you have too kill chainsaw people who can take you out in one hit with their chainsaw! Despite a couple flaws like some gangs shooting at you and glitches (Such as disappearing cars) the gameplay is still great. Rating: 8/10

Graphics: This game had good graphics on the PSP but they don't seem as good here. Sometimes their's fog and stuff in this game and that's really annoying. Well I guess I can't expect much since this game is a port of the PSP version. Rating: 6/10

Music: You know GTA always has a big variety of music to listen to while driving? Well the music variety is more lacking in this game. Some songs are awful like a couple of Opera ones. I hate Opera. Their's only a few songs that I like. Rating: 5/10

Value: All GTA games have so much value for one main reason: Free Roam. Their's so much more to do than just missions. You can be a firefighter or even the police. The rampages and hidden packages that were missing in San Andreas are also back. This is one of those games you would almost never get tired of. Rating: 10/10

Overall: Why do people also complain about this not being as good as San Andreas and solely compare it to that? People were expecting to much because this nothing more than a port of the PSP game. It wasn't meant to have all the features San Andreas had because the PSP wouldn't be able to handle it. So please stop whining. I can understand people complaining if they charged $50 for this game but since it's not as advanced as San Andreas they are only charging $20 for this game. It is surely worth the $20 so any GTA fan should buy it. If someone is interested and never played a GTA game before then this would be a good place to start.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Neoseeker Rating: 4.2/5

THE BAD:
*Nowhere near as good as GTA San Andreas
*A PSP import, meaning a lot of improvement of SA are now gone, like swimming.
*Weak graphics

SUMMARY:
I'm not going to bother in writing a huge review. Because the question on everyone's mind who hasn't got this game is. IS IT WORTH BUYING?

Because surely with the popularity of the GTA series, someone has got GTA: 3, GTA: VC, or GTA: SA. And so I’m going to base this review on the view that you already own or have played previous GTA games.

And so is it worth buying? Well it depends on what your looking for. If your looking for a new storyline and how it fits in with the rest of the series then it's worth getting, if not, then there is no point in getting this game. On the other hand, this game is going for a budget price, you should get it for half the price of a normal game. And that goes strongly in it's favour.

If you already have GTA: 3, then this game is basically GTA: 3.5. It's not as good as Vice City, and it's nowhere near as good as San Andreas. In basic, this game is like playing GTA: 3 all over again with a different storyline but slight differences and you can ride bikes.

It was made for the PSP, so that's exactly what you should expect from this game. A game that was made for a console that’s not as powerful as the PS2.

STORY
You play TONI CIPRIANI, once a trusted wise-guy of the Leone Family. After being forced into hiding after killing a made-man your back. Back in a city full of corrupt politicians, corrupt police, organized crime, drug trafficking and Union Strikes.

The story is of Toni’s rise to power in Liberty City, leading onto the story of GTA: 3 (that’s if you can remember the story of GTA3)

The story itself in the game is average. 7/10

MISSIONS
Missions are shorter and less “adventurous” than previous GTA games on the PS2. But nonetheless enjoyable. 8/10

GRAPHICS
Although this game looks impressive on the PSP, it doesn't look as impressive on the PS2. The graphics are not as good as on other GTA's. 7/10

GAMEPLAY
Nothing new in GTA series, and one of the major reasons the GTA series HUGE is because of the gameplay. 10/10

SOUND
Again nothing new to the GTA series, apart from less radio channels and a radio that doesn’t feature the chart-topping hits of previous GTA’s. 8/10

DEPTH
You have to remember that what made Grand Theft Auto San Andreas so awesome was the depth, the depth of the game was incredible. This game is not on that level, but at the same time, it has a lot of depth to it. It holds it’s own to GTA: 3, and Vice City. 8/10

FINAL THOUGHT
If you forgot about comparing this game to San Andreas and Vice City, you do come to the conclusion that it’s a good game, and for the budget price it’s worth buying. But if you expect more from the GTA series, the fact is that R* are offering nothing new, infact a bit less, but a different storyline. But still, It’s worth buying, but only if you set your expectations to GTA: 3.

If I was reviewing the GTA series all over again, I would rate them as following……
San Andreas 10/10, Vice City 9/10, Liberty City Stories 8/10, GTA: 3 7/10. That’s how this game falls within the series.

This game involves nothing that you haven't seen before.