Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Nintendo DS)





Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars marks the return of Rockstar's sandbox game back to a Nintendo handheld (the last title being 2004's relatively poorly Grand Theft Auto Advance on the Game Boy Advance), and what a return it is. The first thing that you'll notice when playing the game is the return to the more top-down perspective from the first two games in the series, yet the camera angle gives enough of an angle for you to see what's coming ahead of the character, as well as being able to determine between barrier heights. The style's more cartoon-like, which, in my opinion, is another throwback to the earlier games, and is a welcome graphical style.



This being the Nintendo DS, the first thing I wondered about was how the DS's touchscreen would come into play. Rockstar have made great use of the second screen, having it showing your GPS system, health, body armour level, weapon, ammo, as well as other little in-game functions, such as the in-game clock and email indicator. You simply tap your equipped weapon and another menu pops up over it, displying what other weapons you have available, and choosing them is as simple as tapping them. It's so simple, anyone could do it. You're also shown your current projectile weapon, either molotov cocktails, flash bangs, hand grenades or proximity mines. These are used just by selecting how far you want to throw them on the touchscreen, and simply checking the top screen to make sure it's going to go where you want it to. It may seem confusing, but it's extremely simple to get to grips with.



The story's simple. You play Huang, the rich son of a member of the Triads gang in Liberty City, who travels to the city to deliver his family's sword to his uncle after his father's murder, who plans to give it to the Triad's leader in order to cement his place as the next leader. However, things don't go according to plan when Huang and his group are ambushed, with the sword stolen, and Huang beaten up and left for dead. Huang then vows revenge on the people who murdered his father and to recover the missing sword. Through a number of different missions and tasks Huang eventually discovers who was behind his father's murder and the theft of the sword.



In terms of gameplay, it's Grand Theft Auto, what do you expect? As with previous installements you can go anywhere and do anything. My in-game statistics menu states my game completion time at over 21 hours- it only took me this long as I was too busy doing other stuff, and there's a lot of stuff to get done. Hidden throughout Liberty City are 100 security cameras, and you're charged with finding and destroying them all. Thankfully, you're not given a time limit and it doesn't effect progression of the story, but you'll become obssessed with trying to find every single one of them. There's also thirty stunt jumps- basically thirty billboards that you can drive a vehicle through. Again, you'll want to try and find every billboard, and the method of getting your chosen vehicle through them. These add a little variety, as you'll have to think about how you're going to get to each location.



Another distraction is the drug dealing trading game. I'm sure we all remember the Drug Wars game that was available as freeware many years ago, where you had to buy and sell different drugs in order to reach a certain level of profit. This is the exact same thing, but on a larger scale and with no limits. All you need to remember is that you can only carry 50 bags at a time before having to drop them off at a safehouse. This is easily the quickest way to make money. From time to time you'll get an email from one of the city's many dealers, telling you that they're buying or selling a specific drug, and it's down to you if you wish to partake in these offers. It again adds another little diversion from the main game, and it's one that you'll no doubt spend a lot of time on.



Musically, Chinatown Wars is a slight departure from previous games. You get six radio stations all playing different kinds of music, but unlike previous games you only get instrumental tracks seemlessly blended into each other and no speech what-so-ever. The only speaking you'll hear is from random pedestrians and police, who'll say one-liners as and when they're needed. Dialogue in cut scenes is dealt with via the power of the written word, and thankfully, I didn't notice any spelling or grammatical errors during play- a sure sign that the game had been tested extensively.



There are only a couple of downsides, though. Sometimes the targeting system can feel a little awkward, especially when you target a pedestrian walking on the other side of the street instead of the policeman directly in front of you that's hitting you in the head with his nightstick. Also, sometimes the GPS system can give you directions to a place you've just been to, even though you no longer have any reason to go there anymore. But these are only minor problems, and don't detract too badly from the gameplay.



Overall, Chinatown Wars is a worthy addition to the Grand Theft Auto legacy, and unlike other games of it's kind, it doesn't feel like a bad conversion of the home console version, but is a game in and of itself that can stand on it's own two feet. While not the best game in the series, it's certainly in the upper percentile of them.



The Official X-Factor- 9/10