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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Review
Written by Chris Buffa on Friday, May 8, 2009
Quality story, traditional GTA style gameplay, numerous weapons and cars, enjoyable mini games, tons of missions and side quests, multiplayer mayhem via Wi-Fi.
Top down view makes it difficult to see what lies ahead, only four person multiplayer and everyone needs a copy of the game for it to work.
Last year, Nintendo announced that Rockstar intended to devirginize its DS with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a new adventure that would continue the series' cop-murdering, civilian splattering antics. While that filled us with homicidal glee, we had natural concerns about the technology. Well Chinatown Wars is here, it's amazing and most importantly, you can sell heroin.
Taking place in GTA's stomping grounds, Liberty City, Chinatown Wars tells the story of Huang Lee, a snobby rich kid who flies in from China to present an ancient sword to his Uncle Kenny. Within seconds of hitting the airport, thugs assault Huang, steal the sword and leave him for dead. Barely surviving, he reaches his uncle and immediately sets off to complete missions that'll eventually lead him to his attackers. It's an interesting story that'll keep you entertained in between all the killing.
As expected, the game plays almost exactly like every Grand Theft Auto before it. You'll carjack vehicles, run over pedestrians, piss off cops and perform a plethora of familiar missions that challenge you to deliver cars within a set amount of time, murder rival gang members and even win street races. There's also a healthy amount of weapons, a list that includes a chainsaw, revolver, rocket launcher, sniper rifle, flamethrower, sword and double pistols, among others.
Various mini-games, however, set it apart from its predecessors. When you get into some cars, for example, you'll need to complete fun mini-games to hot wire them. One in particular forces you to remove screws by drawing circles on the bottom screen, then connect two wires. You'll experience several of these mini challenges and each one never gets old.
You'll also become one of Liberty City's most notorious drug dealers. Various missions allow you to sell cocaine, weed, acid and other narcotics for profit. Naturally, you'll have to keep this side business on the down low to avoid the fuzz.
Speaking of police, they're significantly more insane than in other GTA games. Simply tapping a cruiser will earn you a star and bring a ton of heat. While we realize the LCPD needs to do its job, this proves frustrating because we can't see what lies ahead until we're right on top of it. We actually lost a mission numerous times because we kept smacking into cops.
This leads us to the camera. In order to fit the game onto the DS, Rockstar went with a top down perspective reminiscent of the first Grand Theft Auto. That said, Chinatown Wars still features 3-D graphics. Actually, the game's quite impressive looking, with towering skyscrapers, numerous cars/people on screen and plenty of mayhem. Other cool touches, like elevated trains, the ability to get a car on two wheels and explosions only add to the eye candy. We just wish the characters sported more detail. Rockstar dressed police in blue, but sometimes we mistake a civilian for a cop. That never ends well.
We also have trouble seeing what lies ahead, largely because of the perspective. A nifty GPS always tells us where we need to go, but it doesn't provide traffic updates. As a result, we often turn down busy streets or ram into something at high speed (like a cop). This drives us nuts on the more intense missions.
Overall, however, the single player experience is classic GTA and well worth your time. You'll get 15-20 hours from the story mode, and completing the side missions (ambulance, taxi, drug dealing) adds considerable time to that number. If you get bored with it, you can always check out multiplayer. Up to four players can connect via Wi-Fi and street race, play capture the flag or defend the base. Everyone needs a copy of the game and additional players would've made it significantly more enjoyable, but as it stands, we dig it. The same cannot be said of the Rockstar Social Club. Here, you can send friends your favorite Liberty City locations, check their online status, trade items and send messages. It's decent fun. We just don't have much use for it.
Unless you despise GTA, Chinatown Wars is an essential purchase. Rockstar did an excellent job transferring the mayhem to the DS, and we suggest you run out and buy a copy ASAP. The game's drug lords command it.
