GTA: Chinatown Wars first found life on the Nintendo DS. GTA:CW is largely considered one of the first (only?) ‘adult’ games on the DS. Titles such as these find themselves by and large on the PSP, Sony’s DS rival. GTA: CW harkens back to its 2D roots; instead of a full 3D game, it opts for a 2.5/isometric perspective which works very well.
Unfortunately, GTA:CW was a lowpoint as it demonstrated the rampant piracy on the DS. Piracy on the DS is fairly simple: buy a flast cart. So, two years of dismal sales later GTA:CW found itself on the PSP and the iP/T. The PSP and iP/T versions are basically the same both in graphics and music stations.
The game moves a constant clip with little to no slowdown even when there is a lot of action on screen. The touch controls work well for the most part, with a few exceptions. Sniper missions can be a bit dodgy and unresponsive. Trying to do burn outs are hit and miss, and because the iP/T has issues with more than two fingers on the screen, you have to let off of the accelerator or steering when trying to use a weapon for a drive-by.
Other than those nits, the game works very well. The presentation of the game, I think, is significantly better than the DS counterpart and is probably the best iteration of this title.
As for gameplay, it’s a mixed bag. The storyline is pretty weak and side missions are limited to standard GTA fare of taxi/police/ambulance/fire fighter, with some odd icon collecting and races. Side story missions are limited to goofy “Crazy Taxi” esque drive this person to x location in y time, or do x thing for y person. These missions exist purely for comedic value. I was hoping for more missions similar to GTA:San Andreas just to stretch out the length of the game (I clocked fifteen hours). All the missions are straightforward and easy – the game is incredibly forgiving.
Overall, the game is slightly underwhelming but not terribly so. $10 is a good price point for this game, especially given that on the DS it was offered for $30+. I compare all GTA games to the standard of GTA: Vice City; this would be tied for second with GTA:LCS, but would be a distant second. Still, great fun at a low cost.
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One Comment
“you have to let off of the accelerator or steering when trying to use a weapon for a drive-by.”
God, I hate it when that happens. Makes drive-by shooting so inconvenient.
