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Genre: Third-Person Action Publisher: Rockstar Games Developer: Rockstar Leeds Players: 1

By KevinG (30th Mar 2009)

The single biggest factor for games to catch the attention of players, and hold it, is gameplay. While smashing graphics, thumping soundtracks and big guns are great sellers, a game with excellent gameplay will be played and remembered for longer. The Grand Theft Auto series has finally made its appearance on the Nintendo DS and is one of the best titles available on the system, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has gameplay like the poor innocent DS has never seen before.

This is no shoddy port of an old game, it is a brand spanking new release, purpose built for the DS and a funfair of all the things you should never do in real life, unless of course you want to drive a taxi. The action takes place in Liberty City of course, a faithful representation of the city many of us already know. The story revolves around Huang Lee, a pampered son of a Triad boss, whose main vices revolve around a dancing pole usually somewhere with table service. After the death of his father, Huang must deliver the Yu Jian Sword to his Uncle “Kenny” Wu so that the family could claim leadership of the Triad gangs. No sooner has Huang touched down in Francis International Airport than he his ambushed, the sword is stolen and he is left for dead. The friendly welcome to the Liberty City underworld brings out the monster in Huang and this carefree playboy soon becomes a cold calculating killer, seeking revenge for his father’s death and working for anyone with money to spare.

Presented in split screens by showing Huang and the city in the top screen and the excellent PDA and many other interactive features on the touchscreen, Chinatown Wars makes full use of all DS features - you can even whistle for a cab in the mic. The game controls are so intuitive and easy to use, so that right from the start all you have to concentrate on is enjoying the experience. The vignettes, where the story unfolds, are done in the familiar comic style of previous GTA releases and there are even some little movie actions sequences. To be honest, this is the biggest game I have ever seen on the system and is a real tour-de-force in game design.

The hard work and thought put into the game shines through like the brilliance of a lighthouse. There are so many lighthouses I kept getting distracted from the main story and ended up on flamethrower rampages, highjacking trucks with dubious shipments, running amok in tanks, selling a wide range of narcotic substances, checking my luck at the scratch cards, flying off ramps and chasing down criminals in cop cars. It was a wave of high speed fun filled malevolent mass murdering pandemonium that I could not escape from. There are so many additional side-features in the game that at no time could I say I was just driving around waiting for the next part of the story to unfold, most of the time I was ignoring missions to discover all that Liberty City had to offer.



Somewhat in the vein of the original title, the camera is offset a little from the top-down angle, which gives a clear and easy to control view for getting Huang around the city. Driving the many cars couldn’t be easier or more fun and the Liberty City environment should be applauded for its richness and outstanding level of intricacy. Driving on two wheels, braking around the corner, flipping the car on its roof, deadly drive-by shootings, pulverising the vehicle to the point of a final destructive explosion, it’s all present and in some ways is easier to use than the bigger console titles.

Dishing out his special brand of pain, Huang can easily and effectively be used to hunt down targets with his devastating arsenal. Shotguns, semi-automatics, Molotov’s and the other usual suspects are present and deadly in their efficiency. Weapons can be found around the city, by checking in dumpsters, filled up at petrol pumps or ordered online from Ammu-Nation (which delivers them to your hide-out). I particularly liked the use of the touchscreen to fill up Molotov’s at the various petrol pumps dotted around the city and its use for throwing them. It’s these little touches that show how well the game makes use of the system it was built for. At various time throughout the game the touchscreen is used to hotwire cars, defuse bombs, break the glass in cars to get out when you plunge into the sea and, of course, to use the PDA.



The PDA is the portal to the game. It’s where you check mail, game statistics, and mission notes, change radio stations and equip Huang’s weapons. It also contains the excellent GPS system, which not only allows you to track a route to your current destination but keeps a record of all Dealers, Rampages, Scratch Cards, Odd Jobs, Safehouses and much more. I have bought a lot of winning scratch cards but still haven’t won a safehouse.

Safehouses themselves contain a treasure trove of options and thankfully you can buy a whole plethora of bases across the city. Here you can store your cars and your narcotics supply, admire your collection of sales rewards, go on the DS Wi-Fi connector, have a rest, or replay and any of the missions you have completed already. Yes, you can replay your favorite missions at the touch of a stylus! The game is massive enough to keep you going for a long time and this feature just adds a whole new level of longevity.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a monster, multi faceted game on a mini-system. It is as well designed as a game could be, makes wonderful use of the system it is for and is by far and away (and I mean very far away) the best game I have played on the DS. There is so much more that could be said about the game but then I wouldn’t be playing it.

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