GTA: China Town Wars. Impressions and Opinions

Since it was first mentioned at last year’s E3, I have been keeping an eye on the release of GTA China Town wars. More out of interest to how they would pull it off on the DS then actually wanting to play the game (Eh?? I hear you say)

let me be honest for a second…..

I have never sat down to with the intent to complete a GTA game before. usually I would dip into it on a friend or family members machine and try to cause the most amount of mayhem I could.

I would play a mission here and a mission there, always thinking to myself  “hey this game is fun but I am not sure if I want to buy it mostly due to the time that would involved in completing the game.” or something along those lines

I have played the first GTA and enjoyed that (not to completion but in the same dip in and out fashion)

caused mayhem on the PSP versions

and when I got a hand on go at GTA IV on a friend’s machine I swam to the Coney Island level  got out at the beach then proceeded punch a couple of tramps , crashed a few cars and just caused mayhem. until the police busted me or I got killed. that is the extent of my GTA IV playing.

so forgive me if I am a GTA virgin.

so why was I looking forward to this game so much??

at the time I envisioned either a completely old school GTA style vibe with the overhead view in a pseudo 3d with 2d Chars, or a low poly third person style game such as Vice city.

when the first in game screen shots appeared my first reaction was

“aww man they are fucking this up” and “what is this??” Luckily and not for the first time: I was going to get egg on my face.

Seeing the game in motion changed my mind.

But I still had misleadings about the use of the stylus would it be chocked full of random mini games or just some kind of after thought?

again Proved wrong I would be!!

My fascination was due how far the game would push the DS in both a technical capacity and how the game will deal with the mature themes. would Nintendo censor anypart of the game would it be watered down?

so how would it the GTA experience translate onto the DS?

fast forward march 20th and my copy has arrived in the post from amazon £17.99 (not including post)

I booted the game up to be met with the intro screen of a suitcase full of drugs being opened dealt out and money appearing .  in its place with the Rockstar logo at the bottom of the case – Cool!!

the game got rolling and damn it’s now about 3 hours later!

I must say the game comes off really well.  the amount crammed into the game is comparable to a bigger budget console titles

The game is huge and right from the off you can where you like.
A virtual mini city in which to call your playground….

so I jumped in the sea stole a jet ski and headed off to see how far I could go.

then when I arrived ashore I stole a car and cruised around town. hit random people avoided the fuzz and repeated for about half an hour.

then I decided to get down to actually playing the game, it’s a blast!

Story wise you play Huang Lee son of an assassinated Triad boss. flying from Hong Kong to Liberty City (NY) to deliver a sword to your Uncle to ensure your uncle can become a triad boss. unfortunately when you arrived you promptly kidnapped thrown in the back of a car and then driven into a river to be left to drown.
you escape by smashing your way free using the touch screen to break the car windshield swim to safety and this is how your adventure begins:

anyone familiar with GTA will know the basic setup, Meet contact speak to contact (via Cutscene) get mission details and go perform said mission, complete mission (earn monies) and repeat.

but the way the game is thought out, holy hell they have actually built a GTA game on the DS from the ground up !!

this is not a cash in or some random GTA hybrid this is the real thing:

The game is designed so that the top screen displays action and the bottom screen is used for a your map and PDA:

Video copyright IGN

the touch screen works so well Rockstar have really thought out the uses and ways to implement it during the game. such as to hot wire cars, fill up Molotov cocktails, play scratch cards and for your PDA.
you don’t have to use the stylus you can use your finger. so no need to pause ingame and get it out (fnar fnar)

the detail of the game it amazing, little things like how when it rains people on the street will put up umbrellas.

How cars will roll over if you clip a curb or smash into other cars. how each car varies from car to car. the amount of music you can select to listen to. right down to buying scratch cards to win prizes.
the city is so sprawling but and is easy to get lost in but your GPS will take car of that. you can display the route on the top screen

Mission wise the missions are bite sized allowing for on the go gaming with good use of save points but the game is deep enough allowing for long gaming sessions.

Positives:

this is a damn fun game engrossing as hell

the little details in this game

the music works really well for the Jazz and Dance tracks due to the quality of the samples so much thought and love has gone into the game.

The graphic engine is fantastic in motion and the level of detail to the  in game city is amazing.

The stylus is touch screen element is integral to the game and work so well

Ingame physics for each car

such much to do ingame (scratch cards/Drug running and side challenges) this will keep you going for some time.

transparency effects for the overhead train track

The PDA is a great touch

Ability to save the game easily.

level of customable options

Negatives:

Cars are (mostly depending on the model) like boats to control so you end up crashing into traffic/pedestrians.

Lock on issues during multiple enemy encounters is annoying so I just gun the crap out of enemies

Occasional texture/pop up issues.

Overall

its GTA on the DS in full with no shovel ware, a Mature on an otherwise thought to be system for kids.

A must buy and a damn fun game!! if you own a DS and can get if for a great price and are over 18 buy it!!