18 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
Liberty City Stories: Best PSP Game on Market
Date of Review: Dec 24, 2005
The Bottom Line: A very fun game well worth buying. If you buy it you won't regret it.
So you've bought a PSP, the portable dream machine you've always wanted, and you can't figure out what games to get? Perhaps you are a mature gamer who wishes to play games that do not mock your age group? Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is possibly THE best PSP game out right now for you and what all adult gamers have been waiting for since they waited in lines for their PSP the day it came out. Rated M for Mature (17+), this game includes blood & gore, intense violence, strong language, strong sexual content, and use of drugs. Yup, exactly....excellent!
You play as Toni Capriani in Liberty City. The year is 1998 but this time there are all new missions and storyline. It is truely amazing how much gameplay Rockstar was able to squeeze into the UMD format. I have persoanlly played over six hours of this game and have only gotten 9% of this game completed. It is rich with details and truely gives me a sense of the power of a PS2 in a handheld. Every character has dialogue and all characters have special individual A.I. (Artifical Intelligence). Steal a car in front of a cop, get ready to be noticed by them. Steal a car belonging to a ganster, get ready to be shot at. All cutscenes are done via in-game style. That means 3D animations. Basically more zoomed in and detailed than usual in-gameplay. This is a much better approach than what some games like Twisted Metal: Head On tried which was flate looking animated cutscenes.
You can get official missions from a fellow mobster or try to impress your own mother by doing such things as drag racing, taking scandelous photos, or killing people. You can go to the "Gentlemen's" Club and do missions such as getting the cash from the prostitutes. You will sometimes get random calls on your cellphone which enable you to get into a whole new mission.
Beyond the missions, you are able to roam freely in the city and do whatever you want. You can do side missions in the Taxi Cab, Police Car, Fire Truck, Trash Truck, Delivery Bike, etc. You can compact cars for money, attack gangsters for ammo & guns or bat down random people for cash. You can steal cars, motorcycles, vans, trucks. You can go on Rampage missions, take the drug pill and become more powerful for a few seconds, do crazy car stunts, pi$$ off the cops until you get so many after you that it becomes very fun. You can even pick up a hooker, a well known and controversial option.
The weapons early on in the game will be your own fists and later you can grab a bat. Later you will aquire a handgun and farther into the game you will get machine guns, chainsaws, shotguns, etc. The targeting system to aim at enemies could use some work. Sometimes you want to shoot at an enemy but it targets a pedestrian instead. Also, sometimes aiming itself is a little hard. Sometimes the best weapon is the car your driving in. Running people over is often very effective and easy. And messing your car up till' it starts to catch on fire is a good way to create a quick and powerful car bomb.
The A.I. is relatively good. The only things I think could be improved is some small things. The police, for example, for overly ruthless in their pursuit after you. They will crash into other cars, run over pedestrians, and basically do whatever it takes to catch you. Sometimes you can be doing something illegal like driving on the wrong side of the street and running someone over and the cops won't notice. However, overall the A.I. is excellent. When you really pi$$ off the law enforcement, you will see some pretty cool things they do to catch you.
The audio in the game is fantastic. I sometimes just enjoy driving a car and listening to the radio. There are good stations to choose from and the commentary is absoutely hilarious.
One big addition which truely makes this game so great is its wireless multiplayer function. 1-6 Players makes this an excellent multiplayer game with seven different multiplayer game modes. Liberty City Survivor, Prtection Racket, Get Stretch, Tanks for the Memories, The Hit List, Street Rage, and The Wedding List.
The gameplay offers countless hours of entertainment and the replay value is excellent. This is not a game for kids because there is so much adult situations in this game from the well known prostitute option to hearing a guy getting a B-job while talking to his mother on the phone. Please don't think this game is for your kids because M really does stand for Mature.
