Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

"A great prequal to 2001's GTA 3"

In October last year they released this game for PSP. Now in June this year they ported this game from the PSP to PS2 with minor tweaks. First of all they took the multiplayer out (Too bad). From what I've heard the loading times are also faster but I can't really tell.

Gameplay: The gameplay in this game is more like Vice City than San Andreas since cops can lay down spike strips again and you change your clothes the same way you do in Vice City. Unlike in San Andreas in this game when you point you gun to the cops it gives you an automatic 2 stars. Wow! Of course their's that free roaming that GTA games always have but their's one thing about this that happens in this game and GTA3: Most gangs start shooting at you automatic when you go near them. Atleast in Vice City and San Andreas they kind of fixed that problem since only 1 gang in Vice City shoots at you. And 2 gangs in San Andreas shoots you but if you kill enough gang members you can take over that whole territory. One feature from San Andreas they have in this game is that you can aim at people without having to hold a gun. The missions start out very simple like at first. Like just having to simply drive a friend home and then they get a little harder as you go on. Like in most of the later missions you have to kill enemies who carry very power guns like an AK-47 or SMG. The best and funnest mission would have to be the one where you take a firetruck and wreck havoc with it. Another mission that stood out for me was this one where you have too kill chainsaw people who can take you out in one hit with their chainsaw! Despite a couple flaws like some gangs shooting at you and glitches (Such as disappearing cars) the gameplay is still great. Rating: 8/10

Graphics: This game had good graphics on the PSP but they don't seem as good here. Sometimes their's fog and stuff in this game and that's really annoying. Well I guess I can't expect much since this game is a port of the PSP version. Rating: 6/10

Music: You know GTA always has a big variety of music to listen to while driving? Well the music variety is more lacking in this game. Some songs are awful like a couple of Opera ones. I hate Opera. Their's only a few songs that I like. Rating: 5/10

Value: All GTA games have so much value for one main reason: Free Roam. Their's so much more to do than just missions. You can be a firefighter or even the police. The rampages and hidden packages that were missing in San Andreas are also back. This is one of those games you would almost never get tired of. Rating: 10/10

Overall: Why do people also complain about this not being as good as San Andreas and solely compare it to that? People were expecting to much because this nothing more than a port of the PSP game. It wasn't meant to have all the features San Andreas had because the PSP wouldn't be able to handle it. So please stop whining. I can understand people complaining if they charged $50 for this game but since it's not as advanced as San Andreas they are only charging $20 for this game. It is surely worth the $20 so any GTA fan should buy it. If someone is interested and never played a GTA game before then this would be a good place to start.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10
GameFAQs Rating: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/06