Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

"Toni Gets Made"

The Grand Theft Auto games have earned the reputation as a major series in videogame's history. When the new PSP came out, I was very disappointed to learn that they were making a GTA exclusively for the handheld. Then, I was ecstatic to hear that a port of it was coming to the PS2!

Like every GTA game there is, this game is one of the funnest games around. If the missions bore you, you can always free-roam to do basically whatever you want! There are sub-missions that include racing motorcycles or cars and there are other just corky hidden items and easter eggs throughout the game. You'll have hours and hours to play this very fun game.

This is one of the harder GTA games I have played. Starting off, it was pathetically easy, then got a little difficult, but went to easy again. Once you get to Staunton Island, the game's difficulty sky-rockets and you'll be putting holes in your wall. The missions become very difficult, but racing on the motorcycles is even harder as it's very easy to fall off of a bike.

The control is the same as it has been in all other GTA games. If you haven't played a GTA game and you want to know more about this portion of the game, please visit another one of my reviews because there is no need to waste time with this section.

Toni Ciaprioni returns to his town of Liberty City, but his mob-boss, Salvotore Leone, isn't giving him the kind of respect he wants. So, he does the bidding of all of Salvotore's goons until, finally, he is accepted into the Leone family and thrust into a world of corrupt cops, drugs and plenty of action...all the while trying to impress his sadistic mother.

The graphics haven't been updated since San Andreas, which is saddening. Hopefully they're saving all the graphical poweress for the next GTA game on the PS3, Xbox 360 or the Wii. There are a ton of glitches in the game that could've been cleaned up as well. This is also the first GTA game that I have ever experienced lagging in. Another complaint would be the loading times in-between the islands that wasn't present in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

I'm disappointed with the radio stations in this installment. There are hardly any good songs on them and the stations that do have good songs just play the good songs over and over until they're worn to the ground. The voice-acting is fantastic (I think I detect the mother of George Costanza from Seinfeld?) and everything else sounds perfect.

The game isn't that long, but then again, none of the GTA games are really that long, just difficult. There is a ton of replayability, actually infinite! replayability. You can free-roam on this game for the rest of your life if you want, unlock all the secrets and get 100%.

I would rent this game, because the map is basically the same as GTA III. If you're a collector of these games then buy it, since it is very cheap, but otherwise, just rent it at your videostore...I'm sure they have a million copies.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/06