Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

"This edition of GTA was better off staying on the PSP."

Grand Theft Auto is one of the most impressive stories in videogame history. From the series' roots in 2D graphics, with a top-down view and a cult following, to the current powerhouse franchise with a name as easily recognizable as those of any other entertainment property, the story of its ascent reads like something out of a game publisher's dream.

And a publisher's dream it most certainly has been. Rockstar Games saw the franchise's different titles become the best-selling games across the past generation of consoles, with its strong momentum continued onto the PlayStation Portable GTA game, Liberty City Stories. LCS was by far the best selling game on Sony's nascent handheld, despite the fact that it earned the series' first mediocre review scores since its 2D days.

Like any good publisher, though, Rockstar knows when it can squeeze some extra money out of a highly profitable game, and the PSP's limited user base meant that quite a number of videogame users wouldn't have a chance to play it. So, less than eight months after its handheld release, a port of LCS was released for the PlayStation 2. The game survived the port mostly intact, but the question still remains: does this port of an already-mediocre game deserve your time and money?

Visuals:

The graphics in GTA games have always been ambitious, and LCS initially represented the most elaborate attempt yet in the series to squeeze every pixel possible out of the game's host system. Unfortunately, the game is now running on a piece of hardware with advanced capabilities from its original host, and the results are at best unflattering. The entire scope of Liberty City has been meticulously recreated, and gamers who spent any significant amount of time with GTA3 will be able to navigate the game's three islands with ease, as most of the geography has changed little. From the dark, grimy look of the buildings, to the different weather patterns that pass through during the course of gameplay, this is unmistakably a handheld version of one of the most famous videogame locales of all time. Of course, it still does, in fact, look like a handheld version on the PS2, and this is nothing shy of a disappointment.

The animation for everything looks as good as it has on the other console versions of GTA. Cars and boats animate as you would expect from their real-world counterparts, and the same can be said of the newest additions to Liberty City, motorcycles. The pedestrian actions also all look just as good as you would anticipate, although the rudimentary rag-doll physics found in San Andreas have disappeared again. The game uses a noticeable motion-blur technique on objects that are in motion, and although it appears jarring at first, it adds to the somewhat dreamlike state of the game's world. The traditional HUD makes a return, and although it has been condensed, it is still as accommodating as ever.

The visual experience does come with its fair share of problems, though. Due to the PSP's limited power, the horizon seems to have crept a little bit closer than in GTA3, and it results in significant popup, especially when driving at high speeds. The frame rate also suffers a more substantial drop when lots of action crowds the screen, although the game is usually good at keeping new activity off-screen until the game can manage to display it. The downside of this memory-management technique, though, is that there will sometimes be a smaller police presence than you would expect while you are causing all manner of carnage. These problems don't hurt the game enough to detract from the gameplay, but they are a consistent enough annoyance that you can't help but observe them; additionally, they have all been slightly ironed out for the PS2 release, but are still clearly (and irritatingly) present.

The world of Liberty City has survived the translation to PSP and back, and although it is impressively accurate, it has too many blemishes to be considered anything but sloppy. The slight alleviations to the portable title's problems serve as little more than a reminder of how poor the handheld's graphics are when enlarged onto a full-screen television.

Score: 6/10

Sound:

Another important aspect of the GTA series, from even before its explosion in popularity, has been the audio experience. From the beginning, the music was always outstanding; the recent 3D games have seen the voice acting and general character dialog reach the same plateau of quality. LCS certainly has a lot to live up to in this area, and for the most part, holds its own against such inevitable comparisons.

All of the sound effects in LCS are just as good as they have been in the other GTA games. All of the vehicles make appropriate crashing and bumping noises when they're thrown around, and they all sound just as accurate here as they did in the console games. Weapons and other usable objects also borrow effects from the other console versions, and they all fit in just fine.

The voiceover work in LCS, it should be immediately mentioned, is done not by any of the big-name actors that have acted out the parts of characters in the last few GTA games. This cast is made up almost entirely of lesser-known voice actors, including some unknowns taking the spots of recognizable names from GTA3. Ultimately, it can't be said that these changes hurt the game, as the replacement actors play their roles well, offering up line readings that are usually spot-on. As with the other GTA games on PS2, there's nothing here that would make you grit your teeth, as the writing and execution are generally flawless. With that said, though, it's disappointing that almost none of the recurring characters share voice actors with GTA3, since so many players are likely to remember them by how they sounded in that game.

Ever since it humble origins on the PlayStation, the GTA series has always meant impressive music, and the recent games have been one of the best excellent examples of the use of licensed music to improve a game's atmosphere. LCS uses some licensed music, mostly on its rap station, but several of the other radio stations return to the format from GTA3, where the songs are semi-satirical emulations of the time period's popular music. The combination of licensed and non-licensed music works well, and the overall feel of the radio presentation is more similar to GTA3's radio effort than the two more recent titles. While this setup certainly may appeal to those who get nostalgic for their first time in Liberty City, it can be galling to not be able to find real music to listen to in the genre that interests you. The radio banter and commercials are also back, and they're as witty as ever, this time sending up everything from theme restaurants to Y2K paranoia. The overall length of the radio station loops is shorter than it has been in other GTA games, which is a result of the smaller storage capacity of the PSP's UMD format.

LCS delivers an acoustic experience that tries desperately to live up to its predecessors. It succeeds in some ways, but its overall feel is like that of an approximation of the GTA audio experience, rather than an extension of it.

Score: 7/10

Gameplay:

GTA's ‘big, violent sandbox' design is what has made it so appealing to gamers since it moved onto current-gen consoles. On the PSP, LCS managed to create a portable version of that gameplay; with the game back on a console, though, that mobile gameplay style can't hide its weaknesses in comparison to its counterparts in the GTA series.

One positive to come from the LCS's move to console is the return of the game's PS2-friendly controls. On the portable system, the control setups were only manageable at best, and could become quite frustrating during some of the more difficult missions in the game. That problem ceases to exist on the PS2, as the precision afforded by the system's controller allows for much tighter response time when performing any actions in-game. The targeting system is still a mess, but no more so than in any of the other games in the franchise.

LCS's actual gameplay suffers a fate similar to that of the other features. Even with the wonky controls a thing of the past, the missions in general feel like dull, listless versions of those seen in the recent GTA games. You'll be doing a lot of ‘drive to point A, kill person B, and escape to point C' type tasks, and while a few of the later missions get more interesting, overall they just seem to be lifeless.

Of course, the GTA series is known for its open-ended nature, and it's important to note that this has made the transformation very successfully. You can, should you so choose, just drive around the city, causing all manner of havoc, and just like in the console games you will be dealing with the law when you do. Of course, thanks to the technical limitations of the original PSP format, problems like the occasional lack of an appropriate police presence make this somewhat less enjoyable than it had been in other GTA games. It is definitely still there, though, and will always be appealing to GTA fans.

The side missions that have become a staple of this series also return, with plenty of new additions to the spectrum to play with. You'll still be able to play policeman, fireman, or EMS, but you can now also drive a garbage truck, sell cars, or deliver pizzas to earn a little cash on the side. Hidden packages also make a return, and you will be able to race in plenty of competitions as well.

The weapons and vehicles are where the real fun is found in the GTA games, and LCS does a solid job of making this the case again. Now that your control over the vehicles is back to the comfort level of the PS2 controller, driving around at high speeds is as enjoyable as it has been in the console games, and the guns and other weapons all are all easy and exciting to use. Not all of the weapons from the series have made it into LCS, but a good number of them have, and as always they're there to play with in any way you choose.

Akin to the game's treatment of weapons, LCS doesn't feature many of the other improvements to the GTA world that have been seen in Vice City and San Andreas. You will be able to change clothes, but only in the Vice City manner of suits, not the wardrobe method of San Andreas. The game also has motorcycles, tires that can pop with gunfire, and the occasional A.I.- controlled teammate, but none of these features are as advanced as they were in San Andreas. The lack of helicopters or planes hurts the most, since some of Liberty City's skyscrapers would seem like the perfect places for a few airborne missions.

One other strong positive evoked by the transition back to PS2 is the shortening of the game's load times. While LCS loaded fairly quickly on the PSP, there were still frequent stutters during gameplay when you could tell that the system was loading up some scenery or an audio track from a different portion of the UMD. On DVD, however, the game experience has become much more seamless, and so the experience ends up feeling a lot smoother around the edges.

Ultimately, LCS' gameplay experience does indeed live up to the GTA series' pedigree, but just barely. It has some painfully obvious technical warts, and at times it's difficult to stay interested in some of the missions, but the basic GTA gameplay is still there, and that's all that ultimately counts.

Score: 7/10

Story:

The storylines in the three current-gen GTA games have been somewhat of an added bonus. Those games sold as well as they did because of the unrestricted gameplay style and the high production values, not the storylines that accompanied them. Some developers might be tempted, with such strong selling points already in the bag, to skimp on the story in future releases, but Rockstar made sure that the plots of both Vice City and San Andreas featured the same vibrant storytelling as GTA3. Unfortunately, for the first time in this generation of GTA games, this is not the case with the story in LCS.

LCS' plot focuses on Tony Cipriani, a member of Salvatore Leone's mafia family from GTA3, who has just returned to Liberty after a forced sabbatical for killing a made man. The opening sequence – where Tony silently gets off a bus and makes a call from a payphone – really sets the lackluster tone for the rest of the plot. The storyline is told through bland in-engine cutscenes that consist of only basic mission details, and the plot never really goes anywhere, despite Tony's interactions with many of the city's important players. In addition, the characters are very dull, despite the solid performances by the actors who voice them.

Of course, the game does have the saving grace of being set in the modern GTA universe. Some gamers who have followed the series will likely play the game just to see Liberty City again, and these players will not be disappointed. As one-dimensional as the plot may be, it does do a decent job of setting up the events of GTA3 through the events it portrays.

The plot in LCS is without a doubt the most disappointing aspect of the game. It's sad that a GTA game – and one with the word ‘stories' in its name, no less – proffers this little of a plot, especially when it has such a rich history to draw from.

Score: 4/10

Features/Modes:

While on the PSP, LCS utilized the handheld's WLAN ad-hoc networking feature for a multiplayer gameplay mode that was separate from the main story-based portion of the game. Unfortunately, this feature was axed from the PS2 version, leaving nothing in the way of extras.

The GTA series has always had tremendous replay value, and it still does here; sadly, that value is diminished here by the fact that it can be experienced in a much stronger game environment with all of the other console GTA titles.

Score: 2/10

Total Score:

Grand Theft Auto's first foray onto the PSP system was ultimately a success because it brought the series to gamers in a way that it had never given to them before. Now that it's on PlayStation 2, Liberty City Stories' lack of an interesting storyline, simple mission structure, and serious graphical flaws will definitely turn fans of the games off – and with good reason. This game was designed to be a portable supplement to the GTA series, and it definitely accomplished that goal. On a home console, though, it comes across as ugly, sloppy, and at times boring, and it does nothing to expand or enhance the scope or mystique of the series. In the end, it's a solid port of a game that never should have been ported in the first place.

If you own a PS2, have been a fan of the GTA series in the past, and didn't get a taste of LCS on the PSP, you should try this game out with tempered expectations. Otherwise, if you have never seen for yourself what all the hype of the GTA franchise is about, then you should instead look to one of the other, better console games for your first impression.

Score: 6/10 (not an average)

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Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/07