Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

"Welcome to the family"

Grand Theft Auto has become probably one of the largest gaming franchises of all time. With its outrages violence, use of profanity and sexual themes, and just sheer freedom, even someone who barely plays games probably knows and has played a Grand Theft Auto game. With the recent controversy of the “Hot Coffee” scandal, the franchise has actually become more popular and one of the most talked about of all time. Personally, my take on the Grand Theft Auto series has always been gives you an hour of fun, and then you're ready to put it back on the shelf for a while. While I do enjoy the idea of the series, the loading times, the blocky graphics, and just the kill and move on feel has never appealed to me. Liberty City Stories has changed that, for the time being.

You are Toni Cepriani; fans of GTA III should recognize the name, as the boss who had an undeniable love for his mother. Coming home from a “vacation” that you took after killing someone for the Leona family, your back in Liberty City, trying to get things back to how they were. But not everyone is as fond of your return as you thought they would be, and you're immediately sent to work by Salvatore Leone, leader of the Leones. Just like in past console versions, your working your way from the bottom in a huge city, killing or scaring numerous pedestrians, cops, prostitutes, and union leaders along the way.

Liberty Cities is pretty short game, if you're just looking to blow through the story. But if you're like me, the real fun comes with just driving around and causing mayhem. If you want to a game to just have fun with LCS is certainly the game to get, and its even better that it's on a handheld, which is probably one of the reasons I love it so much. Another contributing factor to what makes this game so enjoyable, is the fact that the controls are so simple and easy. From the second you pick up the game, you will immediately understand them and have no problem mastering them in a few minutes. For a game like Grand Theft Auto to have such an easy control scheme, on a handheld no less is truly spectacular, despite the horrible targeting system that plagues this series.

Driving is one of the many spectacles this game has to offer. It's easy and fun and you will need to drive a lot in this game so it's good that the developers made it so enjoyable. Plus they added motorbikes and scooters for players, which I found myself using a lot more times to get around the city than I did a car. Add on to the fact that the radio has to be one of the greatest and funniest things I've ever heard, makes for a great time. Side-missions are plentiful and provide gamers with some extra stuff to do around town. While they won't get the story from point A to point B, they really do make the game more of what it is. There is always something to do in LCS and everything from the main story to the side-missions make for a fantastic game.

Weapons are a little difficult to come by in this game, besides pistols and bats, but that's kind of how it is in every GTA, which is why I'm not the biggest fan of the series. I like to be able to carry a large amount of weapons, and I want to have them now, much like I can in Saints Row, GTA, while lets you hold a lot of weapons, makes it difficult to get them sometimes. Even with the shortage of weapons though, it doesn't take away from the game all that much, because once you have a pistol, ammo is plentiful.

Adding on to my list of complaints is that, as in past GTA's, the targeting system is horrible. More times than not you won't even use it because it will just make you kill an innocent, rather than your enemy. When you go to target someone it switches to the closest NPC, so if there is someone off to the side of you and your enemies are in front, you're going to have a fun time getting shot at while you try to get closer to them so you can get a target. Also, LCS sucks dry your battery life, making it one of the worst games to play while traveling or going around town, unless you have a car adapter.

Complaining about this amazing game though doesn't do much but waste time. There is so much good to LCS that the few problems are quickly forgotten. Graphically, although the developers for the most part stayed with the standard GTA graphics scheme, on the PSP, it looks stunning. Let's face it, Grand Theft Auto graphics suck overall. You just don't play the games for its graphics, but in LCS, I felt like the graphics were at home for the hand-held, cause these are probably some of the most impressive I've ever seen, PSP or DS. While the character models are still a little jaggy and the environments aren't anything to spoon over, the lighting effects, the bright colors, the way the game really brought to life the city was amazing.

LCS doesn't beat off the track of any other GTA, but for most that's a good thing. The same classic game play styles is a treat, and I personally loved it, seeing as how I'm not a fan of the console GTA's, that I could pick this up and still feel like I'm playing an actual Grand Theft Auto and not some cheesy hand-held dumb-down version. Voice acting, went hand in hand with their characters, and seemed to bring them to life a whole lot more. Weapons and vehicles sound pretty generic, but they don't hurt the game at all, seeing as how they sound like the weapon that they should.

Liberty City Stories doesn't do anything you haven't already seen in other Grand Theft Autos. They all follow the same formula, but with a different story, and to top it off you've already seen the city and know most of the people. Despite this though, LCS is probably the game to own if you have a PSP. It's everything you want from a handheld, added in its one of the more popular series in all of gaming. Fantastic handheld graphics, Easy to pick up and put back down, load times are a lot better than console ones, hilarious music and fun game play, plus provides some back information for hardcore fans of the series. Liberty City Stories is one of my favorite handheld titles of all time, and my personal favorite GTA, just because it's so easy to play and not have to wait for loading. So make Mama proud, and play this game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/04/07