Not long now til my holiday from work, counting down the days
Not long now til my holiday from work, counting down the days
Member since:13.12.2006
Reviews:59
Members who trust:58
It's no secret how successful the Grand Theft Auto games have become since the GTA III on the PS2. Liberty City Stories is in fact the seventh instalment in the GTA series and is available on both the PS2 and the PSP, where it is the best selling game of all time for the handheld. Why release it though onto the PS2? Is it really any good? Has it got anything original to bring compared to the other plethora of GTA titles already available?
The game itself is set in Liberty City in the world of GTA III but three years earlier and with a new main character. You play as Toni Cipriani as he comes back to Liberty City after years of laying low taking the blame for a crime for Salvatore Leone. Grateful, Leone puts you to work in the usual GTA style of accepting missions that involve organised crime, political scandal and creative killings.
At first the games storyline is weak and not very structured allowing the player to get familiar with the location and the Gameplay, but later on the storyline of following Toni as he rises in ranks throughout the crime scene as well as handling the huge political involvement within the game, becomes extremely strong and at times very imposing.
I've got to be honest, the overall story within GTA Liberty City Stories is not very original and to be frank we've seen it before in all the other previous games. That's not to say that its boring because the mix of story and Gameplay allows for the game to be extrmely addictive. However because the feel and storyline isn't original you cant help but feel that you know what is going to happen and you tend to switch off skipping the cut scenes and just get on with playing the game and that's not really the point.
The great thing about GTA though is the various storyines that play
out alongside each other involving different characters all with different agendas. The way in which GTA works means you have free choice to follow any of these storyline through missions at any pace or order you want, which takes away any linearality out of the game, which is fantastic. At first glance the individual storylines all seem basic and on their own, but as you play through them and look closer to detail you'll realise that they are all linked up through gangs and relationships, which not only adds a layer of depth into the game but also a real history and society.
Visually, Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories follows in the footsteps of its predicessors and I've got to be honest that's not a great thing. At basic level the game works quite well visually allowing for a fair amount of detail to be invloved in every item, object and building but in terms of quality im afraid it simply just shows itself up. The main problem for me is the ernourmous amount of pop-up that reminds you of the old PSOne games, its disapointing really because it shows how underdeveloped it all is.
For the most of it, everything seems to be designed in blocks giving everything such a square look, whether it's the buildings, cars, trees or other exterior. In a game where you play in a city that's meant to feel real, im afraid the gaphics works against that very notion. Visually it isnt very realistic and even the character design is disaponting. Facial features are broad and designed significantly better, but other features like the hands and feet look like bricks and its shameful.
Lighting is used quite well on the other hand allowing shadows to be craftfully created into certain areas and the real time feature of day and night works well. The use of weather is implemented well especially visually allowing blinding sunsets to be spread across the skies. Animation, Im afriad is also a low factor. Very often the characters are sluggish and not very smooth and you cant help but get a very jerky feel. Even the cutscenes are very choppy and underdeveloped and it just makes you want to skip them even more.
The sound effects are quite well ranged allowing a mix of differing effects to be played at once which is great. Many cars and motorbikes have different engine sounds and each weapon has their own unique sound, which on the whole shows that particualr attention to detail has been paid. What this does is create a unique city atmosphere that feels very real (even it doesn't look like it).
The background music is limited to the radio station you listen to in the vehicles, which again works well for realism as you cant really listen to music on the streets. Radio stations are quite diversly sepaarted allowing for the player to listen to whatever style they are in to. The only problem I would say though is that many of the caricatures and voices including the songs are very sacarstic and stereotypical of certain genres where many people could get offended. However for the most these are the undertones of the entire game so you wouldn't play the game at all if you were offended.
The voice acting fits in with this satyrical attitude to gender and stereotypes so its hard to judge. Though at times the voice are corny and of low value, they're exactly what Rockstar are trying to get across. Danny Mastrogeorgio plays the voice of Toni in the usual Italian gangster style, whereas Frank Vincent plays Leone, straight from GTA San Andreas.
As the fans will state, Gameplay is where the GTA games take off and Liberty City Stories is no different. Classed as a Sandbox Sim, the game allows the player to accept missions when they want allowing a great freedom of choice. Ultimately completing these missions furthers the game but other side missions and simply rampaging the city is enough satisfaction for some gamers.
As there are no set ways to complete a mission, this also makes every situation open ended allowing the game to be completed in many different ways, whether it's simply a choice of different weapons or taking different roads or simply changing direction. Add this with killing people, exploding cars, stealing things etc; the world of GTA is endless.
This overall is wonderful really because it can suit many different types of gamers, Some gamers may enjoy the structured route of taking each mission playing within the boundaries etc whereas some may take some time out from 'playing the game' and simply do taxi driving, playing as a fire-fighter or simply driving about the vast amount of space in over three different areas of the city.
The controls can be awkward at times but on the whole work well for the game allowing the player to run and shoot at the same time, or simply driving around sharp corners. The hand to hand combat system though again is jerky and sluggish and it just seems that this game as a whole suffers from the same type of problems GTA III did. The camera can be manually adjusted though which is a bonus.
With so much choice and things to do what could possibly go wrong? Well honestly there isn't anything new here. The engine seems to have been taken out of GTA III and just improved upon a little which means in terms of evolving, Rockstar have gone backwards. You simply cannot do things that you could in San Andreas, which is the game previous to this. You cannot improve character stats, change appearance or even swim. Everything has the feel of GTA III and might well just be that same game with a different story.
PS2 users are also cheated of the multiplayer and online features that the PSP gamers have, which is probably why it is much cheaper on the PS2. This however is extremely disappointing because the PS2 most definitely has the capability of all this and would have been available to a much wider audience. Rockstar really did make a poor choice with this and it shows.
Overall, Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories (PS2) is an addictive game with many great moments of gaming action whether it be racing cars over cliffs and up ramps or completing criminal missions, but on the whole it just isn't original enough. It's a game that just carries on the series filling a void until something huge comes along. The graphics are basic and at times appalling mixing with a very sluggish feel. There is a high replayability factor with the side missions such as finding all the hidden packages and hidden jumps, plus the extra hours and hours of gameplay, but the removal of the multiplayer options and online features is shocking enough. At least it's still highly playable. Fans of the series will love this without question and I found myself wanting to carry on playing despite all the faults. It's worth a try at least but I expected more. Let's just hope GTA IV offers something at least more substantial.
** Information ** Players 1 580 KB Needed Minimum No Online Play
** If You Like This You May Like ** Mafia (PS2) Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)
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