Title: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Date: 06.14.2006

Genre: 3D Action

Platform: PlayStation 2

Developer: Rockstar Games

Publisher: Rockstar Games

I remember receiving my first next-gen console for Christmas quite awhile ago in 2001. Being a casual gamer at that time, I was a proud owner of an Xbox, with my nose up in the air, thinking that no other console would ever top my Xbox. PS2 had very little to brag about, and GameCube was a joke at the time. I had Halo, along with promising future releases like Splinter Cell and KOTOR. I couldn't have been happier. This happiness turned into jealousy when a friend of mine brought over his PS2 with Grand Theft Auto III (which, at the time, I thought was some lame Driver rip-off). I was completely addicted to the game. That night, while my friend hit the sack after about five hours of "switching off", I woke up and played the game for more than eight addicting hours. I had my mind set on a PS2 since that night, and I ended up getting one only a year after my Xbox.

Grand Theft Auto has gone through various stages and themes throughout the years. Starting in a generic metropolitan area with stereotypical Italians, transitioning to an odd 80s theme, to "the hood" in all it's ghetto glory--Grand Theft Auto has stayed true to it's old gameplay style while adding new tweaks every game. Ever since I played and beat every GTA, I always like the original best, and always wished for another game set in Liberty City. My wish was granted, but unfortunately it would be set on the PSP--a handheld I would not be buying. Quite a while later, the new adventure--Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories-- hit stores on 6/6/06 for PS2 at a bargain price of $20. After twenty hours of play time, I felt I had quite a grasp on the game and was ready to review it.

Coming as a bit of a shock to me, the game puts you in the role of Toni Cipriani; a recognizable character from GTAIII. I immediately fell in love with the game after running over a group of three mafia men to save myself some money rather than going to buy a pistol. I did the exact same thing starting out in GTAIII when I first played it. This, combined with the familiar environment of Liberty City, put me in a dazed state of nostalgia which may have blinded me from immediate flaws.

The environment of Liberty City didn't exactly look polished. In fact, the graphics are quite ugly and hardly comparable to the original GTAIII. The graphics are PSP quality and were obviously not optimized for the PS2. (It's actually worth nothing that nothing was upgraded for the PS2 version, things were actually taken out!) The characters look and move even more awkward than in GTAIII, the cars look kind of grainy, and the buildings are not as sharply colored. Everything seems "soft" and does not have the polished look of GTAIII. Car damage really looks ugly, almost as bad as some of the later Driver games on PS1. One of the best features was the sharp color of the environments of GTAIII as well as the great and sometimes hilarious radio stations, and it's missing both of them.

As I said, the sound is fairly weak in LCS. Not only is the radio not up to par with the original PS2 version, but the actual sound effects are poor as well. Gunshots sound muffled, baseball bat swings are not in sync with the actual swings in game, and footsteps are like bat swings--they are just not in sync with the character's running. Going back to the radio and song quality, they sound fairly poor and definitely not CD quality. The game just did not sound good even with my 5.1 surround sound system. I think that these flaws didn't make much of a difference in the gameplay, though.

If you've played a Grand Theft Auto before, you know the formula of gameplay. There is no formula. Whether you feel like assaulting a prostitute, making a hit on the local drug gang, or doing a mission for your boss, what you do is up to you. So many options are available. The game revolves around you completing missions for your mob boss in order to move the story. However, the missions in this game were extremely disappointing. Most of them are monotonous and boring, such as stealing a car and bringing it back in one piece, or killing three drug dealers. The difficulty is also a bit lower on missions. I haven't experienced anything I couldn't complete on the first or second try. Other options are possible, such as driving an ambulance, posing as a vigilante cop, or driving citizens in a taxi. Other small missions are possible as well, like collecting all the secret packages or going on killing rampages. Killing and stealing cars are what this game revolves most around, so tons of different guns, flamethrowers, and rocket launcher are there for your use, as well as cars, bikes, and motorcycles to steal. To have all of these various gameplay options, a set of smooth controls are needed.

The controls in LCS are extremely smooth and responsive. The button layout is similar to the old games. X runs or drives, Square jumps, Circle attacks, Triangle enters a vehicle. L2 and R2 switch weapons or change views, and R1 targets. The driving is most similar to Vice City. It's smooth and responsive enough, though it is a little touchy at points.

Depending on your experience with GTA games, you may or may not play very much after you've completed the missions. I took about 15 hours to complete the missions alone, which is about average for an action game. I've played a bit of randomly killing people or stealing the best cars possible, and it held my attention for quite a long time (though this may be due to the fact that I love Liberty City. You may or may not be playing this for long after you've completed the missions.

It may seem like I've been ridiculously harsh on this game for the most part, and you may be wondering why I'm rating it an 8/10. The graphics are stylized and feel very GTA-ish, even though it's obvious they're not very polished. The sound isn't the greatest though, but again, it feels very like the others in the series. The gameplay is simply where it's at, and the great controls help the game out. Until now, the fact that the game is only $20 hasn't been mentioned. For $20, the game's flaws become much more tolerable.

Simply put, if you're a fan of Grand Theft Auto, you'll pick this one up in a heartbeat (though, it's shocking to know how many people don't know about this game!). If you're not a fan yet, you may want to pick up an older one that you can find cheaper used. All in all, this is an excellent game that no one should miss out on for only $20.

Game Score

8.6

Reviewed By: Contributed