Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

[Darragh]

Genre: Action-Adventure/Sandbox
Platform: Nintendo DS
Players: Single Player/Local and Wi-Fi Multiplayer
Developer: Rockstar Leeds
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Release:
- North America: March 17th
- Europe: March 20th

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown_Wars

Chinatown Wars has a different presentation from previous games in the series. Instead of a ground-level view behind the protagonist or a top-down perspective, Chinatown Wars uses a fully rotatable aerial camera angled down at the action. Chinatown Wars also uses cel-shaded polygons with black outlines to produce a comic book-like aesthetic — a first for the series. The title takes place in the Grand Theft Auto IV rendition of Liberty City, sans Alderney.

The story begins when a triad boss from Hong Kong in Kowloon (the father of Huang Lee, a spoiled, rich kid used to getting everything he wants without having to do the footwork) is assassinated. Now Huang Lee needs to bring the Yu Jian (a sacred sword won by Huang's father and now an heirloom) to his Uncle Kenny to assure the inheritance of the Triad Bosses. But Huang is in for a big surprise when he reaches Liberty City and is thrown into the Humboldt River in the trunk of a truck by the two assassins of Mr. Lee and left for dead. This is where the game begins with your new Hong Kong protagonist

Gameplay:

- In IV you had a cell phone, in Chinatown Wars you get a PDA to play around with. With the touch screen you control the important stuff: check emails for missions, manage the GPS, play music... You can also order guns online now.
- As expected, CW is all about the touch screen. Some cars will take some extra effort to jack, so you'll have to take a screwdriver to the ignition. It's also used in missions. In drug deals you will need to move drug packages from one backpack to another with the stylus. Making molotovs is also a minigame. Luckily, the gimmicky stuff comes in small doses.
- When you get tailed by the cops in IV escape was the only option. Things get a little more agressive in CW. For every star you get, you need to ram a number of cop cars.
- There is an option to replay missions. Get record times to earn trophies.
- The hidden packages in this game are surveillance cameras. Since this game is all about dealing drugs, destroying these has a use: the area is no longer being watched, which affects the price of the goods.
- You can recruit new Triad members off the streets and give them their initiation tattoo with the touch screen.

- There a lot of side missions: vigilante stuff in cop cars, food delivery, fire truck and taxi missions. Rampage missions also make a return.

- The game also has a beefy multiplayer component, but not a lot is known at this point. There is local (4p) and online play. Modes:

LC Survivor
Defend The Base (this is co-op, gta horde)
Stash Dash
Season Race
Single Race
Gang Bang


Reviews:

MTV multiplayer: five out of five thumbs up

It’s from this other world that “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars” arrives, a game that’s essentially an alternate-universe “Grand Theft Auto III” boasting all the design smarts and daring of an official “GTA” as well as the creative risks not seen in the PSP “GTA”s.

1UP: A-

Altogether, Chinatown Wars is what I expected -- it takes an understandable few steps back from GTA4, but also takes a couple forward (a touch screen can do that). It's a well-honed "core" GTA on the handheld, not merely a one-to-one clone of its console parents.

Eurogamer: 10

Those hoping for another gritty, complex narrative spine bound in the flesh of an openworld action-adventure may be disappointed by the rather more frivolous and silly antics of the Chinatown Wars cast, but even cynics should be converted by the huge, densely packed action playground we've been given instead. Overall this is GTA as it first was, with the inherited wisdom of GTA as it's been since, finished off with all sorts of things that would happily belong in a GTA of the future.

IGN: 9.5

Though it might look like a lot has changed in the move to the handheld platform, more has been added than taken away - there's so much to do in this Liberty City, and it's hard not to be impressed and amazed at some of the things the developer's managed to pull off on the hardware. GTA: Chinatown Wars is easily one of the best Nintendo DS games on the platform.

Various Trailers
http://media.ds.ign.com/media/142/14266989/vids_1.html




This will be the game I pick up with my DSi.

[kezmondo]

Looks good actually, And I'm actually considering buying a DSi just for this game. The Only thing holding me back is the ridiculous price tag. I could pick up and Xbox 360 with a 60GB hard drive for 150 Pounds!

[AlexSP]

i'm still not sold on handhelds. the last one i had was the first gameboy when it came out, bought at singapore's changi airport. well, ok, i gave it to my sis when i got a gamegear (which was rad but ate up batteries like a m*****f*****), but that's been it since then. i blame two things for my disinterest: 1. never really had the type of life where i'd have any time to play "on the go". if i'm on a train or bus or whatever, it's either a short trip or i'm listening to music/reading. and i wouldnt wanna play at home because if i'm at home i'll wanna pc/console game because 2. i'm all about the graphics. even with the advances in technology since the gamegear, i look at those screens and i think "aww the cute little pixels pretending to be a real game, how cute ... pffftt"

[Darragh]

Yes the DS in 3d is not pretty but this game has style which is more than I can say for the state of the art brown/grey shooters released on consoles this gen.

The DSi is quite expensive unfortunately but if you really just want this game I'm sure you could find a DS lite pretty cheap after it comes out. Luckily I can trade in my DS lite to get half price on DSi. It's an excellent platform with a wide-range of games in a wide range of genres. It's the PS2 of handhelds.

Edit: Also you have not lived until you have played Professor Layton.

[SuperTrainStation H]

...i'm all about the graphics. even with the advances in technology since the gamegear, i look at those screens and i think "aww the cute little pixels pretending to be a real game, how cute ... pffftt"

You do realize that this attitude precludes you from experiencing many of the best games ever made, right?