Chinatown Wars, The Perfect Game?
The Grand Theft Auto series hasn't always translated well to the handheld systems. With the lackluster GTA and GTA 2 on the Game Boy Color, and the lukewarm Liberty and Vice City Stories for the PSP, GTA games on handhelds never really hit that epic level that they did on the consoles. With visceral gunfights that are easy and fun to control, a great story, and top notch production values, this is easily my favorite DS game. While Chinatown Wars doesn't really hit the epic level of it's big brother, it is the best GTA representation for handhelds, and easily the best DS game.
The story revolves around a spoiled son of a recently killed Triad boss named Huang Lee. Huang is given a sword named the Yu Jian, and is instructed to hand it off to his uncle in Liberty City. As soon as Huang's plane hits the ground, he his raided and the Yu Jian is stolen. You take control of Huang, and through out the course of the game you will be trying to find the sword, and finding out who murdered your father. This is a fairly standard plot that you would expect from a GTA game; lots of plot twists by the end to fuck it up, and you usually end up on top. Even though it's not as long as a GTA game, 5 hours is more then enough for an open-world DS game.
Besides the main story line, Chinatown Wars also has a very in-depth drug economy. Different gangs hold different territories, and they specialize in selling a certain drug, and they also like to purchase a certain drug. There are a total of six different drugs in the game: heroin and coke are the highest tier, ecstasy and acid are the middle tier, and weed and downers are the lowest tier. You will sometimes receive an email that says that one dealer is trying to sell a bunch of coke, and he's selling it for really cheap; this is where you can make the massive dollars. You'll eventually receive an email that says that there's another dealing willing to buy a bunch of coke. You can make a giant profit from these kinds of transactions. The trade process is very touch screen oriented, as is the rest of the game.
If you're going to play Chinatown Wars, you better not be afraid to get finger prints all over your touch screen, or you're willing to play with the stylus in hand. You'll have to smash locks, hot-wire cars, start up dead boat engines, and a whole lot of other stuff. This is really well integrated into the whole experience, and never really feels like it is tacked on. You also have access to the PDA on the bottom screen; the PDA includes your GPS where you can plan out your path, emails you will receive from people in the storyline and drug dealers, check drug info, and save your game among other options.
Chinatown Wars plays as any other GTA game; it is entirely open world, and you don't like the police. Unlike in the previous GTAs, to get away from the cops you need not run away a safe distance from the police. Instead, your goal is to destroy the following cop cars. If you have one star, you'll have one cop car chasing you; if you have two, two cop cars will chase you, and so on. I find it a much better way of getting your stars down than in the previous GTAs.
This is definitely one of the DS' better looking games. The game is looked at from the top at a slight angle, making it look like the first GTAs, but not quite. Everything in Chinatown Wars has a nice black outline and makes itself stick out, like a comic book. The cars aren't 2D, which make the flips look like they actually have some physics, and not a crappy string of sprites. The cinematics are split up into two; the top screen contains the in-game setting, while the bottom screen shows a static image with some text.
The sound in the game is great also, but to the extent the DS can handle. There are no voice overs in the game which is a shame, but the car radio still holds up. There is music for pretty much anyones taste, electronica, rock, reggae, jazz and rap.
In conclusion, Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars is a great game that will have you hooked from the time you smash the window in your drowning car, to the epic final showdown. It is a game that should not be missed by anyone who has a DS.
