Liberty City Stories, for the PlayStation2, is a port from what seems
to be a developing PlayStationPortable (PSP) franchise, with games
inspired by and based from the Grand Theft Auto console games. In this
particular spin-off you return to Liberty City, the well-known
metropolitan area made famous in the GTA series' most revolutionist
title, Grand Theft Auto III, for the PlayStation2. For those of us
players who lack such a long-term memory, in Grand Theft Auto III you
most of the time ran around doing errands and pulling off hits for a
variety of characters. One of these characters was, I daresay, mama's
boy Toni Cipriani. Toni Cipriani makes his appearance in Grand Theft
Auto III as a loyal member of the Leone family who suddenly disappears.
Through his somewhat cryptic message, left behind, it is apparent he's
laying low after putting someone to rest. Liberty City Stories does not
hesitate to let the players know he's back, and not only is he back,
but you actually are playing his character this time around.
This is great news, or at least players thought it was. The game gives
you the impression that you're no longer at the bottom of the barrel
trying to rise to the top, you aren't a petty street thug, or thief,
but in fact that you're apart of something now, part of the Leone
family, almost a made man, no longer running simple errands, because
you have bigger fish to fry and much bigger problems to solve! Now as
interesting as that sounds, or I made it sound (forgive me), Rockstar
Leeds could have not made it anymore uninteresting. As unpredictable as
the game seemed before hitting store shelves, all the more predictable
it was as you played the game. As foreshadowed you are no longer a
grunt, you're almost a made man, you deserve more respect than you get,
a capo, your Don's right-hand man. Regardless of all these things,
however, the man in charge, Don Salvatore Leone puts you under the
watchful eye of small-time Vincenzo Cilli to the player's and
Cipriani's dismay. It is for Cilli that you will in fact find yourself
running more errands, helping him out, while you make a few extra bucks
in return. The rest of the game doesn't fan out from this concept,
calling for repetitive game play and lack of depth.
The reason you probably won't find this game at all fun to play is
because most of the time you're completing missions you aren't really
accomplishing anything. Most of the missions you get nothing out of
except the money, which the value changes greatly between that of the
real world and Liberty City. You'll find yourself driving from point A
to point B, unless things get really exciting and you must continue to
point C. How a Grand Theft Auto game usually plays after you've beaten
it is how Liberty City Stories feels all the way through. Countless
unnecessary shootings, car jackings, and police chases. This is a port
from the PSP so don't expect as fancy or big a selection of vehicles as
with other Grand Theft Auto titles on the PlayStation 2. Some driving
fast and some driving slow, is really what it'll boil down to in the
long run when deciding which car to hop in. I mentioned shootings and
as far as weapons go you can expect the same range of them. You have
your pistol, machine guns, rocket launcher, grenades and pipe bombs as
players have gotten familiar with in the other games. They make good
for a quick scheme of running from the police as they always have.
There is, however, a minor plus that Liberty City Stories poses with
weapons. You are now able to sprint with any/all of them, big or small.
The excitement wears thin after a prolonged amount of time though.
There's still plenty to do outside of missions such as the unique
stunts and finding of hidden packages.
If there's anything that makes this game harder to play it is the
terrible graphics from PSP blown up to your TV screen. The camera
angles also looked to be scrunched no matter how much adjustments you
make. It's clear the difference in graphical capability between the
PlayStation 2 and PSP, but this game makes it crystal clear. With
obvious shapes and horrendous lighting effects no better word could
describe this game, but ugly. Also the cheap price tag ($20) proves
exactly you're getting what you pay for, which in this case, isn't
much. I couldn't go on about the visual limitations as there,
negatively speaking, wasn't much to go on about.
In essence the game holds true to other minor details the games are
known for like the original radio stations, humorous ads followed by
funnier shop names, and open-endedness. Disappointingly none of which
added up enough to overcome the game's shortcomings. It's a very basic,
watered down, version of Grand Theft Auto that would be more accepted
on a handled then any console. Save yourself the twenty bucks, it's
better spent elsewhere.
