Take control of Huang Lee, the son of a Triad mob boss, in an destructive romp throughout Liberty City in his quest for revenge, money and honour in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
yoda's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Nintendo DS) review
Introduction Since the release of GTA III, it would be hard to believe that rockstar could go back to the classic view that was presented in 1 and 2. Well, they have done it and it is extremely successful. Going back to the old view is not taking away anything really, but adding tons of new features and making the game possible on the Nintendo DS hardware.
Graphics When i say that the graphics have went back to GTA I and II style, that doesn't mean they look exactly the same, they actually look quite better. There are neat explosions and effects from gun fire in chinatown wars , which is great for a handheld system. Below, on the left is a screenshot of GTA: Chinatown wars. On the right is GTA II. As you can tell, chinatown wars looks quite a bit better. It has more of a 3d aspect as well as better colors. GTA II has dull colors and is not in 3d. It is obvious that the DS Versions looks much better.
Gameplay One thing i never liked about Grand theft auto IV, is that the game was very hard. I'm not saying i don't enjoy GTA IV, but i just thought it was very challenging which i really didn't like dying and having to restart missions. In GTA: Chinatown wars, the game is much easier. It also seems like you get around town a lot faster for some reason, not because the town is extremely smaller, it is quite large, but maybe because of the viewpoint. I also like the creative missions that are in Chinatown wars. In one mission, you are driving an ambulance and have to keep this guys heart beating. If you run in to many things, it will stop beating, requiring you to use your stylus to get it going again. There are also small things in the games such as scratch off tickets that you can use your stylus with to win prizes, which is a neat idea. Police chases seem less frustrating in some aspect. Instead of evading police, for each wanted level you have to destroy the police cars. If you have a 3 star wanted level, you will need to ram 3 police cars, then you will be down to a 2 star wanted level and ram 2 police cars. It is definitely a great idea in my opinion and adds variety to the game. One frustrating thing about this however, if you get to close to a police car and are going very slow, they will yank you out of your vehicle and you will be busted, losing any drugs and a small amount of money that you have. Drugs are a big part of chinatown wars. It is also a great idea and a good way to earn money in the game. You try and find drugs that are cheap and then sell them at a high price. You have to be careful and make sure you don't get busted though, as you will get a 2 star wanted level if caught. There is also a variety of cars in chinatown wars. They all control differently to. If you drive a semi truck, expect it to be slower yet more powerful in police chases. If you get a hot rod, it will be fast but not very powerful to ram a police car with.
Story This is not why i play Grand theft auto. I play it to just have fun and do missions. I really don't care about the story in chinatown wars to be honest, it is all about the gameplay. I do know however that you are trying to deliver a sword to someone in your family because your father died or something.. But then the sword is stolen and your on a mission to find it i think. There are tons of side missions along the way that deal with the main mission, but i don't think you will really care about the story if you buy this game.
Conclusion Since i bought my DS, i have literally not bought any games for it. That changed on the release date for chinatown wars, i had to pick it up after seeing all the great reviews. Even though i haven't played all the DS games, i still would like to call this GTA game one of the best for the system. It proves that if you are a good developer , good games can still be made despite hardware limitations. All of this "Rockstar paid the reviewers" is a bunch of crap. The game is great and deserves the scores it is getting, because it is a great game, which is why i give this game a 5/5.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars(Nintendo DS) by elk on April 05, 2010
It might be surprise many to find that GTA: Chinatown Wars is actually the forth forth GTA game to appear on a Nintendo system. Really, it's true. You could well be forgiven for forgetting the previous titles, GTA1 and GTA2 were developed by Tarantula Studios (now owned by Rockstar and used for game testing) and GTA Advance was the work of Digital Eclipse (Now found porting old arcade games). Not a great legacy for those who know the series from it's portable versions, because they were an unpla...
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars(Nintendo DS) by the8bitnacho on April 05, 2009
Many franchises have attempted to toss themselves into the portable ring only to be spat back out, mangled and scarred with only subtle hints pointing toward the games that they were supposed to have been. Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series was never one of these. The previous two entires—while not exactly excellent—were exceptionally faithful in their realization of the series' mechanics and world. Coupled with the unfortunate subtitle chosen for Chinatown Wars, I found the idea of this lat...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful.
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