Game Review: GTA: Chinatown Wars

I finally finished the game over the weekend, and I've already talked about it a bit, but I figured I would go ahead and write something up.

Liked:
- The touch screen controls are pretty ingenious. Rather than just tacking on touch screen stuff to warrant a DS release, it feels like they designed the whole game around it. It's used in a ton of cool ways, and it rarely ever felt tedious. It can be kind of a pain when you have to hotwire a car when cops are chasing you, but honestly I never really jacked that many parked cars, so that never became an issue. I thought it was going to be sort of a gimmick, but this game really excels because of this stuff.

- The drug dealing is beyond fun. You can and will waste a ton of time hordeing drugs for cheap and then trying to unload them for the best deal.

- The PDA totally destroys the cell phone from GTA IV. Everything you need in this game is just a couple clicks away. Things like setting GPS routes, checking email for missions or drug tips, and looking up the gang territory complete with buy/sell preferences is all easily done with a couple touches of the stylus. Another thing I really liked was being able to order new weapons and body armor from the Ammunation site and having it delivered to the nearest safehouse. It's way more convenient than looking for the nearest store.

-There is way more variety than GTA IV. Outside of the main campaign there are plenty of other activities for you to get lost in. There are tons of side missions, including vigilante, taxi, ambulance, and food deliver to name a few, and in this game they are actually worth doing because they each offer unique perks for completion (like infinite sprint). Also, the random strangers are back, as well as Rampages from the earlier games. Stunt jumps are back as well, and instead of pigeons or packages, we have security cameras. In this game they actually serve a purpose, as the presence of security cameras affect the prices of the local drug trade and determine your likelihood of getting busted at a deal.

-The missions also seem a lot more varied. Although there are still plenty of 'drive here, shoot these guys' missions, they were broken up enough to keep from feeling stale.

-I actually liked the main character more than I should. This game is a lot less mature than GTA IV. There are plenty of dick and sex jokes, but Huang plays a good straight man. The dialogue is just dripping with irony and sarcasm, and it's hard to hate on a predictable twist or character, when Huang basically does it for you. There are plenty of the stereotypical characters and situations that you would expect from GTA, but I think the self-awareness the game exhibits keeps it lighthearted and easier to consume.

Neutral:
- The new police system is pretty good. I don't know if I would say it's better or worse than the other game, but it is fun to actively try to destroy cop cars rather than just running away. I do think it's easier though, as the police AI isn't really the smartest, so you can easily get them to smash into barriers or other cars.

-The game is actually a lot longer than I expected. It's not really a bad thing, and actually it means you get more bang for your buck. When I get about 3/4 of the way through a game, I always get anxious to finish for some reason, and it seemed like there were a couple twists that were thrown in just to make it longer. Luckily, with the mission variety this was never really a problem.

Disliked:
-While I had no problem getting used to the top-down view, the controls do take a little practice. Sometimes you have to hit the lock-on button a couple times to aim at the right person (this is true for pretty much all the GTAs), and the touch screen grenade throwing is kind of awkward to use during firefights. You need to make sure that however you are sitting, you still have the stylus handy because sometimes you need to do some split second touch-screen stuff.

-There were a few missions that took a few tries and got sort of frustrating, but honestly, you have to expect a few of those when playing a GTA game. My main problem was shooting a car or motorcycle that was too close to me and having it explode immediately and kill me.

Overall:
It's ridiculous how much stuff is packed onto this DS cart. The game is a lot more like GTA IV than I would have ever expected. I think that all the people who complained about the 'more realistic/less fun' approach of IV should definitely check this out. I didn't really expect to list THAT many "Likes", but I just kept thinking of stuff. I guess that pretty much speaks for itself.