GTA: Liberty City Stories Impressions

So you've heard about the PSP instalment of the Grand Theft Auto Series. We've seen it first-hand - so come inside for full details, screens and video.

Everyone knows that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the biggest selling game of recent times. Now, Sony's PSP handheld is getting an exclusive title from the GTA series all to itself. Kikizo was recently treated to a first-hand look at the new game, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

This entry into the series sees players returning to Liberty City - the clues are there - which will be familiar to anyone who played the first 3D incarnation of GTA, for the most part at least. You see, as with every GTA game, this one has a particular time-frame; the story takes place three years before the events portrayed in GTAIII - before the silent-but-violent Claude set about his quest for revenge - as players take control of Toni Cipriani.

Toni was (chronologically, 'will be') a character in Claude's glory days, a 'made' member of the Leone mafia family - and this game charts his rise through the ranks. It starts out with his return to Liberty City following a four-year exile, after carrying out a particularly risky execution for Don Salvatore.

Liberty City Stories has now been in development for around the two-year mark, currently set for release sometime in October, and Rockstar Leeds has the development honours. Rightly so, after its previous track record with portable conversions of Midnight Club 3 for PSP and Max Payne for GBA. This time they've been working in conjunction with Rockstar North, and the original minds behind the series at Rockstar New York, so this is as 'GTA' as it can be. Indeed, as Rockstar put it to us, this conversion is not just a watered down version for handhelds, but is considered by the company to be the "next chapter in the series". After seeing it in action, it's easy to see the amount of effort that's gone into the game, with a product that is stunningly comparable to the various PS2 GTA titles.

In fact, that is doing the game an injustice, as it takes some of the best bits of all three PS2 games, and crams them all onto a UMD. It looks so great our eyes could melt - better than with the PSP conversion of Midnight Club 3, this resembles the PS2 games to a tee, with their familiar, likeable roughness and chunky vehicles. GTAIII has obviously contributed the actual playground of destruction we'll all be navigating, though not just a carbon copy of the one already explored. The main areas of Liberty City (Portland, Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale) will be just as recognisable as from our last visit, but have some tweaks: different short cuts, alleys, buildings, and some interiors have been thrown in for good measure too.

Character customisation is not as extensive as in San Andreas, more akin to that seen in Vice City, with certain outfits required for specific missions. Vice City's boats and motorbikes make the journey too, with "everything from scooters to dirt bikes, right up to choppers". That's choppers as in Harleys though, not heli-choppers; the only ones of those you'll see will be shooting at you, no flyboy stats here, but it's already mightily impressive, so we'll happily keep two feet on the ground.

Also, with the increased water-based play [watch it - ed], there will be ferries to travel between each main area, in much the same way as the subway and El-Train work. Some neat graphical touches have been brought in from GTA: San Andreas too, in the form of real-time reflections on cars and wet roads, real-time shadows, and numerous weather types. There's also quite a high level of detail on buildings too, and an improved draw distance compared to GTAIII - all with a solid framerate.

When it comes to the vehicles, there'll be plenty of returning favourites of course, though being set a few years previous to GTAIII, some models will have minor differences, and there'll be some entirely new car types too. In one mission we were shown, "Blow up 'Dolls'", Toni hops into a Sindacco Argento (not unlike a Volvo Estate), to blend in as a member of the Sindacco crime family. Once tricked out by our old pal 8-ball, Toni uses it to demolish a Sindacco factory in an impressive bout of pyrotechnics.

The mission we saw before that, "Trouble with Triads", gave us a good look at the on-foot controls. Rockstar advised us that the shooting controls are an evolution of all the previous games' control methods; closest to San Andreas in look and feel, but with smarter target switching. After effortlessly wiping out a group of Triads and evading their instantly recognisable fish trucks, Toni nabs a Sanchez and scoots back to the safe house.

The last mission we had a look at ("Caught in the Act") was an on-rails first-person shoot-fest on the waters around Staunton Island. Here we saw another minor amendment to the shooting controls; holding down the left trigger reduced the sensitivity of the analogue stick, allowing for smaller, more precise movements to line up those crucial headshots.

The time we had with the game was enough to know it will need some headphones to do the audio justice; the PSP speakers just don't sound up to the task, as GTA has always been strong on the audio front. The actual radio stations are yet to be announced, obviously what with licensing still in the works, but we can look forward to a nice range of tunes as usual; expect some hip-hop and rock, and we're personally hoping for a return of GTAIII's 'Double Cleff' classical station, as well as some world music (there was some funky Hindi music playing during our demo, which we hope makes the final cut).

Moving onto the other audio, namely the voiceovers, nothing has yet been announced, but it's a good bet that Michael Madsen will reprise the role of Toni, though as with San Andreas there may not be an official announcement and it will just be left to players to discover the voices behind the new characters. We asked if Lazlow would be making a welcome contribution, but only got back that "[Lazlow] was involved in many of the radio stations in previous GTA's...", but no mention if he would be popping up in Liberty City Stories; we'll have to wait and see on that front. Fingers crossed for a return of Pogo the Monkey too.

We were only really introduced to one new character, JD O'Toole, a defecting member of the Sindacco family, owner of 'Paulie's Revue Bar' (later to become Luigi's 'Sex Club 7' in GTAIII), and a pie-eating, vest-wearing baldy to boot. Think of a hairier version of Ewen MacIntosh of The Office fame. The streets appeared to be a little quieter than the previous two games, slightly less even than in GTAIII, but the inhabitants will be no less vocal, so the game still has the familiar vibe.

The last thing to check over is how this GTA is structured compared to its console brethren; how does it plan to work on a handheld machine? Well for starters, considering this is just 'the next GTA', it plays pretty much exactly as it always did, though Rockstar are striving for diversity in the missions. The traditional GTA mission and save structure doesn't entirely fit with the dynamic of a portable machine (save for using the PSP's sleep function), but there will be a leaning toward shorter missions.

These will mostly take the form of the telephone missions from GTAIII and Vice City, with telephones liberally spread throughout Liberty City so they're always in reach for a quick game. Of course, the other usual side missions will make the journey too - taxi, hidden packages, emergency services, insane jumps, etc. - along with some new ones, and there will be longer missions too for when the session allows. Rockstar have taken a lot of feedback from the previous games on the most liked mission types and, all in, are aiming for a playtime around the 60-70 hour mark.

Now to draw back on the hyperbole; there are still some hurdles that could bring this game down. The most obvious potential issue will be how long the loading times are. Sony's advice to minimise UMD access to extend battery life means many games get lumbered with long loading times. What we saw of Liberty City Stories was very favourable in this respect, with loading times on par with what we're all used to on the PS2 GTA games, but it was running from a dev-kit so the final build could likely be different. The US version of Rockstar Leeds's own Midnight Club 3 conversion had loading times that marred the experience for many, but the PAL version had much improved loading times, so the hope is high that Liberty City Stories will reap the benefit from this previous experience with the PSP.

The other potential issue will be if, and how well, the traditional GTA gameplay will concede to its new portable environment. Whether players will be happy to spend the time on long multi-part missions on the move, and whether the shorter side missions will be accessible enough for a quick blast, will be deciding factors. Regardless though, this is still GTA, and its legions of fans might well just be happy for a new slice of the pie, even if it is just more of the same. But what we've seen so far is promising - did you expect anything else?

Stephen Rowley
Staff Writer, Kikizo Games