Video Game Review: ‘Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars’ Game of the Year to Date

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CHICAGO – Rockstar Games has done it again. Like “Grand Theft Auto IV,” they’ve released a game that we all thought would be really good but they’ve somehow found a way to surpass expectations and delievered even more than most fans thought possible. There have been some excellent games in the first quarter of 2009 - “Killzone 2” and “Resident Evil 5” stand out - but “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars” gets my vote for game of the year to date.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Photo credit: Rockstar Games

“Chinatown Wars” succeeds because it so consistently surprises the player. Even the best shooters often follow a predictable pattern. It’s rare to be truly surprised by a game.

Yes, there are recognizable elements in this installment of the “GTA” franchise but they’ve all been wonderfully reconfigured to play to the strengths of the DS. “Chinatown” is both refreshingly nostalgic in its top-down design and like nothing you’ve ever played with a stylus.

Rockstar Leeds, the company that designed both “Liberty City Stories” and “Vice City Stories” for the PSP, took the reins for the first “Grand Theft Auto” for a Nintendo platform. Members of the “GTA” team at Rockstar North and Rockstar NY also worked on the project and the decade’s worth of experience with this legendary franchise shows in every mission and element of design for “Chinatown Wars”.

You play Huang Lee, a young member of the Chinese Triad crime syndicate in Hong Kong who is coming over to Liberty City after the murder of his father. Huang meets with the newest elder patriarch, his Uncle Wu ‘Kenny’ Lee and is tasked with delivering the ‘Yu Jian,’ an ancient sword, to the new leader. Huang is ambushed and taken down at the airport, shot, robbed, and left to die.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Photo credit: Rockstar Games

“Chinatown Wars” is both a vengeance tale against the people who tried to kill you and a quest for dominance of Liberty City. Huang works with several gangs to solve the mystery, become a power player in the city, and ultimately secure his Uncle’s position as leader of the Triads.

Between various Chinatown gang-related missions, Huang becomes a powerful drug dealer. As you progress through the game, you can work with dealers all around the city, buying the right drug at the right time for a hefty profit. Don’t get busted by the cops with drugs in your bag. You’ll be out the cash and the dope. Being a drug dealer isn’t easy.

The gameplay in “Chinatown Wars” is fluid and beautiful. Instead of just giving in to the graphical limitations of the DS, Rockstar uses them to their advantage, designing a game with a gorgeous, animated style. And the camera work is stunning. The city has been modeled in 3D and the camera rotates in 360 degrees, pushing in and pulling out as the action demands it.

Throughout the game, you’ll constantly be accessing an in-game PDA that gives you tips on drug deals, turf maps, emails about upcoming missions, and much, much more. And the game, like all “GTA” games, is filled with side missions, most of which are perfectly designed to use the stylus. Make some cash drawing tattoos or play the lottery with scratch cards.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Photo credit: Rockstar Games

Over 100 vehicles, over 900,000 lines of hand-optimized code, dozens off missions, a 24 hour day/night cycle with weather conditions in the city, inventive side quests, and the ability to replay missions to earn medals and attain higher scores. What more are you looking for from a “GTA” game?

The controls in “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars” will constantly keep you smiling. You use the face buttons to drive and shoot, but the stylus regularly comes into play, whether it’s replicating a screwdriver to hot-wire a car or whether you’re using it to tap out a windshield after you take a turn too hard and land in the drink.

The single player would be enough to make “Chinatown Wars” a must-buy on its own but the multiplayer pushes it over the edge to Game of the Year status. Players can play locally in Wi-Fi multiplayer modes like “Single Race,” “Stash Dash,” “Liberty City Survivor” or “Gang Bang” and they can even log into the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and chat live in-game via Instant Message as well as trade in-game commodities like cash and weapons.

Like “Grand Theft Auto IV,” “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars” is an incredibly deep, rewarding experience. Honestly, Rockstar could have released this handheld companion to the console games with half the missions, depth, and detail that they did. They are a company that doesn’t just deliver what they need to in order to make money, they deliver something that will blow the fans away. Other developers should take notes.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com