"Flawed by the standards of the console GTA's, but impressive for a handheld"

Liberty City Stories is an impressive display of the PSP's prowess both in graphics and in audio. As a GTA game, it certainly isn't the best of the bunch but it lives up to the console versions in the points that matter. The story of Liberty City Stories involves Toni Cipriani, a member of the Leone crime family who seeks to make things right with his boss Salvatore. Humorously, a smaller storyline revolves around his volatile relationship with his mother. In both instances, it's fairly obvious that the game's scope story-wise isn't as grand or sophisticated as its console counterparts. This really isn't much of an issue given that the mechanics, graphics, and audio of the game pretty much match the best of what the PS2 versions offered. Make no mistake, Liberty City Stories is about as much of a "port of GTA III" as Vice City and San Andreas. The game shares the same location as GTA III, but nearly every facet of the game has been tweaked and made its own. Overall, LCS is a trendsetting game that combines solid gameplay mechanics, excellent exploration, and a fantastic use of the PSP's hardware.

Graphics

The game looks pretty blocky, at least by the standards of games like Vice City, but it's a better polygon count than GTA III by a long shot. The road textures and some of the buildings look very nice, but most of the terrain is extremely blurry and unrealistic. All of this is negated by the fact that the draw distance is simply incredible... even by console standards. With the exception of some locations in Staunton Island, you can see for nearly a mile in any direction without any terrain pop-up. Of course, pedestrians and cars have a much closer pop-up radius but that's to be expected.

Overall, the game looks good and most definitely pushes the PSP's hardware to the limits polygon-wise. Surprisingly, the framerate is stable for the vast majority of the game. In fact, the only time I've seen it bog down considerably was when I changed radio stations or got into a particularly nasty wreck. Having a large amount of characters on the screen doesn't seem to impact the framerate in the least, and driving fast down alleys also doesn't alter the framerate.

Nevertheless, the blocky pedestrians and blurry building textures detract from an otherwise great-looking game. Small nod goes to the reflections on cars, which didn't make it into Vice City or GTA III on the PS2.

Sound

The soundtrack is mostly forgettable b-rated material, but there's a lot of it. Every kind of genre known to man is covered here, much like the other GTA games, and you listen to what you want through the radio station. The fake commercials and commentary on the talk radio station make the game far more humorous than its missions do; alleviating some of the stress of constantly doing some pretty dirty and disturbing missions.

Most of the popular artists can be found on Liberty Jam, a rap station. If you're into that kind of thing, this'll be a major perk to the soundtrack. For anyone expecting some big-name rock bands... sorry, your princess is in another castle. On the audio menu, the game sports a "custom soundtrack" feature but as of this writing nobody has figured out how to use this feature.

The voice acting is fantastic as always, but some of the bigger-name voice actors from the console versions didn't make it into Liberty City Stories. It's a shame that while the soundtrack is worlds better than anything ever produced on a portable, it pales in comparison to gems like Vice City.

Gameplay

Unlike the other GTA's where you're primarily a loner who gathers occasional contracts with crime syndicates, in Liberty City Stories you're very much a loyal member of the Leone crime family. Your dedication to Mr. Leone is unquestionable and Leone's trust in you is also unquestionable. This variant of the storyline actually makes the game a bit easier to swallow, because you start to develop a deep appreciation for Mr. Leone and a lot of the things he has to put up with.

This is also the first GTA to really make you feel like you're a mob boss and not some guy "trying to take over a town". For what its worth, it's a different experience than the console versions.

The same terrible fighting system made its way into Liberty City Stories, only now it's worse in nearly every way imaginable. The targeting system is bizarre and usually targets pedestrians over people you're supposed to kill, the analog nub is annoyingly picky, and the controls simply feel unrefined. Aiming is especially agonizing as you have to hold both the L button and the analog nub... a mighty painful combination.

Driving, fortunately, has improved. Cars handle much more responsively and the nub does a surprisingly good job of simulating different levels of pressure while turning.

On the whole, Liberty City Stories feels pretty much exactly like its console counterparts... which is both a blessing and a curse. So little has changed this time around that it's starting to feel a bit "old". On the other hand, the fact that this game is so much like the PS2 versions is truly a testament both to the PSP and the PS2. Very impressive.

Value

It's a long game and there's plenty of secrets to get along the way. The game starts to really open up once you get to Staunton Island, but it still feels a bit half-baked and uninspired compared to the PS2 versions. Make no mistake, this is most definitely a fantastic game that would have never been thought possible on a handheld, but it's still somewhat past its prime.

Nevertheless, fans of the GTA series and PSP owners who want to see what their handheld can do definitely owe it to themselves to give this game a shot.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/28/05