Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

The Game that made me fall in love with the GTA series.

Its such a beautiful game for its time. A lot of fun, violence and open world.

The story and characters were engaging. There was so much to do in this game.

Verdict: Made Man Game.

I have just completed this game for the second time. For those who haven't bought it and are doubting buying it i will say, don't think this will be like GTA3. Its not.

The city is the same layout but bits are different. I wont spoil it as its worth two days constant playing it.

The only real problem i had was trying to put it into a time line with the others. GTA, GTA London and GTA 2 aren't part of this saga. GTA3 GTA VC GTA SA and Liberty City stories form a saga but there's no logical pattern into which order that go. So far I've decided its GTA SA, GTA VC, LCS and then GTA 3 last.

Anyway, my logic aside, if you love the first GTA's you'll love this. Just remember, its 18 so not for kids.

While this game isn't on the grand scale of GTA: San Andreas, it still holds true to the normal GTA style. Its missing the "RPG" aspects of GTA:SA, like improving skills and eating to stay healthy, but its a nice throw-back to the good ol' days of GTA: just shoot, steal, and stay alive. But it was originally a PSP game, and I don't have a PSP, so I'll just be grateful they ported it. I also hope they port Vice City Stories to PS2 at some point, even if its not for a year like with LCS.

One thing that's nice is that the game is set in the same old Liberty City as GTA III, but with the graphics quality of San Andreas. There's a cleaner, enhanced look to the buildings, vehicles and characters. Its nice to see a new face on an old city.

The only thing that bugs me is the lack of a good radio station. This game is supposed to be set in 1998, and I remember a lot of good music from those days, which is absent from the game. I just turn the radio off every time I enter a vehicle.

I give it an 9/10. Its not San Andreas and I'm not expecting it to be. I think its an excellent game in its own right, and the only thing better would be decent radio stations.

In my heart i feel that this game did not get the press it deserved. It was just as brilliant as all of the other "Grand Theft Auto" Games. So if you're looking for a little fun on the run, pick of a copy of this Game for the Sony PSP. There's nothing more satisfying then having "Grand Theft Auto" at you're side. A true Fan of the "Grand Theft Auto" series will know that this is the real deal. Nothing is left out. What you get with the "Grand Theft Auto" Games on the PlayStation 2 Console , is what you get with the PSP. The action delivers, and this Game is nothing short of spectacular. It is a wonderful masterpiece on a hand-held. A world within a world. And i am truly impressed with RockStar Games, for pulling this off. And if you own a PSP, i would strongly recommend that you buy this title. And even if you don't own a PSP, this is the most single reason without a doubt that you should go out and pick one up. This Game alone is wroth it, i guarantee it. Enjoy.

For a while, I couldn't place just why Liberty City Stories, a game made 4 years after its parent title, looked somehow worse than GTA 3. Then it hit me: which has superior graphics is depatable, but III, though, had more realisitc (or at the very least, more detailed) textures. Not just that, but III had, oddly for the older game, a lot more vivid, immersive world-building detail: the reflective puddles on the ground when it rains, the shine on cars that reflects accurately when you turn; all living, breathing minutae that are oddly absent in LCS, which, on top of that, has a vaguely more murky texture somewhat closer to San Andreas. LCS was a step back for the franchise in other ways: gone was San Andreas' RPG element, as well as this other crazy new thing San Andreas introduced called Swimming (yup, we're back to sinking like a freakin' stone as soon as we step more than a couple inches into the sea). GTA 3 had a rough, almost hand-made charm to it, and this roughness made it feel authentic. This prequel (akin to having a darling indie movie that gets a Hollywood follow-up) has a lot more stuff to do, more gameplay elements tacked on, but feels slightly on the empty side when stacked against its parent.

All that out of the way, when compared to the imposing shadow cast by many other GTA titles LCS may seem a bit mid, it's still a damn good game in its own right (and for my money, boasts the best theme song so far in the series). A prequel set three years prior to III - and where many of the story missions revolve around setting up the events of - the player assumes control of a younger version of Toni Cipriani (a mission-giver introduced in the original title) as he works his way up from low-level foot soldier to made man to Leone family Don Salvatore's right-hand man. Along the way, you make enemies of pretty much every other gang - mafia and hoods - on the streets of Liberty (many of whose NPC's will attack you on sight afterward) as you vie to single-handedly shift the city's power dynamics and bring Liberty City under Leone influence. The plot is relatively stock and a bit uneven at times, some of the missions might be a dreck (but what game's aren't?), and, on the mobile port at least (where I played it), the touchscreen controls are at times garbage. More than anything, LCS was originally designed as a demo of Rockstar's capabilities on mobile platforms (back when the PSP came out) and wasn't really aiming too high. And that's fine, since what came out of it is still a helluva lot more than average, and is enough to keep me coming back. 7.5/10.