Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories Review

A Grand don't come for free (but £20 seems reasonable).

Version tested: PlayStation 2

"Not a truly outstanding new Grand Theft Auto game then, but an excellent PSP game. Although I do wonder how it'd do in a year's time," he said, summing up Liberty City Stories on the PSP, ooh, six months ago.

Well, I doubt those extra six months I wondered about would make a lot of difference, because while this is a fairly straightforward port of the PSP game, at £20 it's one of the best-value PlayStation 2 games you'll be able to buy all summer.

Shorn of multiplayer that, while good, was never the focus anyway, what's left is a singular, familiar, thoroughly proven and ultimately not that self-critical take on Grand Theft Auto's 3D initiation. Liberty City is more or less the same place it was back when GTA III was such a revelation, and returning to it now with motorbikes, improved animation and third-person targeting, and the ability to dive out of a car while it's moving is surprisingly satisfying.

Not that you'd put that stuff on the back of the box. Liberty City is the real star here - compact but vast at the same time, with an easily remembered layout of neatly connected streets and alleyways, it's got enough big hills, jumps and idiosyncratic touches to prove memorable without exhausting your memory banks the way Vice City and particularly San Andreas did. Key checkpoints on your road to evil-doing - the gun shop Ammu-Nation and the respray shop for dumping the police - are located centrally, and hideouts have enough entertaining areas around them - the multi-storey car-park, the hilly mafia region with its desirable Leone Sentinels, etc. - for ten minutes of directionless fun to satisfy when you're not in the mood for a proper burn.

'Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories' Screenshot 1

The introduction of bikes to Liberty City is certainly welcome.

The learning curve is virtually nil for fans of the... Actually, is there any great point specifying "fans of the series"? Probably not. In any case, the learning curve is virtually nil. We know how the cars behave, for example. So precisely imprecise and delightfully unrealistic. Some people don't like it, but I say bollocks to 'em! (Although actually, this being the Internet, I should probably say that I acknowledge and respect their views and boundaries and will buy them flowers more often and yes I know a hug wouldn't go amiss.) We know how to evade the cops. We know how to run around and shoot at people. We even understand, by now, the quirks of the various mission archetypes - the safe distance it's important to keep when tailing someone, the invisible span of the street-race checkpoints.

It's all unmistakably GTA, and it's almost fair to say that the components parts can afford to be a bit straightforward, the missions unashamedly familiar. To get to the game's second of three islands, Staunton, you have to complete 32 of the things - a mixture of deliveries, multiple-target killings, running people off the road, fending off waves of hostiles, street racing, evading cops, covering friendlies, assassination/theft rituals and so on. The only unusual effort is a Smash TV inspired top-down run-around the hull of a tanker, trying to put distance enough between yourself and lumbering chainsaw-wielders to turn and take them out one at a time. It can be frustrating the first time, but like everything in GTA there's a knack to it - and by now we understand the knack of virtually everything LCS does.

There's also something to be said for the less epic approach. Some of the multi-part missions in Vice City and San Andreas were horrendously difficult. Here you're unlikely to spend more than five minutes on a particular task before you emerge to the familiar tune of a few hundred or thousand dollars. Other free-roaming titles like Driver 4 and Gun have started checkpointing these multi-phase missions, and GTA may yet have to, but Liberty City Stories doesn't need to.

'Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories' Screenshot 2

Drive-bys are much easier on the PS2 than they were on PSP, too.

Six months ago I said the missions were LCS' biggest weakness, but in actual fact there's a lot to be said for them. They give the game much-needed focus, and while seldom surprising they're seldom less than engaging either. You can still approach tasks, like taking down the mayor in the park and stealing his phone, in several ways. Saving a mafia boss from the boot of a crusher-bound car can be done by running the car off the road and nicking it, but you could always steal a fire engine and block the entrance to the goons' hideout before they've made a break for it, and take them down with close-arms-fire instead.

Outside this, the range of sub-missions - taxis, vigilante, etc. - is uninspired but not unenjoyable. Indeed, there's a general theme of returning to a familiar sandbox without hesitation. I absolutely murdered Grand Theft Auto III, and I've played through LCS twice in six months, and I'm still not sick of Liberty's streets. Talkshow host Lazlow, in a typically entertaining turn on the LCFR radio station, remarks, "What's wrong with this town?" The answer is: not very much.

Because where it's the same, LCS is a comfortable game, but where it diverges it's satisfying and comedic. The hidden packages and rampages, the new talkshow content, lead-man Tony Cipriani's brash voicework, running bikes at familiar jumps. You unlock new outfits constantly and generally ignore them, but it's worth the notifications for the first perfect insane stunt - which advises you that you can access a change of underwear at your safehouse.

'Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories' Screenshot 3

Probably our favourite GTA car, this. Slick, fast and defaults to Classic FM.

There's a definite risk of over-celebrating this, and it's a bit of a shame more time wasn't spent imagining new modes of transport, and pouring as much supplemental humour into the nooks and crannies of the world. My all-time favourite GTA III sight-gag has to be the "GAS!" sign that sits on a wall adjacent to Staunton's multi-storey, where the level-of-detail effect gave you a "PETROL!" notice when you pulled back about 50 feet. LCS isn't devoid of those moments, but it's nowhere near as rich a game as some of its predecessors. Likewise, the limits placed on the game's audio content by the use of UMD shouldn't be a factor here, yet there's nothing to separate the soundtrack from its PSP counterpart - and it'll easily run dry through repetition by about the ten-hour mark, if that.

That said, I've spent an unnatural amount of time clawing away at LCS over the past three days, and if Liberty City's the star then the pass-the-parcel approach to game design is the man behind the curtain. The vehicles, for example, grow from a simple affection for Stallions, Sentinels and PCJ-600 bikes with a craving for roadsters to a bedrock of Humvees and sports cars, with greater treats teased by missions and familiar fare five hours later. Weapons are the same - with a delight for uzis soon replaced by a lust for rocket launchers and sniper rifles. The pattern of revelation is a familiar one, but as hooks go it's resilient - it's already snared tens of millions of sales, after all.

As was the case on PSP then, LCS is thoroughly familiar. The point is that you don't mind. We're not sick of the formula, and what's here is a fine distillation of the series' high points to date. A lack of flourish and invention, along with a tired set of on-foot mechanics, rob it of a higher mark - but too much stands in its favour not to recommend it.

8 / 10

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Comments (35) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Kami #1 6 years ago

    If you love GTA, you'll love this. If you don't, then I guess there's nothing here to change your mind then, right?
  • Stormflood. #2 6 years ago

    I love GTA, but I certainly can't be bothered with such a reprise.
  • dbeamish #3 6 years ago

  • smoison #4 6 years ago

    First PSP game to be ported to PS2!!!!

    Its probably still the best game on my PSP by far too.
  • JediMasterMalik #5 6 years ago

    I dont think the graphics are as good as wither of them.
  • El_MUERkO #6 6 years ago

    i'll be picking this up so

    /owns a PSP

    /refuses to update past 1.5
  • SeesThroughAll #7 6 years ago

    Interesting that this review seemed not to get influenced by the fact that this game IS a port. And a very direct one at that. Multiplayer was stripped altogether. Were it a regular PS2 to PSP port I doubt the final score would have been 8.
    Edited by 1 at 06/06/06 @ 12:22
  • --Ad-- #8 6 years ago

  • Madder-Max #9 6 years ago

    Who cares about the graphics? Its the playability thats key and its GTA! :oD
  • Arganoid #10 6 years ago

    GTA3 was my favourite game of all time, but the sequels never interested me that much. I think I must have played GTA3 so much that I got my lifetime's fill of GTA action.
  • Chtulie #11 6 years ago

    any chance of a forthcoming x-box or pc version?
  • mechamonkey #12 6 years ago

    I am astounded that the multiplayer hasnt been brought across for online enabled PS2 players.
    Really if you havent played a multiplayer PSP game then you are seriously missing out and I know that my co-workers and I will all all tell you its what kept that UMD jammed in our PSPs to this day.
  • nick_f Verified Senior Producer, Microsoft #13 6 years ago

    PSP Ad Hoc (local wireless play) is a world away from PS2 online play. Not remotely surprising that the multiplayer was dropped for what is, in essence, a budget title.
  • wanksta10 #14 6 years ago

    hey like the one guy said does anyone know if there's an xbox version on the way and i also want to know if it's got anything graphically better bout it compared to it's psp counterpart :)
  • Triggerhappytel #15 6 years ago

    Does anyone know if CJ's jump & climb ability from SA made it into this? That was one of my favourite features, it really felt like it opened the world up a lot.

    GTA 3 was my favourite of the series so far, but I don't think I'll get this. Liberty is also my favourite city so far, and I put dozens and dozens of hours into it four years ago (and a few times since then). I don't think I'd spend £20 just to play the same area with a few new moves, vehicles and abilities.

    At least R* has released it at a budget price (average of about £15 online), so the price certainly justifies the content. And it's good to see Lazlow back where he belongs.
  • Artemus #16 6 years ago

    Does it look worse than GTA3? Are those screens actually from the PSP version?
  • jack_klugman #17 6 years ago

    At least R* has released it at a budget price (average of about £15 online), so the price certainly justifies the content. And it's good to see Lazlow back where he belongs.

    I love the use of "R*" in that post.
  • Rambaldi #18 6 years ago

    GTA: Squeeza Cash Cow Stories
  • Raziel #19 6 years ago

    Having never played the PSP version, and having a broken GTAIII disc, I'm certainly looking forward to this.
  • Hunam85 #20 6 years ago

    From the psp version, i wont be touching this, eurgh
  • tengu #21 6 years ago

    "Its probably still the best game on my PSP by far too."

    Nope, there's far better available now.
  • Tomo #22 6 years ago

    I should be picking this up along with the 1.5 brethren.
  • ruckus #23 6 years ago

    Can you do hold-ups in this one though? The one thing I missed in SA...
  • Mr_Brown #24 6 years ago

    I love GTA...but I shall wait for GTA4 thanks.
  • Luigi #25 6 years ago

    I wasn't expecting a "new" GTA for the ps2 and it's fits perfectly on the library. Well, it's better than Driver4.
  • valli #26 6 years ago

    not widescreen?

    It has a widescreen option, just like the previous games.
  • ChrisOTR #27 6 years ago

    "/owns a PSP

    /refuses to update past 1.5"

    I'm getting so bored of these kind of comments. People act like having a 1.5 PSP makes you some kind of elite hacker god.
  • ProEvoNut #28 6 years ago

    does anyone know if there are any planes or choppers in this version
  • Teeth #29 6 years ago

    I would also like answers on graphics and player abilities, although I'm inclined from the screenies to believe slightly updated graphics (cars, effects etc), same city graphics, and inclined from gut feeling to believe no wall climbing stuff.
    Edited by 1 at 07/06/06 @ 17:33
  • Luigi #30 6 years ago

    wow !! They actually did it. I honestly thought that they used the original GTAIII engine and somehow "adapt" and "convert" it to the PSP with a new storyline. What do we get for the ps2? A horrible (graphically speaking) game that manages to look even worse than the 2001 GTAIII. It's 30€, ok for that, but they didn't even bother to use the original ps2 GTAIII map and somehow recreate the whole PSP game. Too much work, i guess... It's easy to just pick up the UMD disk, copy it to DVD and re-selling it again. I'm a GTA fan, and it's always good to have a "new" GTA but this titles doesn't give much credibillity to the name. Hope that it never ends as Driver.
  • presh #31 6 years ago

    Jeez, why are so many people so bitter about this game? It's like a meeting of moaners anonymous.

    It's a £15 game, FFS! Remember GTAIII? You know, that game that everyone thought was so brilliant? Well this is the same, but with different missions, and no helicopters, but motor bikes to make up for it.

    Obviously GTA4 is going to have better graphics, less sandboxing, etc etc - it's also going to be out next year, and cost close to £60.

    If anyone want's a bit more of the GTA universe, that's up to the high standards of gameplay as the others in the series, then get this - it's cheaper than most Platinum games.



  • Mick #32 6 years ago

  • souljah #33 6 years ago

    10/10 simply for MSX 98!

    /brocks out
  • Madder-Max #34 6 years ago

    Thre is loads more good stuff t be said about this game. MSX 98 for starters (OMni Trio - Thru the vibe 1 and 2 mix). generally the music is spot on. Avenging Angels missions...the extra gunshop that sells the mini gun, flame thrower, rocket launcher etc...

    The missions are also spot on and not as irrationally hard as GTA III, and of course there is the element of it being 3 years previous and seeing the changes to the city...and the ferries.....there's loads more....

    Oh...and PSP = Playstation paperweight.
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/06 @ 14:05
  • Mashum #35 6 years ago

    I just picked up this one for 15 quid earlier today and I'm sad to say that even at that price my first impression is dissapointment. I hoped for GTAIII plus the benifits of five years of progress in the coder's art but it's just a mission pack with motorbikes and slightly worse graphics.

    ...oh well, the 360 should be back from the menders this week then I can stop slumming it ;) roll on Dead Rising!
    Edited by 1 at 21/08/06 @ 00:24