| GTA: Liberty City Stories review |
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Shortly after release, GTAIII proved to be one of those rare beasts which appear once or twice every decade - containing an appeal that moved beyond its typical audience to become a cultural beacon for what many view to be both right and wrong in videogaming today. While Rockstar North took advantage of the commercial potential, plaudits streamed in for the quality of design that underlined the overriding appeal GTAIII held - its freedom. It didn't take long afterwards for a number of the series' critics to take hold of the elements underpinning this freedom, namely violent criminal behaviour, and for the series' popularity to be used to generalise the extent to which videogaming is often viewed as a malignant and harmful medium. With two sequels following, the formula of GTAIII's success has been expanded and built on to the pinnacle current-generation consoles will allow, so it came as a surprise to many that Rockstar have attempted to recreate the modern day GTA experience on a handheld (the PSP) which is seen as technologically inferior to the series' key platform - the PS2.
Developed by Rockstar Leeds in conjunction with Rockstar North, what Liberty City Stories demonstrates is not a revelation in design innovation, but a revelation in their canny ability to fit vast amounts of content, ideas and clever use of technology together which shouldn't ordinarily work. Make no mistake - this is one of the most impressive technical and content-driven achievements 2005 has seen so far, and makes short work of the claims that the PSP's battery life, clock speed and UMD storage medium would make a full 3D GTA impossible.
Whilst it's fitting that Rockstar have chosen to return to the city which helped birth the series' revolution, once the initial wow factor has worn off that the game is happening on a handheld, the limitations of the PSP’s build begin to make themselves known. Specifically, camera and targeting have undergone modification to fit a lack of buttons, and whilst the latter isn't as bad as early word suggested, the lack of control over the camera creates an initially awkward sense of rigidity. In acclimatising to these modifications, the various facets of the game rise to the surface, with car control and the accompanying physics proving to be remarkably close to their multi-platform counterparts. The AI also continues to delight in constructing a believable, independent world – with car-jackings, muggings, police intervention and gang riots taking place whether you intervene or not. It’s these caricatures of social cohesion that manage to sustain the impression you’re only one small part of a very large whole, and make the series’ flaws all the more bearable.
Essentially at its core, Liberty City Stories is (in gameplay terms) GTAIII with bells and whistles on – most notable additions being the introduction of motorcycles and courier missions. The narrative isn't quite as engaging as its bigger brothers, and predictably, the content shades in comparison to San Andreas. One of the key areas for these flaws is that while the writing is engaging, the characters themselves never seem to intersect or tie up together into Toni Cipriani's (the main character) larger story. As a result, progression through the narrative can feel disconnected and abrupt as you move from one place to the next. Luckily, the series' sandbox design has always been its main driving force, and the blending of intertextual references over to the vibrant atmosphere of a living, breathing city hasn't been lost in the translation. The series has never skipped a beat when it comes to returning to characters, objects and situations that have entered its lineage, and nothing has changed here.
Uncomfortably, the game's biggest problems stem from its uncompromising vision. While on the one hand it’s admirable that Rockstar Leeds have been determined to faithfully recreate the GTA experience, the problem associated with this direction is that there are huge portions which don't work well with the on-the-go nature of handheld gaming. The most immediately obvious examples prove to be the ones that would first come to mind upon considering the handheld medium - safe houses, vehicle side-missions and the inability to purchase weapons at trip-skip taxis. All of these problems could have been avoided - namely interior locations could have been repeated for extension of save locations, vehicle side-missions could have saved off the individual levels you reach, and a portable ammunation vehicle could have been created for when you fail missions and want to get back quickly. The background levelling-up systems in San Andreas which helped riding, driving and shooting become easier the more you played have also been precluded, and this is highly evident when using motorcycles and getting knocked off at the slightest touch. It's baffling why Rockstar have refused to make subtle alterations to the GTA formula to help compensate for the lack of time people may have in playing the game during single sittings. For new fans to the series such stubbornness will likely be seen as impractical for a portable format, together with the amount of dizzying content Liberty City Stories offers. Yet the fact remains when GTA finds its stride, it can be a highly engrossing experience (especially for those visiting Liberty City for the first time).
In light of these issues it's to the game's credit that it remains a horribly addictive experience. All the slivers of detail which helped propel the experiences in the previous titles are evident in both the structure and content enveloping it - packages, rampages and stunt jumps returning to provide welcome diversions from the main adventure. The radio stations too, while lacking the licensing of Vice City and San Andreas, return with a more personal, creative and imaginative fusion of real-world songs and in-house efforts. The radio banter from the DJs and commercials is as obviously satirical, amusing and as juvenile as ever. On top of this, Rockstar Leeds have thankfully included a few extra side-missions to accompany the usual amount along with a plethora of storyline missions, which serve to grace Liberty City Stories with a greater depth than GTAIII - they're also slightly shorter and simpler than what's been seen before and, while lacking the excruciating challenge of those found in the console iterations, help offset the frustrations that have become expected of GTA. In terms of overall difficulty, the title is a more balanced and sedate affair, which makes the experience (in parts) more accessible, although it’s unfortunate that such consideration isn’t expanded to the whole package. In comparison, the presentation (from the aesthetic style and graphical engine to the menu system and statistics keeping) is an exemplary indication of Rockstar Leeds’s attention to the quality of their production. Liberty City Stories spares no expense in making itself appear every inch a fully fledged GTA.
Having said this, such determination to be faithful to its forebears is occasionally contradicted by small stutters whilst opening garages or changing radio stations as the UMD is accessed. Taking into account the lack of load times and amount of streaming however, it's something that is easily forgivable. Apart from a small load screen at the start and between each of the three islands, Liberty City Stories offers an experience that is on par with its console brethren when it comes to delivering a fluent world, and in certain areas arguably goes further than ever before.
Multiplayer in Liberty City Stories takes the two-player tinkering in San Andreas to a different level by offering action between up to six players. There are seven modes in total spanning the entire environment of the game, and each of them is Rockstar's own peculiar take on established multiplayer conventions. While these components became Liberty City Stories' key selling points in the run-up to release, in truth they still fit in much as extras when compared to the comprehensive state of the single-player experience. However, whereas the series' nature has previously been dictated by small incremental changes, the rapid evolution of the multiplayer concept seen here, whilst stopping short of revolution, helps to make up for design content which has been dropped either out of development time pressures or technical necessity. The only significant flaw present in the multiplayer modes is that the environment perhaps would have been better suited to being cut up into individual arenas (in the vein of Resident Evil 4: Mercenaries) as with a few players the change of pace from a lively Liberty City to a dead, lifeless rendition can be initially jarring.
Being viewed in the context of its own series and in relation to its multiplayer content, Liberty City Stories’ single-player is somewhat stagnant and predictable. If you're familiar with GTA then you'll know precisely what to expect, and while it would be harsh to call the game a rehash of GTAIII, there is a significant lack of surprises compared to Vice City and San Andreas spread throughout the adventure. Mission design for example never quite blossoms or branches off into the unknown, and everything seen in the first ten hours of play is more or less echoed the further progression takes place. Rockstar have created an absorbing experience, but it’s one that undeniably finds itself falling back on past glories and technical innovations to conceal the relative conservatism expressed in design. The main weapon in the game's arsenal to combat this familiarity is the fact that Liberty City remains the strongest city Rockstar have produced in terms of atmosphere, and it still manages to evoke the sensation of being the most complete location within GTA’s universe. For this reason alone, the game continually manages to compel and stimulate interest, whereas lesser titles would have fallen foul of the familiarities of their own conceptions.
Intriguingly, Liberty City Stories also comes as a breath of fresh air to the PSP - a system which until now has been swamped with arcade-style releases and limited in overall genre interest. While it's true this game alone won't plug the gap, Rockstar Leeds have shown that console-quality narrative-led experiences can be produced on the PSP given the right effort, dedication and determination. There can be no denying that in terms of sheer enjoyment and worth, the game delivers exactly what its pre-release promised. As ever with GTA, the flaws and problems can be overlooked for the sheer amount of things which do work, though what Liberty City Stories shows more than any other recent title in the series, is that this can’t go on forever.
Rockstar's trailblazing hasn't hit a brick wall - it's merely changed its tune to something else.
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System: Sony PlayStation Portable
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar
Players: 1-6
Version: European
Reviewed: Dec 2005
Writer: Ben Mottershead
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Pros:
- Offers a full, near-console GTA experience with little compromise
- Lots to see and do
- Several interesting multiplayer modes
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Cons:
- In offering a near-console quality GTA experience, the lack of compromise doesn't necessarily suit its host format
- Single-player missions inevitably feel predictable in places due to the re-use of Liberty City
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GTA: Liberty City Stories Video: 5.7MB
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