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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has received a
great deal of attention since it’s unveiling at E3 2008, perhaps
more so than any other third-party Nintendo DS game. This probably
 won’t
come as a surprise to most Hardcore Gamers, as many feel that the
handheld system has rarely catered to their demographic in recent
times, and such a stand-out “mature” game should undoubtedly grab
the headlines. However, these headlines have been limited to that
exact audience, and the sales since release have been decidedly
sluggish. So, is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars a case of
growing awareness, or having made the wrong market aware?
By its definition, Grand Theft Auto is the
pinnacle of casual gaming. Not only does it feature open-ended
gameplay in which the player is free to set their own goals, but it
does so without relying on complicated status screens or confusing
control configurations. This is why many felt that Grand Theft
Auto: San Andreas may have crossed into too much new territory,
and also why Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is everything a
Grand Theft Auto game should be.
Viewed from the top-down perspective most closely linked
to the first two Grand Theft Auto titles on PC and
PlayStation (and, of course, their subsequent expansion packs), the
Nintendo DS vision of Liberty City is immediately recognisable
despite the eagle-eye view. Controlling your on-screen avatar with
the Nintendo DS’s diminutive D-Pad can initially seem unpredictable,
but soon becomes second nature when coupled with a generous use to
the L Button to centre the screen. Vehicle handling is considerably
easier to get to grips with, with cars, trucks and bikes
automatically aligning themselves with not just the road, but each
individual lane. The automatic adjustment isn’t so much that you can
rely on it to keep you heading in a perfect line around corners, but
it will allow for nipping in-and-out of traffic with only quick
stabs of the D-Pad.
Other controls have been refined dramatically, such as
automatic targeting when driving and the incorporation of the host
system’s Touch Screen into many of the series’ general gameplay
aspects. Hotwiring transport, raiding dumpsters for weaponry or
ammunition, organising your drugs stash and utilising the features
of your apartment are all conducted with simple swipes of the Touch
Screen, and each has been delicately adapted – including sufficient
delay to allow for removal of the Stylus from its’ tidy home.
The missions present have also been designed entirely
around the handheld ideal: short bursts of play with increasingly
intriguing storyline suggestions. And though not quite as forceful
in the offering of its freedom as its most recent bigger brother,
Grand Theft Auto IV, many of the objectives can be tackled in
numerous ways. The delivery of each mission objective also seems to
be of a deeper weave than the home console releases seen so far,
with each and every mission being the result of, or introduction to,
a new shift in the storyline. The only killing for killing’s sake in
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is that which the player
decides for themselves.
Reinforcing the instantaneous nature of this outing, the
game allows the immediate restart of a mission after failure simply
by pressing the select button. The “trip skip” option may not
be a new idea, but it is certainly more warranted when you’ve only
five minutes to play, opposed to five hours. Plenty of distractions
are available – both the cabbie and police side missions make the
jump to handheld, as well as the much touted drug dealing Mini-Game.
Here, the player is treated to an admirable recreation of the
infamous late 90’s shareware Dope Wars. While the original
application may have been little more than a comedic calculator,
here it is engrained into the roots of Liberty City, and is bound to
reappear in subsequent releases.
Liberty City looks fantastic, the Cel-Shading technique
looking just as fresh as in Jet Set Radio or The Legend of
Zelda: The Wind Waker. Each and every street is intricately
detailed and brimming with life – more so than most comparative home
console offerings in the same genre. Newer fans of the franchise may
find the perspective somewhat disorientating at first, but only at
first, and fans of the original outings will immediately offer
respect to Rockstar Games for not being ashamed of what may sound
like particularly diminutive roots on paper, and proving that
in-play it’s more than just a series of checkboxes on a Press
Release.
The adult nature of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
is unmistakeable; even the Splash Screen prior to the game
displays mysterious white parcels being exchanged for cash over two
variants of the Rockstar Games logo. The developers were clearly
anticipating more anti-Nintendo DS Grand Theft Auto
campaigning than the game actually received, as it seems that almost
every aspect is designed to create controversy.
Rockstar Games may have been striving for loftier goals at retail,
with many reports claiming the end of their interest in developing
for Nintendo systems has come about rather suddenly. Indeed, much of
the Hardcore market is widely known to have moved on from regularly
purchasing Nintendo DS releases – casting a worrying shadow upon
SEGA and High Voltage Software’s upcoming The Conduit, as the
situation is very similar with Wii at present – and although they
may well be aware of the game, few so far responded with monetary
support. This, unquestionably, is more than just a shame, and unless
players begin to recognise the simply astounding presentation that
is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, developers could be
turned away from offering traditional videogames on the Nintendo DS
forever. |
