Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Vibe.com, July 24th, 2006

In the PS2 version, it’s pretty much the same. You play as Toni Cipriani, a member of the Leone Crime Family, who has returned from hiding after doing a big mafia crime job for Don Slavatore on behalf of the family. You get down with Vincenzo Cilli who helps you get back into the flow of things and gives you a few missions to get your feet wet. But how does this compare to the rest of the GTA franchise?

Audio/Visual: The graphics look impressive on the PSP, but when directly ported to the PS2, they don’t look so good. On the PS2, Liberty City Stories is competing against previous Grand theft Auto games and for the port to PS2, there was virtually no improvement. It looks the same as it does on the PSP, which is blocky characters and no enhancement to any of the vehicles or environments. The games does move a bit more fluid, but it basically looks the same. It sounds the same too, which is a good thing. The soundtrack, even though is smaller, provides some good tunes from Mobb Deep, Method Man, Raekwon and Big Pun. The voice-over is top notch as always with Frank Vincent (Phil Leotardo of The Sopranos), Danny Mastrogiorgio (Vinnie in The Last Don) and Will Janowitz (Finn of The Sopranos) providing the commentary for most of the game.

Controls: The controls are pretty much the same as any other GTA game, except the targeting control is a bit buggy. When you’re in the midst of a shootout and you’re trying to blast on some fools, sometimes the targeting mechanism lands on civilians that are in the way. So when you’re shooting the wrong people, the right people’s gunshots make you levitate and you die. It’s a constant annoyance.

Hotness: Well, it is another GTA title with a cool story in , great voice acting and plenty of action but…

Wackness: … it is blogged with the same tired type of missions and game play that has as of late wore itself out. Hopefully the next GTA title will bring something fresh.

Test Drive Rating: 3/5