Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars is truly a masterpiece on the DS
+ Fun missions
+ Epic storyline
+ Lots of things to do even after completion
+ Makes good use of the touch screen
Negatives
- Story is a bit to short
You might be thinking that Chinatown Wars looks like it takes the GTA series back in time and that it would also take the fun out of it, but your wrong, despite the birds eye view Liberty City is still a fantastic place to explore and dosen't look bad on the whole.
Your father was a leader of a major gang in Liberty City- the Triads, a precious sword was also stolen, you must now go to Liberty city and get back the sword as well as avenge your fathers death,
On the way you'll meet corrupt cops and arragont gangsters wanting to take your fathers place as leader, so your in good company.
The plot has many twists and will make you want to continue the missions in order to find out what's going to happen, not normally something that would appear in the shooter genre- but it really does, as well as the missions being just plain fun.
On to the gameplay, the story will last you around 8 to 9 hours and again the storyline is really good with plenty of twists it makes you really want to play the missions, even if it takes several attempts.
Saying that all missions are generally easy, especially if your prepared with weapons, explosives and body armour (all can be bought online and delivered to your appartement in hours)
They have a good variety, you'll find yourself attacking enemy gangs, trading drugs on land, in the air and in the sea.
Highlights also include building a sniper rifle with your touch screen, going through Chinatown in a dragon float whilst blowing into the DS microphone to breath fire and throwing molotovs out of a helicopter as you stop traitors escaping.
As I said, it makes great use of the touch screen, the ones you use most will be for parked cars, you can break into them by wiring them, decoding their security or using a screwdriver to start the ignition, it's different every time and is much more realisitic than in previous games where you just get in and go.
Chinatown wars also offers other things once you have finished the main story- these include making money doing taxi missions, police missions, medical missions and drug dealing.
There's also a huge world to explore with loads of fun easter eggs to mess around with and riots to cause.
Music on the radiostations is also very well suited to the game- it's not licensed so they've made it themselves, usually they're short repetetive funk/jazz/trance tunes which may sound awfully boring but in reality they suit the style of gameplay very well, quick drives to and from missions and around Liberty city.
Despite it's looks Liberty city is extremely deep on the DS and if you look closer it's acctually very detailed and well done.
There's a variety of vechiles (bikes and cars) all with their unique feels from different acceleration levels, handling capabilities and max speeds.
There's also boats to explore the seas' and rivers' in true style.
Over all Chinatown wars is one of the best games I've ever played and is a must own for any DS owner, it's almost a reason for you to go and buy a DS now if you don't own one.
Thanks for reading, goodbye!