Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Preview
By Gaetano Prestia
The Nintendo DS is a fantastic handheld gaming device. There’s absolutely no doubting that. It’s been able to reinvent on-the-go gaming with its innovative design and fantastic library of games that take advantage of its button layout and touch-screen. After a few months of growing pains after its launch, there is rarely a DS game released that isn’t worth at least a rent. However, it still lacks that one title that pushes it over the line of greatness. That one title that will grab otherwise disinterested gamers and generate a level of attention not seen for a handheld since the days of the original GameBoy. That one title that will make the DS stand up in the crowd and say, “Look at what I can do!”
That title looks set to be Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
The DS has its fair share of “fun” titles, software that is simply “plug and play”, that requires no skill and minimal attention. That’s great, because part of being a successful and accomplished handheld is being able to provide an overly accessible and quick gameplay experience. However, if a game is able to grab those aspects of fun and accessibility, add great storytelling elements and hours upon hours of free-roaming gaming, you get a game that exceeds the expectations of a typical handheld title. That’s why Chinatown Wars looks set to propel the DS to greatness. It takes advantage of the handheld’s capabilities and throws in a bit of the typical GTA charm we’ve all come to love over the past decade or so.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story of Chinatown Wars, here’s a quick rundown: Huang Lee, who is a member of the Chinese Triad’s, is going to Liberty City to solve the mystery surrounding the assassination of his father and to retrieve the ‘Yu Jian’ sword for his Uncle Wu ‘Kenny’ Lee. Thought to be a sacred family heirloom, the Yu Jian was actually won by Huang’s father during a card game. Although aware of his father’s less-than-honourable actions and how the so-called “family heirloom” actually came into his father’s possession, Huang still feels he must find his father’s murderers and bring the sword back to his Uncle to restore honour and respect, as well as to receive a more-than-generous inheritance.
Probably the most impressive thing about Chinatown Wars is that it has such an amazing level of detail of which we’ve never seen before on the DS. Forget about what you think is the best looking title on the handheld – Chinatown Wars will exceed that. It’s not so much that the graphics jump out at you, but rather that the city of Liberty City has that “alive” feeling about it, something that has never really been realised in a top-down style game.
If you’ve played Grand Theft Auto IV, you’ll recognise particular buildings and landmarks, because the map of Liberty City in Chinatown Wars is a top-down view of that exact city. Everything from streets to memorable locations are located in the title, bar some highway streets and tunnels that would block the view because of the camera angle.
The team at Rockstar Leeds, the same folks who brought us both PSP GTA titles and Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, seem to have gone in a direction with Chinatown Wars that pays homage to all of the great aspects of previous GTA titles. Firstly, you have the surprisingly solid top-down angle view, which recreates the arcade feeling we got when playing the first two GTA titles. As the city is in 3D, we get to experience that type of gameplay in an all-new way that gives the game a more contemporary “GTA” feeling about it. We’ve come to love the free-roaming and enormous 3D environments from the last few GTA titles and while this isn’t a direct third-person gameplay experience, the design of the city with the 3D buildings and vehicles, as well as the top-down view, seem to make Chinatown Wars feel like an unique experience that implements aspects we’ve come to appreciate in the past.
Secondly, the mission based structure seems to be more reminiscent of the PS2 GTA trilogy, offering plenty of variety while also offering heaps of mini-missions and side jobs to keep you entertained when you stray away from the main storyline.
It’s important to note that while playing this game, it didn’t feel like an unfamiliar experience. It has all the feeling of a GTA game, although we haven’t seen anything like this since the first two titles in the franchise. Rockstar seem to have successfully made the transition to the DS by implementing aspects from right throughout the series of games and this helps generate a familiar yet memorable and new experience.
There’s no doubting that Rockstar are aiming for a genuine arcade experience with Chinatown Wars, telling the main story through text-driven graphic-novel style panels on the touch-screen. As the story unfolds, you can see the action taking place on the top screen as it happens in real time. If the bottom comic panels show images of Huang throwing a grenade into a building, we’ll see him do it on the top screen, live as it is told below. If the graphic panels show an image of the building exploding, we’ll see the explosion happen. This storytelling technique is a perfect example of how the development team are taking advantage of the DS hardware, using it to its full abilities. It would have been easy to split up the graphic novel-style panels across both screens, but they’ve limited it to one, telling a story through text and wonderfully drawn panels, while also showing them live through the top-down view on the top screen. The text might seem a bit old school for some GTA die-hards, but it really does help recreate that arcade feel. The title doesn’t feel like it needs voices, because it seems to have its own identity through its fun gameplay.
Soon after the game begins we were introduced to Huang’s safehouse, the first of many properties available for purchase in Chinatown Wars. Just like in previous GTA titles, the safehouse acts as a virtual retreat to restore health and save your game. Using the touchscreen, you can click on the couch where Huang can rest and you can save your game, or you can click on the computer to access stats and submit them to the Rockstar Social Club, which looks set to have an all-new level of integration for Chinatown Wars. You can also use the safehouses to store items and replay previous missions, which is a first for a GTA title. You can try to beat a time on a previously completed mission, which can then be submitted to the Social Club for ranking.
Furthermore, your game can also be saved at any time from your PDA, which has an exceptional level of interactivity and use within the confounds of the gameplay. The cell phone in GTA IV acted as a way to communicate with characters and progress through the story and the PDA in Chinatown Wars looks set to have the same level of accessibility. Emails and messages will come through as you meet characters in the game and you’ll receive offers from stores like Ammunation, which can deliver weapons directly to your apartment door, removing the need to drive to a store to pick them up.
The PDA will also be a statistical powerhouse, keeping track of all of your stats as you play, which can all be uploaded to the Social Club through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
A GPS system is built into the PDA and it works in a similar way to the one in GTA IV. A quick tap of a location on the touch-screen map will create a green line on the street, which makes it easier to reach locations without having to continuously look down at the GPS.
While there are plenty of weapons available in the game, there’s also a unique feature that allows you to create your own. If you lead Huang to a gas station, you can fill up some bottles with gas using the touch-screen, creating some Molotov cocktails. It’s a great new feature that is one of many new aspects of the gameplay that take advantage of the DS design and touchscreen.
Weapons will also be available in designated drop-points throughout the city. Using the touchscreen, you can search through a red dumpster - with your actions happening in real-time on the top screen - and pick up any weapon you come across. This is a great method collecting weapons, especially if you don’t have much cash in your bank account.
Side-missions look set to enhance the GTA experience once more in Chinatown Wars. You’ll be able to approach drug dealers that are available throughout Liberty City and the more involved you get in the drug scene, the more contacts you’ll be receiving that promise cheap product to buy from and high quantities to sell to. There’s also an intriguing security camera gameplay aspect that adds a bit more to the drug dealing feature. Security cameras are placed throughout Liberty City and destroying them all will help you achieve a 100% competition. However, the cameras act as a security device, so any dealers selling in an area with cameras will sell product at a high price, because no other dealer is prepared to sell there in fear of getting caught. Huang can also take advantage of this, but you risk him getting caught by police. Furthermore, you can destroy a camera in the area of a drug dealer, which will in-turn bring his prices down significantly. Be prepared to overpay if you purchase drugs from a dealer within the vicinity of a camera, but remember that you can overcharge if you have the guts to sell in the vicinity of one.
Once you approach the dealer or a buyer approaches you, you use the touch-screen to choose which drugs to buy or sell, for how much and the quantity. There’ll be a green arrow pointing up or a red arrow pointing down that will tell you whether you’ll make a profit or a loss respectively. The drug dealing aspect is great fun, if not a little controversial.
We were able to play through five intense missions, all of which were able to showcase Chinatown Wars’ innovative gameplay mechanics and control schemes. The first was called “Store Wars”, a mission that had us trying to stop rival gang the Spanish Lords from firebombing a store under Kenny’s protection. This was our first opportunity to test out the driving and firing mechanics, both of which work very solidly using the DS controls. Most impressive was the car handling and 3D models of the vehicles themselves. It’s worth noting again that, although this is a top-down title, the environments are in full 3D…including vehicles. Driving is simple with basic controls and the handling is great and you’ll see doors fly open and the bonnets flip up during a crash or shoot-out, clearly demonstrating the implementation of the physics engine into all vehicles.
The game also has a cool auto alignment system, which re-positions the car on the road if it’s driving crooked. This assists you with steering and can speed up the gameplay, especially if you’re in a hurry. You can perform burnouts, which are hilariously devastating, causing fire-track marks that can severely damage nearby enemies. The DeLorean never left fire tracks quite like these!
Once we found some cars, we moved them into position on the street so as to block the Spanish Lords from gaining access to the building. Once they arrived, we were able to fire some bullets into them using the right trigger to aim and A to shoot, discovering that the auto-aim system conveniently moves from one enemy to another once you shoot them dead.
An aspect of the combat that we were very impressed by was the grenade throwing technique, that has you using the stylus to pick-up a grenade from your inventory and direct it into the direction you want to throw it in. It’s a simple and effective method, as tapping the grenade on the touch-screen and merely flicking the stylus in the direction of the bad guys allows for a real-time explosion with devastating effects. It moves away from the traditional button-pressing throwing technique, giving us a different option and a great one at that.
The second mission, titled “Friend or Foe”, had us driving a group of Triad’s to a Korean Cutthroat building to retrieve a safe. We firstly picked up some explosives then headed over to the building, planted the bomb and then backed the van into the hole, awaiting the return of Huang’s friends with the safe. Some Korean Cutthroat’s come around and we engaged in some intense combat, before we headed back to the safe house with some enemies on our tale. Once we returned, we got to experience another example of Chinatown Wars’ innovative gameplay direction, using the touchscreen and stylus to unlock the safe.
The third mission was probably the most challenging and also introduced us to an all-new wanted system. The objective of this mission was to take out a rat that’s been squealing to the cops. Discovering that the target hangs around the Castle Gardens Hotel, we got into a car and drove to the hotel, going to the roof to find a briefcase containing pieces to a sniper rifle. Using the stylus and touchscreen, we put together the rifle like a puzzle, screwing in objects by moving the stylus around in a circle and clipping in parts of the gun. Once it was all set-up, we shot down the target and headed off to escape our three-star wanted level.
We then got to experience the new wanted system. Instead of simply hiding and escaping the police search area, you now have to damage a certain number of police vehicles before you can lose a wanted star. For example, if you’re on three stars, you’ll have to damage three police vehicles before you can go down to two. If you’re on two stars, it’s two vehicles before you can go down to one. Once you hit one it’s only a matter of outrunning and breaking the line of sight from police. What this new wanted system does is help create a more interactive experience that allows Chinatown Wars to differ itself from other top-down titles. Because it’s a top-down view, there’s not as strong a sense of exploration as there is in the sandbox GTA titles. Furthermore, driving through the streets trying to evade the police probably wouldn’t be quite as energetic and exciting because you’re not as close to the action. This wanted system rectifies that and adds a bit more fun to the case. The game throws a whole bunch of police at you and because of the game physics, vehicles roll over and blow-up because of their 3D design and it’s great fun trying to damage a whole bunch of oncoming police cars to a point where they can no longer continue the chase.
The fourth mission, “Driven to Destruction”, was the most combat-driven mission we experienced, having us driving around Triad leader hopeful Zhou as he seeks revenge on Jamaicans who betrayed him. Huang can perform a drive-by and using the two shoulder buttons you can choose which direction he shoots in, which makes it easier when the car is facing one way and the enemies are at the back of the vehicle.
The fifth and final mission we got to play through, “Playing with fire”, was also an aggressive combat-driven mission, having us riding shotgun in a helicopter and dropping fiery cocktails on men that have betrayed Chen. We once again got to experience the touch-screen throwing technique, flicking fiery cocktails at enemies with ease from above. This mission was also a great example of how the game moves away from traditional 2D top-down environments, highlighting its 3D direction as we hovered above the city below.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is going to be an enormous game and we feel like we haven’t even touched base with what we were shown. The most attractive thing about this game so far is that it feels like a handheld title while also maintaining the GTA feel and direction. The humour is there in the text-driven dialogue, but there are also some arcady comments thrown in there. The mission structure reminds us of previous GTA titles, but the missions themselves work really well with the top-down view. The design and layout of the city looks spectacular and the gameplay is just as impressive, mixing a basic control scheme with side-missions and gameplay aspects that require innovative and incredibly enjoyable touchscreen methods. Chinatown Wars looks set to be the game the DS needs to propel it to greatness and we can’t wait for the final product.
21/01/2009
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