Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005) (VG)

Director:

Navid Khonsari

Writers:

Lazlow Jones (radio station scripts) and
David Bland (writer)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Plot:

There a million stories in Liberty City. This one changes everything. Toni Cipriani, a once trusted guy...

Plot Keywords:

Mafia | Carjacking | Mobster | Mob Violence | Yakuza

Cast

Frank Vincent	...	Salvatore Leone (voice)
Danny Mastrogiorgio	...	Toni Cipriani (voice) (as Daniel Mastrogiorgio)
Will Janowitz	...	Donald Love (voice)
Joe Lo Truglio	...	Vincenzo 'Lucky' Cilli (voice)
Fiona Gallagher	...	Maria Leone (voice)
The Greg Wilson	...	Joseph Daniel 'J.D' O'Toole (voice) (as Greg Wilson)
Ron Orbach	...	Leon McAffrey (voice)
Peter Appel	...	Ray Machowski (voice)
Hana Moon	...	Toshiko Kasen (voice)
Peter Bradbury	...	'Father' Ned Burner (voice)
Sondra James	...	Ma Cipriani (voice)
Joel Jones	...	Giovanni Casa (voice)
Keenan Shimizu	...	Kazuki Kasen (voice)
Duccio Faggella	...	Massimo Torrini (voice)
Chris Tardio	...	Mickey 'Hamfists' (voice)

Also Known As:

GTA: Liberty City Stories (International: English title) (informal title)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | English

Color:

Color | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:18 | Australia:MA | Ireland:18 | Singapore:M18 | USA:M

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Rockstar Leeds

Trivia:

Was originally released on the Sony PSP in October 2005, and later released for the Playstation 2 in June 2006.

Goofs:

Plot holes: In the mission "Snappy Dresser" Toni is supposed to make photos of Giovanni Casa in the woods wearing diapers. When he tells his mom about it, she replies: "Is this how you spend your time? Sneaking in the woods taking pictures of men?" Ma Cipriani couldn't know of Casa's and Toni's stay in the woods without seeing the photos.

Quotes:

Vincenzo Cilli: Oh, it's YOU!
Toni Cipriani: Yeah, how 'bout that. It's me, what do you know?

Movie Connections:

References Game of Death (1978)

Soundtrack:

Feel What You Want

A review of the PS2 game

Okay, you really need to get the right expectations before buying this game. It's the first case of a game going from the PSP to the PS2, and because of this, the game is really low-budget. It isn't by any stretch as big a scale as GTA San Andreas.

The story is a prequel to GTA 3, set in 1998. It follows Tony Cipriani (featured in GTA 3) a mobster working for mob boss Salvatore Leone. It is set in Liberty City, the setting of GTAs 1, 2 and 3 which is a nice flashback for GTA fans.

There are a few problems with this game that if you are not expecting them for them you will be disappointed. These flaws are largely due to the somewhat minuscule budget the games manufacturers received. Graphically nothing has changed. Although it's the game play that matters the graphics aren't as good as San Andreas. The game play has not changed too much but there is the big element that you cannot do a lot of the stuff you could do in San Andreas. For example there is no automatic aiming options, Cipriani cannot swim or climb over fences, his driving skill cannot be changed or improved, neither can his bike skills so slight knocks can knock him off. There is very little character development in this game. The missions aren't challenging and are very short so they really skip the whole relationships that characters have. In GTA: San Andreas you really got to know the characters and it really let you know what they where like. In this game they focus more on Cipriani who doesn't really change his attitudes towards people in the game (I might be wrong as I am still on the second island). The radio stations for lack of a better word suck. They maintain Lazlow having a show on the talk show channel. They don't have popular music from 1998, instead they put on unknown artists that just make it sound like its 1998. When I'm speeding around I want something entertaining to listen to. For example GTA 3 had Chatterbox, the funny little chat channel hosted by Lazlow with witty humour and humorous guests. Vice City had V Rock. The 80's metal station. At the time there was nothing more fun then shredding around a Miami Setting at 120mph while listening to Slayers 'Raining Blood.' On San Andreas they had the same sort of stations with WCTR (the talk station) and Radio X (the alternative rock channel) and adding rap channels showcasing popular music of the early 90's making you feel like you where watching a movie as well as play a game. The sound of the game adds to the appeal.

This game isn't too special. It is not for people looking for a new and improved GTA game. But it's more for the people who have played the rest and are looking for something to occupy them until GTA 4 comes out for the PS3 next October.

PS2 gamers may be disappointed but for PSP players I think it's a great thing to have Liberty City At Your fingertips while you're on the move.

6/10 (ACCEPTABLE)