Throughout your time in Liberty City you will make plenty of use of your in-game PDA as you regularly receive emails from your contacts and dealers, Ammunation is now dealt with through the PDA as an online shop and weapons get delivered to your safehouse and you can also keep track of your stats, drug info and GPS locations. The PDA on the bottom screen is handy, one tap and you can check the emails, you can bring up the GPS and set a new point to go to or go to a contact or dealer and it’s also from here that you swap weapons and use the stylus to drag where you want to throw a grenade or Molotov, but unfortunately there are a few little niggling issues. The tips on the game says that the GPS will give you the shortest legal way but some of the routes it give you are horrible and you’ll find yourself having to remember where you’re going based off of the map until the GPS gives you a more direct route. You can also save locations for easy locating later on so you cannot give the location another name so you know whether you’ve saved it because there is armour there or if there’s a camera to smash and you won’t find out until you drive across the map when you have some time. The touch screen throwing of Molotov’s is clunky and while you’ll probably use it most for destroying cameras you usually have to go right near your target and spend a few seconds checking the trajectory so you can hit it, it is barely handy in a fast moving situation and while you’re busy focussing on the top screen it can be easy to forget that only dragging the stylus along the right symbol will actually throw and you will find yourself opening up the emails in the middle of a fight, the last minor issue would be the save game while it only takes some scrolling and clicking to get to there’s no reason it couldn’t be in the first group of options for quick saving when you’re only having a quick game, past these minor issues the PDA is very useful for getting around and for the most part time saving.

Graphics

Visually Rockstar have done an incredible job of making a living world, while it’s nothing that you wouldn’t see in other games it’s the small attention to detail such as umbrellas showing up when it starts to rain, the weather system and the activities you notice happening as you make your way around town. The game manages to maintain a decent frame rate throughout most situations, it was when there was lots of action, whether it is a large police chase or battle with explosions going off where the game would start to chug a little and unless you’re looking for a big brawl you won’t come across it often. To really appreciate the effort that has been put into the look of the game you need to see it all moving to get a good look at the city that has been crammed into a DS cartridge without a loading screen to be seen.

Sound

The sounds of GTA CW are not going to live up to the expectations of those who were expecting full licensed songs and radio stations full of humorous talkback and as with any complaints that there have been about the cutscenes there are very unrealistic expectations. When out of the cars there’s the sound of the world around you, cars going by, the sounds of hustle and bustle around and people yelling when you run them down, it all creates the right atmosphere, although it would be nice for a GTA character to discover an MP3 player for once in case there is no car about. There are a handful of radio stations when you are cruising around the town and while they aren’t filled with singing they are perfectly functional and give you something decent to listen to, the only real downside is that after a while you will have heard all the songs plenty but for a DS game it packs plenty in with everything else in the game, put some of your own music on should the situation get too dire.

Getting about Liberty City is pretty easy, you can walk, run, drive and swim, and there are plenty of cars to steal and boats to appropriate for your cause, a lot of them all control differently whether it is the speed or the steering and weight of the vehicle and over the course of the game you’ll discover which ones are good and which ones to get if you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere with no choice or throw caution and steering to the wind and hop on a chopper. Stealing parked cars will bring up a minigame on the touch screen to hotwire it and is definitely the least risky way to get some wheels, cops are all over Liberty City and there is a fairly high chance of getting into a cop chase when you hijack on the move, sometimes to the point of frustrating as you can either stay out of their way for a while or you have to take their cars out or make a mad dash to your safehouse so they can’t bust you and take all the drugs you’re holding. While it might be annoying at times, especially when you need to keep the police attention down in the end you will most likely find yourself more hesitant to steal moving vehicles or more prepared to smack some cop cars into a barrier. Overall the driving is only as good as the person controlling it and how they handle each car, there is a little help with the “Steering Assist” option on where you will generally straighten up on roads to make driving a bit easier with a D-pad and it does make things a bit easier especially when your fingers start aching after an extended gaming session.

Multiplayer

GTA CW does have multiplayer following after GTA 4 only this is limited down to local play, there are a few different games to play with a friend which comes down to racing or teaming up and defending a base, they’re fine as something a little extra with the large single player game but ultimately you probably won’t remember they’re there until you have a friend with GTA nearby, there are also a few other small features like GPS location sharing, stat sharing, message sending and item trading. Rockstar have chosen to incorporate their online social club which you can sync your statistics to after you make an account, there is also a bonus for those who have finished the story and checked out the site and it looks like there is more to come in the future which will hopefully extend the game even further, it is worth making an account if you decide to get this game.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is an extremely well made game and Rockstar have definitely gone all out with what they could fit in the DS cartridge, while there are a few little nitpicks with the game they don’t stop the fun and are far outweighed by the fun there is to be had in this game. For fans of the series it is definitely worth picking up if you haven’t already and for anyone else old enough to buy a copy and not too easily offended by swear words it’s worth a look, you will be hard pressed to find many other DS games with this much effort and content outside of a first party game. Now it’s time for me to go, I have some surveillance cameras that need smashing.