Grand Theft Auto

by Take 2

Product Features

• Use the DS' touch screen as a PDA device to set GPS waypoints, change radio stations, communicate via e-mail with in-game characters and order weapons on the Internet.
• Largest DS game ever, features include a world full of pedestrians, weather and traffic patterns, five different radio stations and four different sprawling boroughs to explore.
• Endless gameplay, complete with mature storyline 70+ story missions, dozens of side quests, collectibles, contextual mini-games and the all new mission replay feature.
• Nintendo Wi-Fi mode allowing for head-to-head and co-op multiplayer mayhem.
• Free access to Rockstar Games Social Club where players can chat, trade items and commodities and compete in online tournaments and leaderboards.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001CRM3RI
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: March 17, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #726 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

Product Description

Color: Nintendo DS

Amazon.com Product Description

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the highly anticipated first game in the GTA franchise designed for play on the Nintendo DS. But although it comes in a small package, this is a full-fledged game that stands on its own. With an all-new, deep story that approaches the familiar sights and sounds of the infamous Liberty City from a different perspective, an innovative control system and multiplayer options, Chinatown Wars captures the tone and flavors of the long-running GTA series in unique ways that both longtime players and those coming to it for the first time will find hard to put down.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Players: Offline: 1; Online: 2 Gameplay Modes: Single player; competitive & coop multiplayer via Nintendo Wi-Fi connection.

Kick some tail as Huang Lee. View larger.

Use the DS stylus like never before. View larger.

Reconquer Liberty via PDA. View larger.

The Story: Left for Dead in the Worst Place in America
Following his father’s murder, Huang Lee is given what seems a simple mission: to deliver an ancient sword to his Uncle Kenny to ensure his family retains control of the Triad gangs of Liberty City. Huang is a spoiled rich kid who expects everything to run smoothly, but his trip does not go exactly as planned. Only minutes after arriving at the Liberty City airport at the far end of town, he is robbed and left to die. Only through quickly thinking is he able to survive and make his way back to his neighborhood, but the damage to he and his family has been done. Now his destiny is to search for honor, riches and revenge in the most dangerous and morally bankrupt city in the world.

Gameplay
The largest DS game to date, Chinatown Wars is set in the Grand Theft Auto IV-imagined version of Liberty City, and contains most of its boroughs and neighborhoods. In exploring and exploiting this vast area, players use the game's rotatable camera to take in a 3D, 360-degree view of their environment, providing an elevated and somewhat skewed third-person perspective, that switches to first-person with the appropriate player action. Assuming the role of Huang Lee your goal is to rise up in the ranks of the underworld to challenge the Triad of Chinatown gangs that have usurped your family's position and recover the stolen heirloom and your lost honor. In true GTA fashion this entails gameplay that embraces the seedy underbelly that Liberty City is famous for. Throughout the game's 70+ missions -- all of which can be replayed even after completion -- and its myriad of side quests, players earn cash by completing jobs ranging from petty street crime, all the way up to drug dealing and assassination. As in other GTA releases, rising competence at crime raises the amount of attention received by police, but unlike previous games here players can not simply outrun alerted authorities. With each additional star added to your 'wanted rating' players must disable or destroy more of the pursuing police units to keep them off your tail. In addition to mission play, the game also contains many opportunities, such as the safe cracking and car hot-wiring mini-games and the various items and weapons hidden throughout the game that demand skill with the DS' touchscreen and stylus for success. By whatever means, once players have attained a certain level of cash and street cred they will also be able to recruit members for their own gang who pledge their loyalty by allowing themselves to be tattooed with the mark of the player's choosing.

Cars and Controls
Cars and control schemes play a prominent role in Chinatown Wars. All cars feature GPS functionality based on available roadways. Directions are shown on the lower of the DS' two screens as part of the in-game PDA interface, but players may take vehicles off roads wherever possible, with the GPS automatically resetting when back on the pavement. While driving players also have access to five in-game radio stations and use of their weapons. Your PDA provides efficient management tools for your growing crime empire, including quick weapons switching, a running total of available cash, in-game e-mail and Internet access and nearly instant game saves any time. The control scheme in Chinatown Wars utilizes an easy to use and comfortable to play combination of steering via the D-pad, choice of action through the face buttons and/or stylus taps and manual and automatic weapon locks and unlocks via shoulder buttons.

Key Game Features:

• The Largest DS Game Ever - Contemporary Liberty City is a massive world complete with pedestrians, weather and traffic patterns, five different radio stations and four different sprawling boroughs to explore.
• Endless Gameplay - Mature storyline with over 70+ story missions; plus dozens of side quests, collectibles, contextual mini-games and the all new mission replay feature.
• Street Economics - Addictive drug dealing side game with 6 different drug types, 80+ drug dealers and a supply / demand driven narcotics economy.
• Play with Friends - Nintendo Wi-Fi mode for head-to-head and co-op multiplayer mayhem.
• Bragging Rights - Chat, trade guns and commodities with your friends, and compete for glory via online tournaments and leaderboards on the Rockstar Games Social Club.
• PDA Interface - Use the touch screen as a PDA device to set GPS waypoints, change radio stations, communicate via e-mail with in-game characters and order weapons on the Internet.

Online Bragging Rights and Multiplayer
Care has been taken to ensure that players can share their Chinatown Wars experiences with friends and fellow players in different ways. First, players will have access to the Chinatown Wars as well as the greater Grand Theft Auto communities through the Rockstar Games Social Club. Here they can chat, trade commodities, purchase special in-game items with in-game currency, check the leaderboards and compete in online tournaments. The DS' Wi-Fi capabilities also gives players the opportunity to take their game online as they battle for supremacy in their own little corner of Liberty City in both head-to-head and co-op multiplayer battles.

Product Description

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is an entirely original entry into the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series, and brings a new level of interactivity to its sprawling open environments. With the use of the DS touchscreen, players will navigate their way through the streets as they uncover the truth behind an epic tale of crime and corruption within the Triad crime syndicate, delivering the unprecedented amount of depth that has become a true trademark of the franchise. PDA Interface - Use the touch screen as a PDA device to set GPS waypoints, change radio stations, communicate via e-mail with in-game characters and order weapons on the Internet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic Addition to the Series, March 17, 2009

By	J. Thompson (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

I just started playing this game yesterday, and as of now my mission status says that I'm 11% finished. So far this game has done everything to amaze me. First of all the city is ENORMOUS! I cant believe that Rockstar was able to squeeze this much information and detail into a tiny DS cartridge. Not only is it large, but it is also incredibly detailed. You wont see any "Flintstones" type backgrounds where the same buildings repeat several times, or you keep seeing the same park every few miles. Anyhow, onto a few points I've noticed about this game.

First of all, this game is DEFINITELY for adults only. Parents, DO NOT get this game for your 10 year olds birthday. There is (so far) sexual innuendo, graphic violence, and liberal use of the F word.

Second - I hadn't read any press about this game prior to playing it, but I was hoping for some licensed songs to make it to the soundtrack. The music, while good, is nothing recognizable and serves as little more than background. Honestly I cant fault the developers as this game is already full of other features. Also, there is little to no voice acting - again, what can you honestly expect in a game this size (might I add the largest DS game made to date).

Third - Most everything about this game has been executed flawlessly. The cutscenes, the aiming mechanism, the driving physics, the "mini" tasks that you must do such as hot wiring a car, disarming a bomb, or hacking a security system - Everything is perfect. Honestly, in my day of playing this game I have yet to find anything which I can fault. It really is that good.

I predict that this will become the #1 Nintendo DS game very soon, unseating Mario Kart, which has been #1 for quite a while now here at Amazon. This game is nothing less than a masterpiece and is reason in itself to pick up a DS if you don't already own one.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most technically impressive game I've seen on the DS yet., March 18, 2009

By	Halicon5 (Casper, Wyoming United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Chinatown Wars somehow manages to push the technology in the DS more than anything I've seen. On top of that, the developer has managed to make one of the largest and most in depth games on the system as well. I won't go so far as to say this is the best game on the DS, but I am nothing short of impressed. This game isn't some attempt to make a quick buck... the developers went out of their way to do a great job.

GRAPHICS: Fully 3-d environment with an amazing amount of detail all presented in cell shaded style. You can even read many of the billboards and signs on the buildings even though the game is presented in a top-down perspective. There is so much detail in the graphics I am constantly discovering new things every time I boot the game up. My only major complaint about the graphics is that I think story-board presentation is flat, lifeless, and kind of ugly.

SOUND: Sadly this game doesn't have the quality of sound that the big console versions have. The funny, wacky radio stations with hours of dialogue are gone, but that isn't surprising since this is a DS game. The sound that the game gives us is still pretty good though and above average for most DS games.

CONTROLS: Probably the weakest part of this game, the controls are still very solid. Driving a vehicle with the d-pad on the DS can cause a lot of fatigue, but that's more a problem with the DS than the controls themselves. While running around on foot the camera sometimes gets positioned at a bad angle and requires re-centering constantly. A moderate annoyance, honestly. More annoying is the fact that I have trouble finding the "sweet spot" where you can hijack a vehicle, which sometimes results in me slowly walking around the vehicle pressing the button until my character climbs in. Combat controls are pretty solid and the lock-on feature works very nicely. In fact, the lock-on is almost a little to easy to use. Selecting weapons and throwing weapons is kind of clunky and requires use of the stylus, but it still works.

STORY: This is a standard Grand Theft Auto crime story with a lot of contrived elements. You are a member of the Triad aspiring to avenge your father's death and uphold the family honor. Entertaining and often humorous at times, but nothing amazing.

GAMEPLAY: Lots of stuff to do in a huge city with three major islands. The DS game has almost the level of depth of the preceding console versions.
>> In addition to standard GTA style missions (travel here, do something, come back to hideout), the game offers many other distractions: scratch lotto cards, drug dealing, ambulance rescue, security camera destruction, insane jumps, buying property, and so on and so on. The amount of stuff to do is almost overwhelming if you are a completionist.

>> The game has a very enjoyable and solid driving and physics engine which emphasizes wild arcade driving action.

>> Taxi system for those times when you don't want to actually take the time to drive to a location. Helps eliminate some of the repetition you would otherwise experience in the game.

>> Clever and intelligent use of the stylus for hot wiring cars, making Molotov cocktails, etc.

>> Police chases are really fun and focus less on escape and instead emphasize disabling the police cruisers, a welcome change in the GTA formula. Very fun.

>> A mission replay feature is available in Chinatown wars. I love this because in previous GTA games it wasn't possible to replay my favorite missions over after completing them. It is a great feature that should have been in the previous games from day one.

REPLAY VALUE: Game length is pretty hefty for a DS title. Based on my current percentage of completion I expect about 12 to 16 hours of gameplay, but that is only if I were to plow straight through the missions and ignore all of the interesting stuff to do off the beaten path. To get 100% completion I expect at I'll have to pour in at least 25 hours of gameplay, possibly much more... I can't really tell. Multiplayer is present in this game with couple of modes, but I haven't tried any of them out yet.


All in all, GTA: Chinatown Wars is one of the most full-featured games to be released on the DS. I'd prefer to give the game only 4.5 stars, but since Amazon doesn't allow half-stars I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and round up to a rare 5-star rating. I highly recommend this mature-themed title to every fan of the GTA series or to anyone looking for a quality crime-themed action title.



[NOTE: Be aware that my first copy of this game was defective, but the retailer was gracious enough to provide a working replacement free of charge and without any hassle. I hope that my original faulty copy was the exception and not the rule.]

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning achievement, March 19, 2009

By	N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

I honestly didn't know just what to expect upon hearing of the looming release of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the DS. I had figured that there would be little to no chance of the game bearing any sort of resemblance to the franchise we all know and love. Well, I was wrong. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a stunning achievement in every sense of the word, as the series' debut on the DS not only manages to retain nearly everything that made the series so great and revolutionary on home consoles, but in some cases even improves on them. Taking place in Liberty City, Chinatown Wars finds you in the shoes of Huang, who is looking to avenge the death of his gangster father. While the game provides a good story and memorable enough characters, Chinatown Wars also features the tried and true classic GTA gameplay, which is a surprise and an achievement in themselves in translating all of these features to the DS. Translating the Liberty City from GTA IV is also brilliantly done, and there are tons of side missions and optional activities, along with two-player multiplayer modes; all of which will keep you busy for quite some time. The game's graphics can appear occasionally grainy in some spots, but for the most part, achieving these kinds of visuals on the DS needs to be seen to be believed. Chinatown Wars also makes great use of the touch screen and stylus features, and does so without over-complicating things as well. All in all, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars isn't only the best third-party game to hit the DS yet, it is a stunning achievement that needs to be in the hands of every DS owner. Even if you aren't that much of a GTA fan but you own a DS, Chinatown Wars is definitely worth playing at the very least, and stands as one of the best games available for the handheld.

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