What isn’t a spoiler is the gameplay: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is tried-and-true GTA design. Rockstar Leeds took nearly every aspect of the console design and jammed it into a Nintendo DS cartridge, tweaking the presentation to fit the restrictions and limitations of the Nintendo hardware. The camera returns to a top-down perspective in similar fashion to the classic Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2.
It’s similar but it’s not the same: though the viewpoint is above the action, the visuals down below are nearly entirely 3D: buildings, cars, obstacles are fully rendered in 3D, and this is important to note because objects interact and react in the same way as they would in the latest renditions of the series: cars flip, jump and tumble if you’re a little wild on the gas pedal; light poles topple over into traffic. So while the game may take a different direction in the way it’s presented, the gameplay is entirely current-generation GTA.
Liberty City tends to evolve with each game Rockstar creates, but for Chinatown Wars the DS development team matched up its version of the city with Grand Theft Auto’s metropolis pretty closely. The DS city is still its own layout with its own back alleys, shortcuts, and bypasses, but the game retains the regional “boroughs” idea, and the entire city is open from the start for players to explore at their own leisure. The way to explore the city is pretty much what made Grand Theft Auto such an addictive design.
If you see a car, simply take it and drive – there may be some repercussions for your thievery but anything with wheels is yours to have. In the DS game there are several dozen different vehicles roaming around and parked in the city, and each of these vehicles has distinct handling – they’re not the same model with a different skin. Vans are heavy and cumbersome, bikes are light and peppy. It’s common to find yourself losing hours jacking the different cars just to see how each one feels as you zip through the city streets.
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