Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Caution -- Spoiler Ahead!

I was very excited when Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on psp a few weeks ago but now I've passed the main mission, I wasn't really impressed and thought my expectation might have been set too high. First of all, it is like a GTA 2 version of GTA 4 and there's nothing wrong about that since GTA 2 is really a classic. The game play is smooth and visual is great. And thank you for bringing back Rhino to the game (so I'd start a rampage at anytime I want) a brand new weapon, sword (the ultimate melee weapon with the weight of a dagger and lethal like a chainsaw). A new wanted system is also introduced (e.g. You've got a one star wanted level, you ditch one police car. Two stars, two police cars, then go down to one star level and ditch one more car, and so on.) so it's definitely easier to ditch the cops. The missions are ok (it's good that there's replay function so you could revisit your favorite missions after you passed them.) but the pay is really bad. In one mission, you help some guys to rob the Bank of Liberty (again) in return of $200(?). Well, of course, you make your living though drugs in this game by "buy low, sell high." On the other hand, Rockstar doesn't add voiceover in the psp version so for most of the time, it's like watching slideshow with tiny subtitle. The cell phone is replaced by a PDA and missions are received and notified through emails, and the radio stations are just pure music. So the only characters that actually speak in the game might be the cops and the guys who say “thank you” to you at the tolls… Besides, there're a lot of mini games transferred from the DS but without a touch screen, scratching lottery tickets and filing Molotov cocktails at gas stations using analog stick and direction pads sound bothersome. By the way, why couldn't Rockstar just display the weapons on the streets? Armor is still presented in the old fashion way. Searching garbage in a dumpster in order to get weapons is a waste of time and sometimes you get condoms and dildos… The biggest disappointment in this game is definitely the story. The main character, Huang Lee (what kind of Chinese name is that? It's either Wong Lee (Hong Kong) or Huang Li (Mainland China) is naive and very, very stupid. How couldn't he realize his uncle is the one that betrays him in the first place? Throughout the story, he either just hangs out with characters (Chan, Lester, etc) who are dumper than him or is being used by enemies to take down rival gangs. I don't really know what he is fighting for but could only feel that he's fooling around in the city. So Huang may be just the worst protagonist in GTA history (even worse than Vic Vance in GTA: Vice City Stories). For people who want to play this game, just skip the boring story slideshow and go right into the action.