Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
2009
- shooter
- adventure
- action
- comedy
- sandbox
- open world
- single player
- multiplayer
The story
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 touch screen, players 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.
What it’s like
Hand-drawn comic-book art in a top-down, slightly tilted city, rendered in saturated neon reds, greens and sodium yellows, with inked outlines and flat cel-shaded shadows that give Liberty City's Chinatown a sun-faded, pulp-novel look. Rain-slicked streets and night skylines hold the palette, while the DS touch screen makes every act of driving, hacking and picking locks feel physically tactile: a stylus drag to steer a car, a tap to fire. The soundtrack is a loose mix of licensed rock, electro and hip-hop that sits under engine roar and gunfire, with radio chatter giving the city a restless hum. The vibe is gritty but playful, a tongue-in-cheek crime caper with a sly comic edge. It moves in bursts: long stretches of wandering errands and side jobs broken by sharp, violent set pieces. Violence is frequent and cartoonishly bloody, with drug dealing, murder and gang warfare as ordinary business, though the tone stays more farcical than harrowing. It suits portable sessions on a commute or a late evening in bed, for players who want deep open-world crime with a stylus in hand and a wry sense of humour.
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